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During his trips between May of 1973 and the end of 1979,
Guillermo Vilas recorded 46 audio cassettes
that have never been heard
until now.
-[player whirring] -[static crackles softly]
VILAS - THE BEGINNINGS
[Vilas] My life's been a great discovery.
I've always felt the need to make sense of everything.
When I got burned the first time I saw fire,
I thought it was fantastic. It was hot.
It felt good, and I thought, "What if I touch it?
Perhaps I'll feel hot inside."
I kept on discovering the world. That's how I got where I am today.
[dramatic instrumental music playing]
[commentator in French] Who is this Guillermo Vilas
who has revolutionized the world of tennis this afternoon?
[Becker in English] Guillermo Vilas is one of the all-time greats.
Uh, a very unique style, very unique personality.
If you, you know, look up the most important players
in the history of tennis, one of them is Guillermo Vilas.
[announcer] In 1977, he set a record for winning 50 singles matches in a row.
In that year, he was ranked number one in the world.
From Buenos Aires, Argentina, Guillermo Vilas!
-[crowd cheering] -[mouthing]
[Vilas in Spanish] I enjoyed it after the fact.
You can't be happy, but you can…
do something
that, when you remember it after it's over,
it makes you happy.
[crowd cheering]
[Federer in English] For me, Guillermo was always around the big tournaments.
I always got to meet and see him there. That was very special for me.
'Cause, yeah, I knew, you know, he had the strong one-handed backhand.
He had the big left arm,
and he was, uh, incredibly hardworking.
[Nadal in Spanish] He's one of the greatest players in history.
Also, as a Latin American, an Argentine,
he had a huge impact on Latin American tennis.
Honestly, I believe all Latin athletes should thank him.
[Sabatini] His game, his mentality,
I think all of that influenced me and many players here in Argentina.
[crowd cheering]
[Wilander in English] I had a poster of Guillermo when I grew up.
He was my hero.
The most successful male player from South America.
He means so much for tennis.
Uh, he was part of a great generation with Borg, Guillermo,
Connors, uh, Ilie Năstase…
[Vilas in Spanish] Winning's a consequence of all the good things
you do during the year,
all the work,
all the dedication you put into what you do.
What matters most to me is my own self-improvement.
[crowd cheering]
[Puppo] Vilas was obsessed
with being number one in all the categories he played.
First, number one in Náutico Mar del Plata.
Then, number one in the city of Mar del Plata,
in the country, and, finally, to finish it off,
number one in the world.
[Borg in English] He was claiming to be number one player.
VILAS, HEART AND CHAMPION
He deserved it. He was the best player.
And he should have been number one player in the world.
[Puppo in Spanish] Vilas has claimed that his whole life.
He did it in 1975, 1977, and 1982,
the three years he played at his best
and was closest to being number one in the world.
He never got a positive response
from the world tennis authorities.
[in English] And the ATP, they said, "No, he was number two."
[Vilas in Spanish on tape] Many times, I asked to see the records.
They always refused.
[in English] During that time, they had this, uh, strange, uh…
points score system.
[Ciulpan] I believe the ATP didn't publish all the rankings in the past
because of technology incapacity.
The ATP were renting a computer system to do all the work…
MATHEMATICIAN, PROGRAMMER
…and originally, it would take one or two days
for the system to calculate the data.
[player whirring]
[Vilas in Spanish] Regardless of all the computer stuff, it's really easy.
Take all the number one players,
check how many tournaments they won each year,
and it won't be half of what I won that year.
I knew that it was not correct,
that someone had used
all the worst stuff they had to make me believe
that I wasn't number one.
[Puppo] It is said that wanting to change the past is irrational.
Can anyone beat their own history?
[Vilas] People believe that history
is written by anyone,
but it is written by time.
Time gives you everything.
[Rod Laver in English] If you're looking at Vilas and McEnroe and Connors,
and you, "Who's number one? Who's number two, number three?"
It's a guessing game.
And so, you know what I think?
Because, uh-- Maybe he was… They're from the US…
Maybe that's why he's number three.
[Vilas in Spanish] I'm sure there will be someone
who'll take responsibility and say, "This is how it's done,"
and will promote that
because the player with the most wins is always number one.
My name is Eduardo Puppo and I'm a journalist.
I published my first tennis magazine in 1980,
and since then, I've never done anything else.
I covered around 300 tournaments in 20 countries,
over 50 or 60 Grand Slams.
I was a press officer for every type of organized tennis in my country.
I wrote the encyclopedia Historia del tenis en la Argentina.
I worked at several radio stations,
and in 2004, I started at CNN en Español
as an analyst for its news broadcast.
In June 2007,
I heard Vilas had filed a new complaint with the ATP,
and I understood that it was a historical injustice
going as far back as…
VILAS TRIED TO CHANGE THE PAST, ATP LEAVES IT AS IS
…30 years, and the idea stuck.
And six months later,
some news changed the course of things
and encouraged me to pay attention to that claim by Vilas.
[dramatic instrumental music playing]
[Puppo] The Goolagong situation was a wake-up call
in world tennis history.
They acknowledged old flaws
and gave the number one position to the Australian player
31 years after achieving it on the women's circuit.
It really moved me. It was like a call to start a mission.
It encouraged me to dive into
a statistical retrospective study
without knowing the incredible scope my study would take on,
or that my family and I would invest 12 years in this.
PHOTO ALBUMS
These are some…
of the notebooks and diaries that Guillermo wrote.
During his career, he really had…
a level of attention to detail…
that was amazing.
[María] Eduardo started, uh…
to take a position…
As if he was in a position…
EDUARDO PUPPO'S WIFE
…where he had to show the tennis world
what they owed Guillermo Vilas.
[Puppo] I saw Vilas
for the first time at that match in 1974 against Julián Ganzábal,
the Buenos Aires tournament final.
I thought that he was different.
He had long hair. He wore a hair band--
I don't know what surprised me the most,
how he played tennis or the type of character he was.
[host in French] So, I think, for those who like tennis,
there's no need to introduce you.
You are the number one, two, or three, I can't remember,
but you are among the very, very big tennis champions.
At the age of six, I played against the wall for three years.
Against the wall? All alone?
Against the wall at home.
And then, I started playing.
-And you became a champion right away? -Champion of the wall. [laughs]
The best at school and champion against the wall.
[soft rock music playing]
[Vilas in Spanish] My dad always told me, "Passions will lead you far.
Things done halfway are no good for you."
So, I mustered all my passion,
and that's what I always did.
My dad realized that my future as an athlete,
playing in the streets,
which was where people played sports at that time, would be very difficult.
So, he encouraged me to play tennis.
YPF TOURNAMENT
He took me to see a tennis tournament in Villa Gesell.
He did it well. He said, "They play here. They speak in English.
After playing here, they'll go to Europe--"
He was lying. They were from Mar del Plata.
And I loved it.
The next day, my dad took me to buy my racket.
And that's when I started playing.
[in English] …start when I was six years old.
Uh, but I was playing in the garage.
[interpreter in French] I started at six.
I was playing in the garage.
I was playing every night for three hours, and there was a lamp on the ceiling.
[in English] …and every…
[interpreter in French] I used to always break it,
and my mom had told me,
"You're only allowed to break one a day."
And so, I used to play until the lamp got broken.
It lasted two or three hours on average.
-[calming instrumental music playing] -[birds singing]
[in Spanish] Here you see…
Well…
Here they are in order.
The first racket he ever used.
This is a Sarina from Sportlandia.
This is the real one.
Then, the Gold Wing one, also…
by Dunlop.
This second one is more professional.
And then he moved on to the Blue Flash,
which was more competitive, so to speak.
My investigation aimed to reconstruct
the 280 weeks
between August 1973,
when the first ATP official ranking was published,
and December 1978.
This wasn't some random period of time.
In my opinion as a journalist,
it's when Vilas was most likely to have been number one.
[tense electronic music playing]
[Puppo] I reached out
to former tournament directors,
former ATP presidents,
the libraries at Roland Garros,
Wimbledon, USTA, the Hall of Fame in Newport,
journalists of that time,
news agencies, newspaper archives--
I checked over 100 serious sources.
I received help from many family members, friends,
colleagues, journalists, to type thousands of results.
There were so many, between 80 and 90 tournaments per season.
Everything according to what really happened on the tennis courts,
without any distortion.
[María] I have always been at Eduardo's side.
I helped him with everything he asked me to do
because I'm passionate about investigating and I'm quite obsessive.
I'm very satisfied with my contribution because the truth was at stake here.
That's how "Project V" was born.
That's what I named it. I named it after Vilas's last name
to try to keep it a secret.
[Wilander in English] Being number one is very important.
The conversations you have in a taxicab
or with somebody that asks you, "What did you do for a living?"
"I played tennis."
"Oh, you good?"
"Yes, I was world number one."
And they go, "Wow!"
If you say, "I was the French Open Champion,"
it's not the same. It's not as heavy.
[waves lapping]
[acoustic guitar music playing]
[ball bounces to beat]
[Vilas in Spanish] My dad saw that when they came
to the Ciudad República tournament,
most of the players were Locícero's students.
They talked about this teacher with great love.
At that time, when I was eight and a half years old,
Locícero settled here.
He formed the tennis school, and we started playing.
The teacher asked me,
"Do you want to be a champion or a tennis player?
Champion of the club or of Argentina?"
"Is there anything else?"
"Tournament champion, Grand Slam champion…"
"Could I be champion of Argentina?"
"Yes, if you do what I tell you to do."
[Locícero] The champion must have two mandatory things…
FELIPE LOCÍCERO FIRST AND ONLY TEACHER
…talent and vocation.
They should work with a qualified professional who knows
and has studied
the three essential subjects for a good teacher.
First, fitness, second, technique, and third, the serve.
If they fail in any of those three items,
if they do not perform, then they won't succeed.
[Vilas] I'd ask my teacher,
"How many tennis players are there touring the world?"
And he'd say,
"Maybe 60 or 70."
In the entire world! And I realized this was a difficult sport.
[Locícero] What if I tell you that tennis is not difficult?
The thing is that you can't evolve if you don't understand it.
Once you understand music, it's not difficult.
It's do, re, mi, fa, la…
And you can play tangos,
rancheras, any kind of music.
And then, you can write it.
It's the same with tennis.
You have four subjects for the drive and four for the backhand.
After a year of taking classes, he said, "I won't charge you."
"But I want classes every day."
"You'll take classes every day, but I won't charge you."
And he never did.
He knew I was going to be a tennis player.
LOCÍCERO WITH HIS GREAT STUDENT: VILAS
[upbeat rock music playing]
ACCLAIMED TENNIS PLAYERS WHO HAVEN'T FINISHED ELEMENTARY SCHOOL YET
[crowd cheering and applauding]
[Vilas] My mother was always afraid that I'd become a tennis player.
"What will happen if our son becomes a tennis player?"
"He won't, because there's no money in tennis.
He'll realize he won't be able to have what we have,
and then he'll quit."
And my mother called some partners,
important people, lawyers,
and they met with me
to convince me that I would be miserable.
I said, "I'll be miserable if I do what you do."
The meeting was very short.
[in French] I was already champion of Argentina.
[host] Were you? Already?
And of South America.
[both laugh]
[Vilas] I was in the team of the champions of South America.
And at 15, I won the Orange Bowl.
MIAMI, UNITED STATES
[Vilas in Spanish] Everybody goes to the Orange Bowl, to this day.
If they aren't there, it'll be hard for them to make it.
So, I started asking,
"Who's the best player here?"
"Connors."
"Which one is he?"
"The one with his mom over there."
I watched him play. He had the Wilson T2000 racket.
The Wilson T2000 racket
was created by Lacoste in 1940.
Connors liked it because he has no strength.
He is a weak player,
and that racket offered more power.
He was the only one who used it.
I studied him for a week. I went to all his training sessions.
When I got to play against him, I won.
I didn't have to do much to win.
I played very well. I did all I had to do.
And he never watched me because he was better than I was.
I won by 6-4, 7-5, I think.
When he shook my hand, he was very angry. He didn't look at me.
And he left. He disappeared.
We were seeing who would be
my future enemies.
ONLY VILAS AT THE ORANGE BOWL
He's now in Mar del Plata. He arrived last night. Guillermo Vilas.
And since we couldn't have it any other way, he's here
at the Club Náutico, his second home.
Which has been your best performance, the most rewarding one for you?
Well, winning the Orange Bowl championship.
Every year I went, I won an Orange Bowl in doubles and singles.
It's the most important championship for a tennis player.
Will you go to Punta del Este?
I'll try to go, but I'm very tired from this trip
because I haven't rested since July.
I've played every day. I traveled to Europe.
I'm exhausted.
It would be good to rest because this year will be more intense.
We have to play the Davis Cup and many championships.
And you have to study.
Yes, it's my senior year, and I have to start preparing for college.
[Clarey in English] Eduardo calls and goes, "All right, the situation's up.
I've been doing research for… Vilas should have been number one
if they would've had the ratings properly and kind of regularly."
And I said, "Okay. Well, cool, 1977."
And he goes, "No, no, no. It was '75," or whatever it was.
I was like, "What?"
Seventy-seven was the year, you know, for all of us following tennis.
[Puppo in Spanish] Vilas's season in 1977 was one of a kind.
And that's why no one paid attention to other years, right?
When I studied 1975,
I noticed that Jimmy Connors had been number one by a small margin,
uh, just over 0.19 points more than Vilas.
The average was 42.72
against 42.52.
That difference
was so small that it made me focus
only on Vilas's and Connors's points.
[in English] It's totally vital to the whole game
that the ranking list is correct.
And the players want it that way. And generally, I think it is,
uh, but of course, uh, number one was contentious.
[Puppo in Spanish] I added, I subtracted, and I divided.
And I realized that I was making a terrible mistake
because it was impossible
to do it in an isolated way,
taking into account only Vilas's and Connors's points
like I had planned.
I understood that I had to redo the rankings
from the day they had started,
from August 1973, from then on.
I had an emotional breakdown
because many things were now useless.
I had to start from scratch for a few items.
[María] Our home ceased to be a home almost completely
because it was stacked with papers, books, and magazines.
It was literally a warehouse filled with evidence.
We couldn't even invite friends over due to the lack of space.
[Puppo] And this was the place
where I spent hours and days and nights.
I went to bed, and sometimes I woke up
to write stuff in a notebook while I was in bed,
and I'd come here to try
to put all that down in words.
And sometimes, my kids would come down, see me, and say,
"What are you doing up so late?" Anyway…
Eduardo put Vilas's ranking first on his list of priorities.
I felt very conflicted, and we fought.
It was rough because I saw… that what I valued most was in danger,
our marriage and our family.
I kept calculating everything I could within my mathematical knowledge
until I reached a point
where I got tired and I tore everything to pieces,
and that was it.
Pages that, uh…
Pages I had put many hours of work into that were totally useless.
[rock music playing]
[Vilas] You'll be what you're meant to be, or you'll be nothing.
All those kinds of things were very powerful at that time.
The values stated that the world was mistaken, and it was.
The war was over, and we were dancing
to the music of Glenn Miller.
And suddenly, Elvis showed up,
offering something completely different.
And my Elvis was El Flaco Spinetta.
I went to one of his shows, and there were many people outside.
They had long hair, and El Flaco Spinetta came along
with David Lebón, dressed as a woman, and that was--
In Mar del Plata, that was something astonishing.
That concert blew my mind.
That famous hippie movement arrived,
and I liked the ideological part, being free of all attachments…
and thinking that life was not just about studying, studying, working,
and doing what your dad did and getting stuck in that way of life.
Instead, you had to take a chance and explore your passions.
And sometimes, your passions
give you lots of freedom but little money.
And I remember when Woodstock took place.
Honestly, it changed the world.
And I got more passionate about my passions
because I realized it was the only solution.
DAVIS: KOCH AND VILAS FIRST MATCH
[Vilas] I traveled to Houston to play,
I went to a record store and I said, "Dude, I'm from Argentina.
Do you have anything progressive?"
And he said, "Yes, here you go."
And it was Hendrix.
I listened to Hendrix from Houston to Miami
to Buenos Aires nonstop.
And I went crazy.
So crazy.
GRADUATE IN PARIS VILAS AND AN EXCEPTIONAL PERFORMANCE
[newscaster] In our country, all sports fans
are starting to hear terms that were unknown until today.
Passing shot, drive, backhand, Grand Slam, topspin,
and it's all thanks to the new Argentine tennis rising star,
Guillermo Vilas.
BUENOS AIRES CHAMPIONSHIP - 1973
[reporter] We witnessed a breakout performance
by a new star in world tennis.
How far will he go?
Will he play the next Masters in Melbourne?
Vilas is making tennis popular in Argentina.
[crowd cheering]
[Belfonte] Well, Guillermo played as I expected.
When we arrived in Melbourne…
TRAINER AND ADVISOR
…he showed he had fully recovered
from the exhaustion he felt in Buenos Aires.
[calming instrumental music playing]
[Vilas] My coach did a weird training session.
I'd never done something like it.
He woke me up at 4:00 a.m.
He made me work out on an inclined surface,
and with other elements that only he knew about
because he had mixed different exercises.
Honestly, it was all really weird, and I was at my best.
[announcer speaking indistinctly]
[Vilas] Năstase owned the Masters championship,
but I applied everything automatically, just like my coach had taught me.
-[electric guitar music playing] -[crowd applauds]
-[Vilas] And I got tired. -[crowd cheers]
[commentator in English] Good, purposeful rally by both.
[Vilas in Spanish] And at one point,
I started improvising a bit.
[crowd cheers]
I made all the right decisions.
[crowd cheers]
[announcer] Guillermo Vilas is the 1974 Master.
He dethroned the Romanian Ilie Năstase,
who had won the championship for the past three years.
[Vilas in English] A few months ago, a person came to me and said,
"What do you think about the grass?"
And I said, "The grass is for cows."
[crowd laughs]
Now I think some for cows and some for tennis.
[crowd laughs]
[Vilas in Spanish] The difficult part was making sense of what happened.
It took me three years.
For everything we achieve, we have a system, a way of working,
and a repetition pattern.
But sometimes, repetitions are spaced so far apart
that it's difficult to find a pattern.
Until I found it. Once I found it…
That's why '77 happened. I had been studying for three years.
[Puppo] I was completely devastated, and my patient wife
decided to go on a quest for a brilliant mind,
a mathematician who also knew
about the history of tennis.
[tense electronic music playing]
I started thinking about where I could find people
that were completely crazy
and obsessed with one particular subject,
the ranking.
Not the current ranking,
but a ranking that was as old as the hills.
So I said,
"Eduardo's already looked in books, in newspaper archives,
asked tournament directors-- What else is there? Well, the fans."
I started looking in international blogs
from people that would talk about the rankings.
I felt they were special people,
completely obsessed,
because when you write a blog, you don't get paid.
And then I clicked on one
and found a man from Slovakia.
So I started to talk to him.
I said to Eduardo, "Here's a person who's similar to you."
[Puppo] She located a Slovakian man who was not up for the challenge,
but he recommended another man from Romania,
Marian Ciulpan.
[Ciulpan in English] I was skeptical at first because we're
in an online medium.
You know, you don't--
We were using avatars as names, not real names.
Um…
But it… it felt like… It felt, like, right
because it was connected to… to my project.
I was looking into historical rankings.
[in Spanish] An Argentine was going to team up with a Romanian
to study Vilas's ranking.
And Vilas, an Argentinian,
achieved what he did thanks to Felipe Locícero, of course,
and to a Romanian, Ion Ţiriac.
[in English] When Eduardo contacted me,
it felt like the right thing to do, to recomplete the history.
I tried to explain to Eduardo what it means
to rebuild the rankings of the time,
and he understood
and he started providing me with the data I needed.
[Puppo in Spanish] I gave him a lot of data
and information about the tournaments,
and it was a very big goal,
very ambitious in terms of volume.
[Ciulpan in English] When I found something,
I was letting him-- letting Eduardo know.
And he was providing his input on it, and…
well, giving him numbers,
but then he was coming back with something like,
"Hey, what does this mean? I found this draw.
Shouldn't this tournament have been ranked?"
The records in the early years,
in the '70s, when they started out, the computer and the ATP
really were not very regular.
There were many kinds of rankings, many different ways of doing it.
[Ciulpan] Eduardo's focus was on the '70s.
The… The period Vilas was most active in.
And he was expecting to see him as number one.
[crowd clamoring]
[indistinct chatter]
[strings vibrating]
-[Vilas in Spanish] Anyone know? -[man] Hmm?
[man on PA in French] Borg, Panatta, on the central court, please.
-[Vilas in Spanish] Not Panatta! Vilas! -[men laugh]
-[man on PA in French] Borg, Vilas. -[Vilas in Spanish] Thanks.
[announcer in French] Guillermo Vilas, Argentina.
[Borg in English] The French Open is, uh…
the most important clay court tournament in the world.
The French Open is a major tournament.
I won the year before, so I wanted to try to defend my title
and especially to play
the best player, Guillermo, in the final.
[Vilas in Spanish] When I got there, I was very nervous,
because I had beaten him the last time
and I had won the Masters Cup.
Because I knew I could win
and because, as I said before, I was a player, not a great player.
[gentle piano music playing]
[Borg in English] We know our weakest shots
or the strongest shots.
We knew each other's games really well,
so it was almost to play, like, chess
when we went out to the court, me and Guillermo.
[Vilas in Spanish] Borg and I were close friends. We traveled together.
And at one point, I met with him
when we were arriving at the hotel, and he said, "Can I ask you something?
Your drive sucks,
and my backhand is crap."
So we shared our techniques.
[Borg in English] We were good friends. He was South American. I was Swedish.
But it clicked, you know.
The mentality clicked very well between us.
I remember that every evening we went to the food store
and bought a lot of yogurts,
because he liked yogurts and I liked yogurts.
So we bought like 20 yogurts,
and we were eating, watching television. [laughs]
[Vilas in Spanish] And we played doubles together.
And with Borg, we would bet
who would rip the rival's racket,
who would rip the most rackets.
We would aim at their chests
because, at that time, no one understood the topspin.
[Borg in English] And we were practicing a lot together,
and we spent a lot of time together.
That was a problem we had,
with doing the same kind of things, me and Guillermo,
but we were working on other things to improve our game.
I mean, he was working on probably the same thing
as I needed to work on. [chuckles]
[Borg grunts]
-[Borg exclaims] -[crowd cheering]
[Borg] It was an important match for me to beat Guillermo
because I think during that time we became
two of the best clay court players in the world.
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
[Ciulpan] My software engineering background
came into play.
I constructed a system
which was calculating all this automatically.
Oh, I used MATLAB on this project in its early days.
It does the work very fast
and can give solutions to complex mathematical problems.
[Puppo in Spanish] With Ciulpan, the math was done way faster,
and between August 1973
and December 1978,
according to the ATP database,
they officially published 128 rankings
out of the 280 possible ones for the weeks within that time.
So, if we follow that official guideline,
the 152 remaining weeks
would have empty positions.
But that wasn't the case.
[player panting, grunts]
[Puppo] In 1975, the 13 weeks that were published
were given to Jimmy Connors.
And the 39 unpublished weeks, too.
They gave him the entire 52 weeks of the year,
without having them completely registered and calculated.
[in English] Jimmy Connors, I think he deserves this.
He said he was gonna do it, and he did it, ladies and gentlemen.
I did receive, uh, a video message from, uh, Vilas himself,
from Guillermo Vilas.
And he was, um, excited about my project
and, uh, wished that justice would be made.
So that was motivational.
Marian, how are you?
I'm Guillermo Vilas.
Um, I know you are doing a fantastic, uh, work
and, uh, I depend on you.
So, uh, I know you very tired, and I'm sorry about that.
But, uh, you know, these things are, uh, not normal,
and, uh, only people like you can help a person like me.
Please, don't-- keep going, keep going, keep going.
And, uh, I will see you when everything is finished,
and we are gonna celebrate. Thank you very much.
04-20-1975 CHAMPION - VILAS VS. CLARK GRAEBNER
[Puppo in Spanish] Vilas acknowledged that he had played very well in 1975.
CHAMPION - VILAS VS. MEILER CHAMPION - VILAS VS. FRANULOVIC
[Puppo] And after Wimbledon,
he won over 30 matches in a row,
and he felt he was very, very close to Connors.
[crowd cheers and applauds]
[Puppo] For his average,
his seamless performance
during many moments of that season was crucial.
According to the ATP, Connors finished in first place
by almost no difference at all,
only 0.198 more than the Argentine.
That's when the first claims from Vilas to the ATP came about.
He would ask the people responsible for putting together the lists
if he had moved up virtually every week.
And he always got the same answer,
"No, no, Willy. No, Willy, you're still second."
And that kept on going because he never got further,
even after winning every week.
[Vilas on tape] I knew I was ahead.
How could it be that, after all that time,
I couldn't cross the line and be, even for one day,
number one?
[Evans in English] I was one of the people on the original ranking committee.
I'm not saying he didn't speak to anyone else, but to my knowledge…
REPORTER, TENNIS CHANNEL
…he didn't complain to me about not being number one.
[Ciulpan] In 1975,
Connors played the Bermuda tournament,
which is a category E.
So that is 40 points difference between what he dropped
from 1974
to how much he gained in 1975.
That difference of 40 points less
caused his average to drop.
SPANISH MANUEL ORANTES DEFEATED THE ARGENTINE IDOL
[Puppo in Spanish] Even though Vilas had lost some amazing semifinals,
the US Open in 1975 in Forest Hills against the Spanish Manuel Orantes…
THE IMPOSSIBLE MATCH LOST BY VILAS
…that performance was the springboard for the great step he was looking to take.
[Ciulpan in English] We took, like I said, the September 8th original rankings.
We took that sheet,
and we just calculated September 22nd as it should have been
if they would have published on that date.
[in Spanish] And from Monday, September 22nd, 1975,
according to our revisions,
Guillermo Vilas stepped into the real number one position
for the first time in his life.
[in English] When we found that the average for 1975
was actually incorrect in the official rankings
and there was a missing date in which Guillermo
would have been number one, Eduardo was caught by surprise.
[typing]
[Puppo in Spanish] That's where he moves up
and keeps the position for five more weeks,
until October 27th, 1975, when Connors regains the first position.
Connors gained it back for ten weeks, and Vilas got two more weeks,
the weeks of January 5th and 12th, 1976,
thus completing his seven weeks on the top.
Jimmy Connors earned every week as number one.
This investigation does not challenge it.
He and Vilas are unwitting participants in how the official history was written,
neither of them was responsible.
[reporter] Ţiriac, are you changing the style of Guillermo Vilas's game?
I think Guillermo also has to change his game.
He should be more aggressive. He should step it up.
Let's hope he takes advantage of that.
It's a period of transition, a very difficult time,
but it's the only opportunity he has to keep his high level.
We hope it all goes well.
And we'll have to thank you for your help and collaboration
in making Guillermo number one in the world.
-We all want that. -Thanks.
[birds chirping]
[Vilas] Ţiriac had approached me a few times,
and since I always played with him and it went well,
I said, "Let's try for a month."
We tried one month, and I won three tournaments in a row.
I called him and said,
"I want to hire you. How much for your services?"
And he asked me why.
And I said, "Because I've reached my limit."
"But you won this, this, and that."
"Yes, but I don't…
It's easier with you."
[Ţiriac in English] Vilas came with eight pair of shoes.
Came with six, seven, eight T-shirts
and so on for those six to eight hours every day.
[Vilas in Spanish] In fact, Ţiriac once told me,
"How do you feel about being with the best coach in the world?"
And I replied, "But you already know
that you are in front of a player who can do any shot you demand.
Because, with my technique, I can do any shot, any game.
I can play on any surface.
I can put a spin on any ball from any position,
without getting tired, and for hours."
Actually, the first thing he did
was test how many hours I could play without getting tired.
We played for eight hours, and he stopped.
I said, "I can go on." And he said, "No, it's enough."
[Ţiriac in English] I have so much respect for everything he did, uh, because…
the power of work and the dedication…
was the best thing I ever saw in my life.
[crowd cheering]
[Vilas] I immediately got to the Australia finals.
-[crowd exclaims] -[linesman in English] Out.
[commentator 1 laughs]
[commentator 2 chuckles] Roscoe walks back.
Match point.
-[Tanner] Get out! Yeah! -[linesman] Out.
[crowd cheering]
[stadium announcer] Game, set, and championship, Tanner.
It's 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.
[commentator 2] You look at the faces of Vilas and Tanner,
you can see the whole picture of it.
[Vilas in Spanish] I lost to Tanner.
[man on PA in English] Guillermo Vilas.
[reporter] It was a businesslike Guillermo Vilas
who walked onto the center court at the sports center
for the men's singles final.
[Vilas] We started playing all the tournaments, and I sucked.
NICE DEFEATED IN THE FINAL
DEFEATED AT SEMIFINALS
HAMBURG DEFEATED AT QUARTERFINALS
[Vilas] Sometimes you need to hit rock bottom
so that any…
ROME DEFEATED IN SECOND ROUND
…help you can get works for you.
Then, I traveled to Hawaii.
I had always wanted to go there, but alone.
HAWAII, UNITED STATES
I remember I went to the desert. I went running, I climbed a mountain,
and I watched the sunset, and when it finished,
I turned and I realized the mountain was to that side
and there was still sunlight, but the other side had no light.
It was all dark.
There were coyotes. All of them were howling.
I was really scared.
So, I stayed there for ten days.
And Ţiriac came to see me.
And when he saw I felt bad, he said, "Now I'll take over.
This will be hard."
[Ţiriac in English] Guillermo was a guy that needed, in a week…
30 hours only
to get the precision on one stroke.
[Vilas in Spanish] He started managing everything.
The training sessions, the schedule--
I didn't think about anything.
He kept adjusting things.
I stopped writing. I used to write poetry.
I was always watching movies
and reading books, and he took all that away.
He started to trim me like an old tree.
I obeyed him completely,
and it worked perfectly.
He put me on a diet. It was very strict. I was starving.
I was so hungry that I dreamt about food.
[in English] Vilas… he cost me 365 days a year
for ten years.
DECEMBER 2013
[Puppo in Spanish] It's hard to believe, but Vilas was the last one
to hear about the investigation.
Six years after I started with it,
given we were very confident about the statistics,
I decided to tell him.
DECEMBER 26, 2013
"Here is the first good news about your ranking," I said to him.
He looked at it in disbelief.
He fixed his hair with his left hand.
He looked at me. He ordered another coffee.
He kept talking about the weather, the heat,
and he didn't react.
48 HOURS LATER, VILAS CALLED PUPPO
[telephone ringing]
[receiver clatters]
[Puppo] He said, "I'm sorry I was a bit curt,
but I was very moved.
A million things crossed my mind.
It was the third time I felt such an emotional blow from tennis.
The first time was when I won the Masters as an unknown player.
Then, when I won my second Australian Open
because my father was there, and I saw him cry for the first time.
And this is the third time."
[gentle piano music playing]
And the last thing he said
completely broke me down.
He said,
"Do you realize what this piece of paper means to me?"
It was the first positive emotional impact I had with Vilas,
but I also felt a bit afraid
because this could be a dangerous step
if all of this did not end well.
Vilas had not asked me to make him number one.
I was getting him involved…
in this fight
that was kind of parallel to his own fight,
but it was much more aggressive.
And I regretted giving him that envelope.
[upbeat accordion music playing]
PARIS, FRANCE
[traffic whistle blowing]
[Vilas on tape] I had already played the Roland Garros finals.
At that time, I already had won like 40 or 35 tournaments.
I wasn't an amateur.
So Ţiriac realized that the foundation for playing the final was to train twice.
[birds singing]
[Puppo] Here is where Vilas trained in 1977,
la Faisanderie.
He trained here during May and June 1977
because he wanted a very quiet place.
Vilas was almost totally isolated.
So they stayed here.
[film projector whirring]
Vilas slept here under the trees.
A very, very, very nice place.
A place for hunting pheasants.
It's a bit far from downtown… Paris,
but it's a beautiful place.
[bright instrumental music playing]
[Vilas] Ţiriac handled it all, and I followed him.
[shower running]
[Vilas] Because every time I made a decision,
things would get complicated.
I just followed his schedule,
did everything he told me,
trained, and did everything the same way.
Again and again.
[faucet squeaks]
[Vilas] I didn't get involved in things.
What I did was write in my journal every day until I calmed down.
Because at night, I couldn't sleep because I was anxious.
[crowd clamoring]
[in French] No, but the problem is that we were told--
We need some explanations.
[crowd applauding and cheering]
-[crowd] Ooh. -[crowd members hush]
[crowd cheers and applauds]
[calming acoustic guitar music playing]
[exhales]
[blows]
[crowd cheers]
[Vilas] I was thinking about another game, and when the umpire said it,
I realized it had finished.
[crowd clamoring]
[Vilas] I knew it was a match point. I was playing.
The mechanics was that when a point ended, another one would start.
That's why I put my arms down, not up.
And I turned towards Ţiriac.
Because deep down, you keep on following mechanics.
If you take a shark out of the water…
[biting] …it'll keep doing this.
It's out of the water. There's nothing there.
What's it biting? It keeps on biting just in case.
And I was a bit of a shark.
[crowd cheering]
DECEMBER 4TH, 2014
[Puppo] The starting point of this whole story
is Thursday, December 4th, 2014.
And I clearly remember what time it was.
It was 2:56 p.m., Argentine time,
and it was 12:56 p.m., destination time,
in Ponte Vedra Beach, in the US.
That was the exact moment when I sent
the entire collection of documents directly to the ATP president.
The e-mail had a link and a password to access
the 1,232 files that were encrypted online
and the 1,119 pages
of the investigation document.
[Bodo in English] Once the system was created with points,
I assume, "That's it, the points are the points."
If it were mathematical, you can't argue with it,
unless the math is bad, which is where we are today.
[Puppo in Spanish] The investigation guaranteed
that every doubt and the technical and statistical flaws of the ATP
were backed up by real evidence.
It was all scanned, all tangible.
[in English] I'd have needed years and many research assistants
to look at all the work that he did with his team.
But, yeah, I definitely had confidence. Eduardo's respected in our business,
and I know he's a serious guy, and I know he wouldn't have made the point
if he didn't feel he had a good point, yeah? Absolutely.
[slow rock song playing]
[Vilas in Spanish] I felt alone. I love being alone.
You have no idea how much fun I had.
I'd play, go to my room, eat,
order room service, and then go to sleep.
I had no more energy left.
My sleep pattern was messed up, and when you're really tired,
being tired keeps you from being around people,
but it doesn't keep you from thinking.
You can think about the freest and most beautiful things.
I experienced the nicest things then.
I enjoyed simple things, like ice cream.
When you're tired, you think about very sedentary things.
I don't know.
"I hope the bed is cool. I'll turn on the AC."
They're things that seem like they're no big deal,
but, at those moments, they feel as if they're essential.
♪ You know when you go… ♪
6/20/1977 3RD ROUND - BILLY MARTIN VS. VILAS
07/11/1977 WINNER - VILAS VS. JAN KODES
7/25/1977 WINNER - VILAS VS. DIBBS
7/31/1977 WINNER - VILAS VS. TANNER
[Vilas] I arrived in Gstaad,
and Thomaz Koch told me, "Tomorrow you have to come and see
Krishnamurti, an Indian philosopher."
It was raining, so I went.
[calming sitar music playing]
[Krishnamurti in English] What we're trying, in these discussions,
and talks here…
JIDDU KRISHNAMURTI PHILOSOPHER
…is to see if we cannot radically bring about
a transformation of the mind.
[Vilas in Spanish] And I came back with my mind blown again.
All of a sudden, all that joy
had this serenity, as if there were very important things,
and that we depended more on harmony than on anxiety.
And that changed my life.
[seagulls crying]
We waited for a response from the ATP. It came two months later,
and it was negative.
[in English] I'm very sure Eduardo is more frustrated than me.
He… He worked on this for many, many years before me.
[in Spanish] According to the authorities, they didn't have all the data,
the complete data, from the '70s,
and they couldn't provide the reasons
for the flaws we found.
[in English] To get the actual numbers
that show the actual truth and still be denied?
My… I can't… I can't tell you how frustrating that is.
[Puppo, in Spanish] That rejection led us to integrate Guillermo Vilas himself
into our team.
Vilas then sent a personal e-mail
to President Kermode
telling him, among other things, that he assumed
that he would understand the difficult and unfair situation
in which the ATP had put him.
And that he also felt at liberty,
as a founding member of the ATP,
to take legal action.
Kermode replied that same day. He was very quick,
but with the same position we already knew.
Vilas did not receive
a response with better reasons.
NEW YORK, USA JULY 1977
[Vilas on tape] Today I continue with this recording I started long ago.
Four days ago.
[rock music playing]
[Vilas] It's hard to talk to a tape recorder.
It would seem emotions don't exist.
TO FRIENDS CHACHO, ARTURO, AND EL FLACO
Everything is fine here.
I miss you guys so much.
I feel you really close.
And I can't wait to return to Argentina to be with you
and to share everything we have.
I hope I play well these coming tournaments.
I'm planning to be very fit…
and to win.
That's what I want.
-[electricity crackles, thrums] -[tape stops]
[in English] So, in the dark last night, when the power system broke down,
so did some of what is usually called the social order or civilization.
[piano music playing]
♪ This is the day ♪
♪ This is the night… ♪
[Puppo in Spanish] Vilas had this peripheral vision
outside the tennis world, and I remember he told me many times
that when he arrived in New York in 1977,
things were strange.
There were riots, fires,
financial problems, this terrible heat wave,
in addition to the Son of Sam case,
who was caught right before the US Open in Forest Hills.
[reporter in English] The man police believed to be the Son of Sam,
a .44 caliber killer who killed six and wounded 7 over the last 13 months,
was finally arrested in New York.
He told the officers, "Okay, you've got me."
[Puppo in Spanish] The air was heavy in every sense,
and Vilas could perceive that.
[Vilas] I was afraid because I was very tired.
I hadn't lost. I had won many tournaments.
I had won Kitzbühel. I had won Washington, Louisville,
I had won Columbus, Ohio, South Orange,
Westchester, all consecutively without losing.
And there I was, at the US Open.
[fanfare theme song playing]
[chiming]
[announcer in English] Welcome to the 1977
US Open tennis championships in Forest Hills, New York.
[crowd cheering]
[Ţiriac] Before this final match,
I warmed him up
one and a half hour
on a side court.
[crowd applauding]
[Vilas in Spanish] When I went in, I was sweating.
[commentator in English] Feel the emotion.
[Vilas grunts]
[Vilas in Spanish] Ţiriac had one tactic, I had another one.
I used mine, and it didn't go well right away.
[Ţiriac in English] In the first set, he was zero.
[crowd cheering]
[commentator] He looks like he's meditating.
[crowd exclaims]
[Vilas in Spanish] He had won four or five points
very brilliantly with a spectacular volley.
At one point, I saw that shot coming,
and I went right into the open space. There was nothing.
[commentator 1 in English] Gonna be good. So's that!
-[crowd cheers] -[commentator 2] What a shot!
[Ţiriac] In tennis, there are players
that they are afraid to lose.
Vilas was not afraid to lose.
Vilas almost was afraid to win.
[calming acoustic guitar music playing]
[Vilas in Spanish] The difficult thing about a victory is not winning
but convincing your opponent that they will lose.
[Connors grunts]
[crowd exclaims]
[commentator in Spanish] Let's see what the linesman says. There are doubts.
Yeah!
[commentator in Spanish] And Vilas won! He won!
Vilas is the champion at Forest Hills!
Right now, the Argentine is surrounded by a huge crowd of photographers
and other people. It's chaos.
Vilas is the champion of the US Open and number one in the world!
[crowd cheering]
[Vilas] For the first time in the history of the final, and I think of tennis,
people invaded the court-- It always happens when I play.
It happened at Roland Garros, but there were 20 people.
Here, there were 100,000.
[crowd cheering]
[Puppo] The last day, September 11th, 1977,
that night when he got to the hotel
after winning the US Open final against Jimmy Connors,
he took his notebook, this journal,
and he said--
He opened it, and there was only one blank page left
to finish the journal, and it's this one.
And he wrote…
that he won. He talks about everything.
And he wrote, "Bravo, Guillermo! Your friend for 25 years now."
At that time, he was his own friend.
[tense instrumental music playing]
[Puppo] The day before Roland Garros began in 2015,
the American journalist Christopher Clarey contacted me
from the New York Times
because Kermode had informed him
that the ATP wouldn't acknowledge Vilas as number one.
That totally threw me off because so far, it was all confidential.
And the article was actually published online on May 25th
and in the print version of the New York Times the day after.
The title shocked me.
[in English] Eduardo came to me with his research and his story, um,
months before we wrote a story about it in the New York Times,
and it was one of the more interesting and complicated cases I've come across.
[Puppo in Spanish] It was a long article where Kermode
explained his point of view and said
that he was 100% sure, or as close as he could be to that 100%,
that it was impossible to rewrite history.
[in English] From the ATP perspective, they were worried
if they opened up the gates
and let Vilas be officially number one,
they'd have other guys coming back and saying,
"I should have been number four in 1979," or "I should have been number ten."
VILAS WAS NUMBER 1 IN 1975
[Puppo in Spanish] There were big repercussions
in the world of tennis.
We never intended to release the investigation,
but that media accident at least was good
for putting the matter on the table in the future.
ATP'S EXCUSES FOR REJECTING VILAS AS NUMBER 1
[Evans in English] This is a special case. I don't think there's anyone else…
There was a case with Evonne Goolagong,
and I suppose the ATP could say the same thing
about Guillermo Vilas,
but I haven't seen all Puppo's documentation.
I'm sure there's plenty of it.
I assumed that the ATP computer points and however they designated them
were accurate because it's mathematics. There can't be a flaw.
Then I found out, two decades later, um,
when Mr. Puppo began his investigations and stuff on behalf of Vilas,
that they may have made a mistake in the actual calculations.
So I think the case is open.
I don't remember that-- anyone saying,
"Oh, it's a terrible thing. Guillermo should be number one."
I never heard that conversation.
[Puppo in Spanish] We had to stop and see this basic thing imposed on us by history.
When an athlete produces a result,
it's their own. It's theirs forever.
No one can manipulate their achievements
or tell them what to do with them,
not the ATP, not the ITF, not the reporters, not even the athlete.
It is a right that can't be taken away. It is inalienable.
In May 2015, Vilas had authorized
the cooperation of a lawyer to have a legal point of view,
Mr. Adrián Sautu de la Riestra,
and he became our representative to the ATP.
At first, we offered the ATP
a mediation
seeking a declaratory judgment
to acknowledge Guillermo as number one
and making it very clear
that he did not claim any kind of financial redress.
[Ţiriac in English] How in the hell was he not number one?
Nobody figured it out.
Some people that rewrote the history, they put that, uh,
depends who writes the history, not who reads it.
And in my-- And in my book,
Guillermo, those years, was by far number one.
[upbeat rock music playing]
NEW YORK, USA JANUARY 1978
[Puppo in Spanish] In tennis in the '70s, there was a much-anticipated tradition.
That was the cover of the influential magazine World Tennis
for its season review edition.
On the cover, they would show the player who, in their journalistic opinion,
had been number one that year.
And to define the best player in 1977,
the editors waited
until the Masters final in January 1978
between Borg and Connors.
JANUARY 1978
[Vilas] That year, Connors won
nine tournaments.
Borg won seven.
I had won 14.
They had won a Grand Slam each.
I had won two, and I got to a final in another.
I doubled them in everything.
But, at that time, I depended on that result.
Connors hadn't won anything. He had no chance.
I needed him to win.
I didn't want to go to the match. It was too hard for me.
[soft rock music playing]
[Vilas] So I did something out of character for me.
I remember I went to Woodstock. Woodstock.
WOODSTOCK, USA JANUARY 1978
The place where I had my first contact with freedom at the concert.
[commentator speaking Japanese]
[Vilas] I was in Woodstock, and I felt that freedom.
I saw that place, and I said,
"If the other guy wins…
perhaps…
I will have to build a shack and come to live here.
It'll make me so angry!"
[commentator in Japanese] A straight! He returned the ball.
Now he's close to the net.
A straight!
[Vilas in Spanish] I came back at night.
It was late. I was staying at the Plaza Hotel.
I went in slowly,
and as I walked in, I saw Donald Dell.
And he asked,
[in English] "Did you see the match?"
[in Spanish] And I said, "No. Who won?"
And he said,
"Connors." [chuckles]
And I said,
"How was it?"
I tried not to smile or anything. "How was the match?"
And so I went up to my room.
I locked myself in there.
And I just stared at the ceiling the whole time.
[indistinct chatter]
The next day I went to buy my ticket with Aerolíneas,
I got on the plane…
I was on the airplane,
and the captain came over. He was a close friend of mine.
He came and said, "Guillermo…
Ţiriac sent you this."
[upbeat music playing]
I opened it, and it was the World Tennis magazine.
I was number one.
We all had done the photo shoot for the cover.
Borg and I, you know…
We all were shot for the cover since one of us would be featured.
So they were waiting there.
And when I saw it,
I ordered champagne
and I drank a lot that day.
I drank quite a bit. The truth is, I deserved it.
JUNE 2015
[Puppo] One morning in June 2015, he told me,
"Bro, you have to write a book about my life,
and I want you to be the keeper of my stuff.
All the tennis gear I've kept since my childhood,
I want you to have it.
There's stuff from my parents, tennis gear.
There's some music stuff also.
I want you to keep it so that nothing gets lost.
I need someone I can trust with all of that, and I thought of you."
He also said, "You know what I care about.
I want that stuff to stay in Argentina, where my story started
and where it should end."
[María] Having to do an inventory of all…
the things Guillermo had, that he kept, was…
exhausting.
There were so many things.
You could see in any piece of paper,
in any T-shirt with which he had won Roland Garros,
in any material thing he had...
It was all part of his history, like he was there telling everything.
It was very emotional as well.
This notebook is filled with tactics.
Here's a court map.
He had this concept that the court had a soul,
like everything,
so here he explains a bit
his concept about the court having a soul
and where to go on and off a tennis court.
He doesn't want to explain this in detail
because it is one of his technical secrets.
Vilas said, "Please, do me a favor.
Keep all the notebooks in a safe place.
I don't want them to get lost
because they're part of my history
that I wrote day after day."
"I want to leave them to you. Take care of them. I know you will,
and if anything happens to me,
you'll know what to do."
He looked into my eyes, with his usual bloodshot eyes,
he gave me a hug,
and we kind of sealed that spiritual contract we were making,
and that was another great emotional moment I had.
[woman in English] When the heat turns you off, and the beat turns you on,
and the day becomes summer,
we are here to cheer you up and cool your summer.
♪ Radio Music ♪
[Vilas in Spanish] My first tournament, the Masters championship,
I won it without a coach.
With Belfonte.
I took Belfonte because I had no coach to see if history would repeat itself,
and I invited my father.
"Dad,
let's go to Australia, but you have to do everything I say.
You have to follow all my moves.
You can't do anything on your own.
We have to be a team.
I need to feel we're on the same frequency."
And he did it.
[commentator in English] Match point to Vilas.
He's won.
[crowd cheering]
[commentator] His father's happy.
And so is Guillermo Vilas.
[Vilas in Spanish] We played, and I won without a coach,
and my father saw me winning a Grand Slam.
No one ever came because they got very nervous.
[crowd cheering]
[in English] Now to our winner, Guillermo Vilas, again,
the singles championship trophy of Australia.
[crowd cheering]
[Vilas] At the end, my father cried when they gave me the cup.
And he didn't used to cry, but well,
it was one of the few times that it happened.
He had started crying in his seat. He was already going soft.
We were staying at the Hilton hotel, and he said,
"This isn't the Hilton hotel. Now it's called Alcatraz Hilton."
And he said, "Your life is very nice,
but I wouldn't want it for anything in the world.
I don't want to go through what I experienced these two weeks again.
I don't envy you at all.
I love that you are so passionate about this sport,
but I think it's not worth it to live your life like a slave to this
because you are so involved in it
that you will never get out of this.
I hope you are happy. I want that for you.
But I'll never come see you play again." And he never saw me play again.
DECEMBER, 2016
[Puppo] I kept going to Vilas's house to edit his book,
and one morning, the lawyer paid us a surprise visit.
He stayed only 10 or 15 minutes,
but it was very encouraging.
[Adrián] In December 2016,
I had very good conversations with lawyers close to the ATP,
and we were right on track towards his acknowledgment as number one.
We felt we were really close.
And I went to tell Guillermo.
[Puppo] The lawyer left, and we were alone again.
And then I experienced the rawest moment,
when, for the first time in his life, he felt like the number one position
could be something real and that his fight might finally be over.
And because of a twist of fate,
the camera I had set on top of the table
to record his corrections for the book
kept on recording.
Who would you like to dedicate…
-Well, honestly… -Number one…
Well, all the work you did…
Everything…
Do you remember when I used to get upset and you did too?
You understood, uh…
You know…
I got upset, and you…
You'd say, "You get upset with me but not with--
I didn't get upset-- It was the situation.
It was the situation. I mean--
I did it all the time.
[sighs]
[sobs]
It's okay.
[Vilas sniffling]
-What sons of bitches. My God. -It's done.
Come on, man. Like you tell me.
-Thank you, man. -Hmm?
-[breathing shakily] -This arm did it.
Thank you.
Mm. The one with your brother tattooed on it.
Here.
[chuckles] Eh?
-I love you, man. -Thank you so much.
[Vilas sobs]
[sniffles]
-[kisses] -Thank you for helping me.
[Puppo] It recorded.
I hope it doesn't disappear again.
[Puppo] No.
Guillermo, his wife Phiang, and their children left Argentina
on December 19th, 2016.
On May 9th, 2018,
the ATP board gave a negative verdict for the third time.
They would stop considering the case.
After that refusal, we began with a series of legal actions
in different parts of the world.
PARIS, FRANCE
-[indistinct chatter] -[horn honks]
[Puppo in English] Hi, Phiang.
Fine, fine. And you?
Oh, yes? Oh, beautiful.
Yes, I need call to William.
Thank you. Bye-bye.
[in Spanish] William, how are you?
Very well.
Yes, I'm in Paris now.
Yes. First of all, I want to tell you,
about the rackets, I already have them. There are a lot.
Yes, I'm going to Monaco in two days,
so we'll finally see each other! Eh?
Say hi to everybody.
Bye, William. Bye. Bye.
[gentle piano music playing]
[Puppo] At the beginning of 2017,
with the Vilas family living in Monaco,
we continued editing his book via phone calls.
Every time we talked at a distance,
I noticed that something was changing.
Guillermo struggled a bit more
to remember the details.
"I'm a tennis player," he told me.
"I cannot lower my arms."
It was the answer I was expecting.
[helicopter blades whirring]
[indistinct radio chatter]
MONACO
[calming music playing]
[indistinct chatter]
-Puppo? -[Puppo] It's me.
[laughs] Ah, Puppo.
[laughing, sighs]
Puppo!
Fuck! Man, it's so great that you came!
This is so fantastic.
-[voice breaking] How are you? -How are you?
-I'm fine. -Really?
I'm so happy to see you. See? I came, right?
Yes, yes, yes, yes. Thank you.
I'm sure you know this one, the Jack Kramer.
-Yes. -But it's signed.
"To Guillermo, Jack Kramer."
-Look. -Oh.
The signature.
Let's see? The strings are loose.
[Vilas] They're perfect.
[Puppo] Is it heavy?
No, this one is not heavy.
-[Puppo] It isn't heavy for your arm. -It's light.
At that time…
-We were younger. -…we were still in good shape.
Well, yes. [laughs]
That's true.
Yours.
Yours!
Guillermo Vilas.
Nineteen eighty-two.
Guillermo Vilas and Jimmy Connors, 1981.
-This is the final that got suspended. -Yes.
[Puppo] The wait was, let's say,
uh, emotionally complicated,
more than anything because of the friendship we had
from the moment I separated
the relationship between the journalist and the tennis player
from the one between the journalist and the tennis player and friend.
We're alone. Of course. Who would want to come with this rain?
-Me. -Us, yes.
[laughs]
-Look at the water. I like the water. -It's beautiful.
[Puppo] It wasn't that he chose me and I chose him.
It was life that brought us together.
And to have him so near and to be so close,
it's something inexplicable.
I will never be able to explain this,
and I'm grateful to life for it.
-Guillermo Vilas? -[Puppo] Yes.
-I'm Argentinian. -[Vilas] What's left of him.
I'm so glad to see you.
My son has your name.
His name is Martin Guillermo. His middle name is after you.
[Puppo] Incredible.
[Puppo] That was amazing, right?
He named his son after you.
[Puppo] I will never forget the words that Vilas had kept…
uh, I don't know where…
when he thanked me for what I did.
When he acknowledged I trusted
in his achievements in a fight that wasn't mine.
When he thanked me for being by his side…
in the last step he gave as a tennis player…
which, according to him, was the most important of all.
And for me, the most moving thing about this relationship
was when he told me…
[breathes shakily]
…that I was a miracle in his life.
[in English] He was my hero, um…
because I saw him play against Björn Borg many times.
I like the way that he was on the court, very intense.
Thank you very much for asking me to speak about one of my idols.
Guillermo Vilas was very important in the first part of my career.
As a player,
once again, he was one of the greats,
and everybody-- everyone will remember Guillermo.
I think he won four Grand Slams.
He probably won a lot of the European clay court tournaments.
So, he's, uh, you know, he was a great champion.
[in Spanish] When I was very young, I do remember
one thing he told me,
"Everybody knows how to run to the side,
but to run back and forth, it's a lot more complicated,
so you have to try to take players out of their comfort zone."
[in English] Guillermo was one of those players that left a mark
when it comes especially to work ethic for the next generation of players.
Um, he was an incredible fighter, would never get tired.
Should have been world number one, but okay,
the ranking system was different at the time.
It didn't reward playing a lot.
[in Spanish] We all know of his fights and his efforts on the court.
That was everything to him.
So, being acknowledged as number one, I imagine it would be something very nice.
[in English] Guillermo is a worthy world number one.
He won four Grand Slams.
Uh, he was the dominating tennis player on clay courts for a few years.
He won more tournaments than everybody else in a few years.
Everybody, uh, should get the credit when it's deserved.
Uh, if he has a point, it should be investigated.
And I'm sure the ATP will change whatever's in the record books,
uh, if it's proven right.
Definitely, Guillermo deserved to be the number one, so…
I mean, that was his year. I mean… simple as that.
Simple as that, he should have been number one.
["Canción del adiós" by Attaque 77 playing]
Guillermo Vilas played his last professional match in 1992.
He won 62 titles on five continents
and was in the top ten for nine consecutive years.
He holds many records,
including the most official titles won in a year (16 in 1977).
He married Phiangphathu Khumueang in 2005 and has four children.
After 45 years, the ATP still doesn't acknowledge the seven weeks
Vilas was number one, despite all the evidence presented.
During the six years of negotiation,
the ATP didn't show any evidence against it.
Vilas, Puppo, and their staff will keep fighting
until the truth is acknowledged.
DEDICATED TO WILLY WITH ALL OUR LOVE AND ADMIRATION
[Vilas in Spanish] This is one of the so many crazy things
I have been doing lately. [laughs]
IN MEMORY OF "PROFE" JUAN CARLOS BELFONTE (1939 - 2020)