Raised in the sea resort of Mar del Plata, Vilas played his first tour event in 1969 and got his first big break in the 1974 Masters tournament, where he defeated Ilie Năstase in the final match.
A left-handed baseliner Vilas's best season on tour was 1977 when he not only won two of the four majors but also 16 of the 33 tournaments he entered (absolute record in the Open era), a record which at the time had only ever been equaled by the legendary Rod Laver. His playing record for that season was an amazing 145 wins against 14 losses. The season climax was winning the last US Open played at Forest Hills against Jimmy Connors 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(4), 6-0 in a match where Vilas surprised his American rival by attacking the net.
He was world number 2 in the ATP rankings only below Jimmy Connors. However, the magazine World Tennis, generally the referring one of that sport at that time, gave Vilas the number one ranking and Champion of the World title.
Vilas retired from the tour in 1989. His highest tour ranking was World No. 2. He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1991. At the end of his career, he had 62 official singles titles with 39 other finals played, and 15 doubles titles with other 10 more finals. Vilas won the most singles titles of all players who did not reach the world No. 1 ranking.
He also took Argentina to its first-ever Davis Cup finals, together with José Luis Clerc, who was also a top-ten player. The Argentine press made many mentions of the tensions between the two, which even reverberated to the 2004 French Open awards ceremony, in which Vilas presented Gastón Gaudio with his trophy, over Clerc's objections.
Vilas is single-handedly responsible for the popularity of tennis in Argentina. Guillermo Coria was named after him.
Singles Finals (41): *1972--Buenos Aires, Cincinnati *1974--Washington *1975--Boston, French Open, San Francisco *1976--Dallas WCT, Rome, Sao Paulo WCT *1977--Aix en Provence, Australian Open (Jan.), Baltimore, Nice, Palm Springs, Johannesburg *1978--French Open *1979--Indianapolis, Richmond WCT, Rome, Stuttgart Indoor, Sydney Indoor *1980--Barcelona, Hamburg, Madrid, Monte Carlo *1981--Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Kitzbuhel, North Conway, Pepsi Grand Slam, Washington *1982--Baltimore WCT, Barcelona, Gstaad, Johannesburg, French Open *1983--Barcelona, Detroit WCT, Hilton Head WCT, Rotterdam *1986--Forest Hills
In 1977, Guillermo Vilas played 31 ATP Tour Singles Tournaments, entered 22 finals (including 3 Grand Slam Tournaments) and won 16 titles (Record of number of singles titles won by one player in a year in the Open Era, including 2 Grand Slam titles). He also had a 46 winning streak (50 if we count an unofficial tournament), the longest overall winning streak in history, and the ATP record of 53 matches winning streak on clay, broken by Rafael Nadal in May 2006. * Winners (16) ** Springfield, U.S.A. - Carpet ** Buenos Aires, Argentina - Clay ** Virginia Beach, U.S.A. - Hard ** Roland Garros (French Open) - Clay ** Kitzbuhel, Austria - Clay ** Washington, U.S.A. - Clay ** Louisville, U.S.A. - Hard ** South Orange, U.S.A. - Clay ** Columbus, U.S.A. - Hard ** U. S. Open - Clay ** Paris, France - Clay ** Tehran, Iran - Clay ** Bogotá, Colombia - Clay ** Santiago, Chile - Clay ** Buenos Aires-2, Argentina - Clay ** Johannesburg WCT, South Africa - Hard * Runners-up (6) ** Australian Open - Grass ** Baltimore, U.S.A. - Carpet ** Palm Springs, U.S.A. - Hard ** Johannesburg, South Africa - Hard ** Nice, France - Clay ** Aix en Provence, France - Clay
