Lendl-Gerulaitis 1981 Volvo Masters 3rd Set Tiebreak

[federergreatest]

Nobody beat Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a row!

[BORGCONNORS]

I still remember this final in January 1982. Vitas played great until the tie break & he deserved to win but he was a little bit to passive on match point.

For personality my favorite tennis player, very Charismatic & Charming.

[subban]

Go Vitas,

[subban]

Go Vitas, If it was'nt for the drugs, he could have been one of the greatest!!

[timthemartin]

This is the only time that I have seen Lendl cross through with his right leg on service. Normally he leads with his left foot. He must have ben experimenting with it at the time.

[moxur]

how beautiful was this sport with wood raquests when u had to fight shot by shot, instead of today, when having this raquets the game is so fast and is hard to watch more than three shot every point

[moxur]

here, the most beautiful wood raquets ever:snawert gerulaitis and the besl shirt ever , the adidas lendl one

[KARVAYO777]

I had this recorded on VHS and though I would never see again as I lost it long time ago. It s fantastic to be able now to remember this,Masters where different those days than now,The Madison Square Garden with its atmosphere and the cameras filming from low level.

[bevanne12]

vitas was like a cat on the court...had the best footwork and speed to the net

[BuddhaShiva1]

Lendl's 19 Grand Slam Finals was, until recently, the record for slam finals. What a great achievement.

[ludtke337]

was this the match where lendl hit gerulaitis in the head?

[casheasy]

I had forgotten Vitas had match point here. I loved watching him play. And I remember the match he beat Lendl at the Open just mnths earlier. He blew kisses to the crowd and yelled, "I'm back, I'm back." Awesome clip here.

[mephatboi]

nice shirt, vitas

[namuroisvantjaar]

Nice vid, thx for posting! Nice to see some footage of Gerulaitis. RIP Vitas

[krosewall]

are you going to post the infamous head shot?

[chapaev36]

What set was that in?

[krosero]

Just four months earlier Gerulaitis had beaten Lendl in 5 sets at the US Open. I think if Lendl had pulled that one out, he would have had a great chance of beating McEnroe in the semis and meeting Borg in the final. Lendl had beaten Mac in straight sets at Flushing Meadow a month before the Open, in Davis Cup. And at this Masters, he beat Mac 6-4, 6-2 in the semis.

[chapaev36]

Thanks for the comments, krosero. Indeed, Lendl really troubled Mac around this time - at least until '83 when Mac made adjustments. I've been watching more Vitas matches lately and really appreciate his game more than ever now. He's not powerful nor without faults, but his placements are unreal.

[sidh05]

Right, after the 1981 US Open, Lendl went unbeaten for 44 straight matches.

[krosero]

Vitas looked like he wanted to come in behind Lendl's second serve on match point, and maybe angry at himself for not trying it.

[sidh05]

Exactly, this match is very famous for that. Gerulaitis came to the net in almost all Lendl's second serve during 3 sets and he was always winning the point, thus he was up 2 sets to love and match point in the third. He didn't do it strangely on match point. Finally, he lost that point, then the set and then the match.