Vitas Gerulaitis

Vitas Gerulaitis

The son of Lithuanian immigrants from Brooklyn became New York's first tennis rock star. Vitas Gerulaitis took his 1 major at the December 1977 Australian Open, outlasting John Lloyd in five sets through cramp, six months after the match that defined him: the 1977 Wimbledon semifinal against Bjorn Borg, lost 8-6 in the fifth and still cited as the finest ever played there. He rose to No. 3 in early 1978, reached two more major finals at the 1979 US Open and 1980 Roland Garros, and gathered 26 career titles on quickness, blond hair flying.

"Broadway Vitas" partied at Studio 54 with Warhol and Jagger, then trained like a monk by daylight; the nightlife never touched the work. When he finally beat Jimmy Connors at the 1980 Masters he grinned: "Nobody beats Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a row." Peers remembered the generosity most, racquets donated to kids, every check picked up. He died in 1994, at 40, in a carbon monoxide accident.