Archive: Vitas Kevin Gerulaitis, Sept.18, 1994
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Wikipedia
Vitas Kevin Gerulaitis (July 26, 1954 - September 18, 1994) was a
professional tennis player from the United States. He is best
remembered for winning the men's singles title at the Australian Open
in 1977.
Gerulaitis was born in 1954 in Brooklyn, New York, to immigrants from
Lithuania, and grew up in Howard Beach, Queens.
Gerulaitis won the most significant title of his career in 1977 at the
Australian Open, when he defeated John Lloyd in the men's singles final
in five sets 6-3, 7-6, 5-7, 3-6, 6-2.
In 1979, Gerulaitis lost in men's singles finals at the US Open to
fellow New Yorker John McEnroe in straight sets 7-5, 6-3, 6-3.
Gerulaitis reached his third Grand Slam singles final in 1980, when he
lost in the final of the French Open to Björn Borg in straight sets
6-4, 6-1, 6-2.
Gerulaitis also won the men's doubles title at Wimbledon in 1975. He
was a singles semi-finalist at Wimbledon in both 1977 and 1978. In
1977, he lost an epic five-set Wimbledon semi-final to Borg 6-4, 3-6,
6-3, 3-6, 8-6 [1].
Gerulaitis was a member of the United States team which won the Davis
Cup in 1979. In the final, he won two singles rubbers as the US beat
Italy 5-0.
Gerulaitis was known for his exceptionally fast hands at the net and
his ability to cover the court with mercurial speed. With his dash of
long blond hair he was a precursor, in style at least, to Andre Agassi.
Gerulaitis is considered one of the great "might-have beens" of tennis.
Some believe that by indulging in a close and perhaps servile
friendship with Björn Borg, Gerulaitis may have stifled the aggressive
instincts needed to bring a player to the top rank. He is remembered as
one of the most pleasing players to watch on court, and a gentleman off
court.
In 1985, Gerulaitis teamed-up with Bobby Riggs to launch a challenge to
female players after the famous Battle of the Sexes. However, the stunt
was short-lived when Gerulaitis and Riggs lost a doubles match against
Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver.
During his career, Gerulaitis won 24 top-level singles titles and 8
doubles titles. His career-high singles ranking was World No. 3 in
1978. He retired from the professional tour in 1986.
Gerulaitis died in a tragic accident on September 18, 1994, at age 40.
While visiting a friend's home in Southampton, Long Island, a
malfunction in the heating system caused odorless, poisonous carbon
monoxide gas to seep into the guesthouse where Gerulaitis was sleeping,
causing his death. Gerulaitis is interred in Saint Charles Cemetery in
Farmingdale, Long Island, New York.
Bill Schenley
by Richard Perez-Pena, and a day later ... one by McG. At the bottom of the
page in an exerpt from his obit in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Gerulaitis
played tennis for the Pittsburgh Triangles of the WTT.>
Vitas Gerulaitis, An Ex-Star Of Tennis Tour, Dies At 40
Photo:
http://users.telerama.com/~johnv/tennis/images/gerulaitis1.jpg
FROM: The New York Times (September 19th 1994) ~
By Richard Perez-Pena
Vitas Gerulaitis, the garrulous New Yorker who rose from the public courts
of Brooklyn and Queens to become the third-ranked men's tennis player in the
world, was found dead yesterday at a friend's home in Southampton, L.I. He
was 40 years old and lived in Turnburry, Fla.
The Southampton village police said that Gerulaitis's body was found at a
home on Meadow Lane shortly after 3 P.M.
A preliminary medical examination indicated that he suffered a heart attack
while sleeping, said his sister, Ruta. An autopsy was scheduled for today by
the Suffolk County Medical Examiner's office.
Gerulaitis won the Australian Open, his only Grand Slam singles title, in
1977, and the men's doubles at Wimbledon in 1975 with Sandy Mayer. He
reached the No. 3 ranking in 1977, the year of what some considered his
greatest match, an epic five-set semifinal loss to Bjorn Borg at Wimbledon.
He was never out of the top 10 from 1977 to 1983, and after a yearlong drop,
climbed again to No. 4 in 1984, a year before his retirement.
Despite his achievements, his great reflexes and foot speed that made him in
his prime perhaps the fastest player in the game, he was overshadowed
throughout his career by contemporaries like Borg, Jimmy Connors and his
friend, John McEnroe.
A guitar player with long, curly blond hair, a quick wit and a penchant for
the night life, Gerulaitis was as well known for his conduct off the court
as for his game, and the balance was not always a flattering one.
Some of his colleagues said that he never quite lived up to his potential;
he was treated for substance abuse and he was implicated, though never
charged, in a cocaine-dealing conspiracy in 1983.
Born July 26, 1954, in Brooklyn, to Vitas and Alodona Gerulaitis, immigrants
from Lithuania, Gerulaitis was raised to play the game. His father, a
Lithuanian and Balkan States champion before World War II and a tennis
teacher for decades in the United States, died in 1991.
Vitas Gerulaitis started playing tennis on the clay courts of Highland Park,
Brooklyn, then progressed to parks in Queens, the West Side Tennis Club, and
the Port Washington Tennis Academy on Long Island. He was a ball boy at
Forest Hills, for decades the site of the United States Open, and he worked
the ground crew there as a teen-ager. After a year at Columbia University,
he joined the professional tour in 1971.
Over the next 14 years, he won 27 tournaments and almost $2.8 million in
prize money. He also played for the New York Apples of World Team Tennis in
the late 1970's. In addition to his Australian Open title, he reached the
finals of the United States Open in 1979, losing to McEnroe, and the 1980
French Open, where he lost to Borg.
At his peak, in the late 1970's, Gerulaitis frequented Studio 54, the famous
disco, and had an enormous collection of cars. Despite his reputation for
leading a fast life, he lived for much of his career with his parents, in a
home he bought for them in Kingspoint, L.I.
In 1983, his lawyer, Thomas P. Puccio, revealed that he expected Gerulaitis
to be indicted on a Federal charge of conspiring to take part in a cocaine
deal.
A man who knew him, and who had been convicted in the case, had told
undercover agents in a tape-recorded conversation that Gerulaitis, then the
world's fifth-ranked player, would put up $20,000 to finance a deal. But a
few months later, a Federal grand jury voted not to indict the tennis star.
The case coincided with a steep decline in Gerulaitis's performance, and he
dropped out of the top 10 for the first time in six years. He later said
that had been out of shape and in financial trouble in 1983, due primarily
to some failed real estate deals, and that he had continued to play tennis
mainly because he needed the money.
He staged a comeback in 1984, at age 30. Then, a year later, he surprised
many of his colleagues by retiring.
After his playing career, he worked as a television announcer on tennis
broadcasts, primarily for CBS and the USA Network.
This weekend, he played in a celebrity Jack Whitaker golf tournament in the
Hamptons.
At the behest of some of his former opponents, he took up tennis again in
the last year, playing in several senior circuit events alongside Connors
and McEnroe.
Gerulaitis is survived by his mother and his sister.
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Photo: http://www.historyforsale.com/productimages/thumbnails/222494.jpg
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Vitas Gerulaitis, 40, Former Tennis Star, Dies
FROM: The New York Times (September 20th 1994) ~
By Robert McG. Thomas Jr.
Vitas Gerulaitis, the flamboyant former professional tennis player, was
found dead in a guest cottage on Long Island Sunday afternoon. He was 40.
An autopsy was performed yesterday by Suffolk County's acting chief medical
examiner, Stuart L. Dawson, but the preliminary findings were described as
inconclusive. Late last night the police in Southampton, L.I., said that
Gerulaitis apparently died of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning.
"No grossly identifiable disease or injury, which could have caused death or
contributed to death, was present," said a brief statement issued after the
initial examination. The statement said results of thorough toxicological
studies being conducted in an effort to pinpoint the cause of death should
be available later this week.
In the meantime, friends and fans of the high-spirited man with the long,
shaggy hair who had thrilled them during a 14-year career that ended in 1985
could only wonder.
"We're still in a state of shock," said Jack Whitaker, the television sports
commentator who had been with Mr. Gerulaitis on Saturday at a charity tennis
clinic at the Racquet Club of East Hampton, where Mr. Gerulaitis had
demonstrated the volley to some 60 corporate sponsors of the Cartier Grand
Slam tennis tournament in spite of a bad back that had forced him to
withdraw from a senior tournament last week.
When he left the clinic Saturday afternoon, Mr. Whitaker said, Mr.
Gerulaitis promised to attend a party at the Whitaker residence in
Bridgehampton that night. When he didn't show up, Mr. Whitaker said he had
assumed that Mr. Gerulaitis was simply nursing his back.
It was not clear when Mr. Gerulaitis had died or when he had been last seen
at the Southhampton estate of his friend Martin Raynes, where his body was
discovered by a housekeeper at 3 P.M. Sunday. Mr. Raynes, a real estate
investor and a friend of Mr. Gerulaitis's since the 1970's, did not return
phone calls yesterday, and neither the police nor the medical examiner's
office would elaborate on statements issued during the day.
His only Grand Slam singles title was the Australian Open in 1977, but from
then until 1983 Mr. Gerulaitis was never out of the top ten in the
international ranking, and his legendary reflexes and foot speed were
awesome even in defeat, as was the case most notably in his five-set loss to
Bjorn Borg in the 1977 Wimbledon semifinals.
A guitar player with long, curly blond hair, a quick wit and a penchant for
the night life, Mr. Gerulaitis was well-known for his conduct off the court.
He was treated for substance abuse and he was implicated, though never
charged, in a cocaine-dealing conspiracy in 1983.
Born in Brooklyn on July 26, 1954, Mr. Gerulaitis was raised to play tennis
by his father, Vitas Gerulaitis Sr., a former Lithuanian and Baltic States
champion who spent decades as a tennis teacher in the United States before
his death in 1991.
Starting on the clay courts of Highland Park, Brooklyn, Mr. Gerulaitis
progressed to parks in Queens, the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills,
and the Port Washington Tennis Academy on Long Island. He was a ball boy at
Forest Hills, for decades the site of the United States Open, and he worked
on the ground crew there as a teen-ager. After a year at Columbia
University, he joined the professional tour in 1971.
Over the next 14 years, he won 27 tournaments and almost $2.8 million. In
addition to his Australian Open title, he reached the finals of the United
States Open in 1979, losing to John McEnroe, and the 1980 French Open, where
he lost to Bjorn Borg.
His game declined in 1983, but he came back in 1984 at age 30. Then, a year
later, he surprised many of his colleagues by retiring.
After his playing career, he worked as a television announcer on tennis
broadcasts, primarily for ESPN, CBS and the USA Network, most recently at
the United States Open.
At the behest of some of his former opponents, he took up tennis again in
the past year, playing in several senior circuit events alongside Jimmy
Connors and Mr. McEnroe.
Mr. Gerulaitis is survived by his mother, Alodona, and a sister, Ruta.
A funeral has been scheduled for 9:45 A.M. Thursday at St. Dominick's Church
in Oyster Bay, L.I.
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Photo: http://juneharrison.com/MenTennis/GerulaitisVitas-web.jpg
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Vitas Gerulaitis, once one of the best tennis players in the world, died
yesterday. He was 40. Mr. Gerulaitis was found dead shortly after 3 p.m.,
Southampton Village, New York police said. The tennis star died of carbon
monoxide poisoning in the poolhouse of friend Martin Raynes.
You can be sure Vitas Gerulaitis would have nothing but disdain for the
inevitable moaning and weeping that will usher him into the next life. Were
he able to attend his own funeral; he'd spend a critical portion of it
working the crowd with party plans.
- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 19th 1994 -
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Photo: http://www.pagine70.com/1/tennisti/images/gerulaitis.jpg
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