However, curiously, he did not reach number one in the world that year, and was on the second step.
Vilas had already amazed the world three months earlier, on June 5, 1977, when he won Roland Garros.
In New York, the Argentine had a dazzling performance in the open that was last played in Forest Hills and that from the following year he was going to move to Flushing Meadows.
Vilas, with an obsessive and winning personality, was born on August 17, 1952 in the Federal Capital, although he grew up in Mar del Plata.
In that tournament, he started with two very comfortable wins in the first and second round, over the Spanish Manuel Santana 6-1 and 6-0, and the local Gene Mayer 6-3 and 6-0, and he just had to work a little plus the third round to leave another North American, Víctor Amaya, on the way, whom he beat 6-3 and 6-3.
Once in the round of 16 he beat José Higueras, a Spaniard who was beginning to make a name for himself on the circuit, by a clear 6-3 and 6-1, and in the quarter-finals he also easily beat the South African Raymond Moore in the first long match, the best of five sets, which he resolved 6-1, 6-1 and 6-0, with overwhelming tennis.
In the semifinals, he beat the American Harold Salomon, a tennis player who always made things difficult for him, 6-2, 7-6 (7-3) and 6-2, thus advancing to the grand final against Connors, one of his arch-rivals along with Swedish Bjon Borg and who would also end the year as number one in the world.
Source: Ambito
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