Guillermo Vilas of Argentina, who helped pioneer baseline topspin tennis, said his first-round defeat at the French Open ”may have been my last match because I can`t go on making excuses.”
Vilas, 36, the man who won the French Open 12 years ago and spawned a generation of baseline players, was overpowered 6-1, 6-3, 6-4 by Italy`s Claudio Pistolesi, a player 15 years his junior.
”This is perhaps my last time,” Vilas said. ”It`s certainly my last time at the French Open, and if you ask me now, I`d say I won`t play any more matches at all.
”But I`m going away to think about it and will probably decide for certain in about a week. At the moment, I haven`t entered anymore
tournaments.”
Ranked as high as No. 2 in the world in 1975, the Argentine left-hander is now at 186. He needed a wild card to enter this French Open.
Looking back on his career, Vilas said he was relatively satisfied but could have done better.
”You never achieve everything you want,” he said. ”But I`m very pleased with what I`ve accomplished. I can`t go on and on asking for wild cards.”
