VITAS Gerulaitis, who hustled on the tennis court by day then danced
away the night in the discotheques of Manhattan, has died aged 40.
A spokesman for the Southampton Village police department on New York
State's Long Island said Gerulaitis's body had been found in an
acquaintance's bedroom.
Gerulaitis emerged from the public courts of Brooklyn and Queens to
become the third-ranked tennis player in the world when John McEnroe,
Bjorn Borg, and Jimmy Connors were at their peak.
He was never out of the top 10 from 1977 to 1983, before finally
retiring in 1985.
Gerulaitis won his only grand slam title when he defeated Briton John
Lloyd in the final of the 1977 Australian Open, although he will
probably be better remembered for his epic, five-set losing battle with
Borg in the 1977 Wimbledon semi-final.
Off court, the shaggy-haired, quick-witted Gerulaitis was a fixture in
Studio 54, the centre of the frenetic New York discotheque culture of
the 1970s.
He quickly acquired a reputation for fast living, owning a fleet of
cars and acquiring a string of attractive companions.
In 1983, a federal grand jury voted against indicting him on a charge
of conspiring to take part in a cocaine deal and Gerulaitis later
confessed to taking cocaine in the 1970s and admitted drugs and
late-night partying had affected his game.
However, even at his best, his all-round game was never quite strong
enough to beat the likes of Borg and Connors on a regular basis,
although few of his contemporaries could match his speed around the
court.
Gerulaitis was born in Brooklyn on July 26, 1954, to Vitas and Alodona
Gerulaitis, immigrants from Lithuania. His father had been a Lithuanian
champion and later coached in the United States.
After retirement, Gerulaitis worked as a television analyst and last
year took up tennis again, playing several tournaments on the senior
circuit along with Connors and McEnroe.
He worked for CBS at the US Open as a studio analyst last weekend and
played in the men's 35 and over doubles event during the tournament.
Tributes to him poured last night.
''That's a very big loss for tennis because of Vitas' personality and
his play,'' tennis star Michael Chang said. ''He was very easy going.
All the players were able to joke around with him. He was very easy to
talk to.''
Chang spoke after losing an exhibition match in Berkeley, California,
to John McEnroe. McEnroe, who knew of the death before taking the court,
left immediately after playing and issued a statement.
''I won this match for my buddy Vitas and I'm too distraught to talk
about it,'' he said.
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