Australian Open star Vitas Gerulaitis was an ideal tennis participant. His events, nevertheless, have been much more legendary.
Gerulaitis, who was born within the USA, was one of many prime tennis gamers of his age, and he proved that when he wrapped up the Australian Open in 1977. It was the one main title he would ever win.
The American would attain the ultimate of Roland Garros and the US Open within the following seasons, whereas he was dumped out of the semi-finals of Wimbledon twice.
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“It was interesting hanging out with him, though I didn’t have the stamina to do that for very long given what he used to get up to,” ex-British professional and his pal John Lloyd recalled.
“He was an ideal bloke. You by no means picked up a tab with Vitas. It didn’t matter for those who went out with him and 10 different individuals he didn’t even know. He would have his bank card out earlier than anyone. He had a really beneficiant spirit.
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(Image: Adam Scull/Photolink/REX/Shutterstock)
(Image: Adam Scull/photolink/mediapunch/REX/Shutterstock)
“Someone told me that one year he had the third highest American Express bill for an individual in the world. He would use it to fly everywhere with ladies in private jets.
“I went with him to Studio 54 a couple of times. There were queues for miles outside, but he would just walk straight in because everybody there knew him. People would swarm around him immediately.
“I remember one night we stayed there until about five in the morning. Then we drove back in his Rolls Royce Corniche convertible with the top down back to his place.”
(Image: Sipa/REX/Shutterstock)
(Image: Gamma-Rapho through Getty Images)
Nicknamed ‘Broadway’, Gerulaitis was tennis’ first playboy – a rock n’ roll star who earned consideration away from the courtroom. He dated actresses and fashions, performed in a rock band, and partied into the small hours on the Studio 54 nightclub in New York – the stylish location of its day.
He indulged Rolls Royces and Lamborghinis as he earned a legion of followers – famously celebrated his twenty first birthday by inviting all of the followers at a tennis match to affix him at a resort pyjama social gathering.
However, he was left dissatisfied when not many turned up. That was till he was led to a resort window, the place he was met with a sea of followers sporting their pyjamas.
(Image: ABC)
However, there have been darkish occasions too: he took cocaine, was handled for habit after which was named in an investigation into drug-dealing, the place he was cleared of any wrongdoing.
Gerulaitis would spent the Eighties out and in of rehab as he battled his demons.
His most well-known second within the sport got here on the expense of his nice pal Lloyd. The Brit later recalled: “If I could have chosen anyone to lose to it would have been Vitas.”
(Image: Bruce Bennett Studios through Getty Images)
However, he did admit: “I screwed up actually. I ought to have received. I had him chilly however didn’t benefit from it. It was a type of occasions after I wished I’d had an earpiece and a coach telling me to maintain on enjoying my regular sport and never change it.”
Gerulaitis tragically handed away in 1996, when he was simply 40, after he suffered carbon monoxide poisoning.