My brush with tennis greatness!

[Balticfox]

My father and I visited my uncle in Queens, New York in 1970. My father took the opportunity to look up Mr. G who had been an old buddy of his in pre-WWII Lithuania. My father told me that Mr. G had been among the very best soccer players in Lithuania in the 1930's. So we met at the travel agency which Mr. G had established.

Well Mr. G took us to his club first to pick up his son. It was Forest Hills. I'd heard of Forest Hills and my cynical assumption as an eighteen year old was that Mr. G was trying to impress my father with his success/money. Mr. G told us that his sixteen year old son was a really good tennis player and was merely doing his opponent a favour that day by giving him a game. I of course thought the old man was exaggerating somewhat.

So then the four of us headed back to their house. There were only the four of us so Mr. G. sent his son to get some Kentucky Fried Chicken Delight for us all. I was wondering which he'd bring back. It was Chicken Delight which of course was just fine with me.



After supper, the son retreated to his bedroom which I fully understood because I wouldn't want to hang around with my father's old buddy and his somewhat older son either. But then from his bedroom I heard the sounds of the Jimi Hendrix Experience and a couple of (I don't remember which) Cream, Doors, Bloomfield & Kooper, Jethro Tull and Led Zeppelin! I thought "Hey! This guy has great taste in music! I would have enjoyed talking with him about his records and looking at his stereo."

So two years later I happened to be watching part of a tennis tournament on ABC's Wide World of Sports back home in London, Ontario. And who should be playing but the up-and-coming young American Vitas Gerulaitis! So I then realized that Mr. Gerulaitis hadn't been exaggerating about his son after all.

Among Gerulaitis' victories were these:

1975 Wimbledon Men's Doubles with Sandy Mayer
1977 Italian Open
1977 Australian Open
1978 WCT Finals
1979 Italian Open

He reached #3 in the Association of Tennis Professionals rankings behind Björn Borg and John McEnroe in 1978.

I personally saw Vitas Gerulaitis defeat John McEnroe in the final of a mini-tournament at Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens in 1980 or 1981.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Very enjoyable post. A rock star tennis player indeed, and an unspeakably tragic ending.

[Vintagevault13]

Great post. He was an amazing player. He and Bjorn Borg were close friends and had some epic battles.


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[jethrod3]

In almost any other span of about 10 years, I'm sure that VG would have won even more grand slam titles. But the late 70's and early 80's were so stacked with so many great players, any of whom could have won a title.