Fuente: © Roland Garros (English)
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ROLAND GARROS: Vilas: 'I'm very happy for Rafael!'

/noticias.info/ Monday, May 29, 2006

With a straightforward victory over Sweden's Robin Soderling this Monday, Rafael Nadal broke Guillermo Vilas' record of 53 consecutive wins on clay. The Argentinean legend was present on Court Philippe Chatrier to present the Spaniard with a special trophy, and spoke to us afterwards about how it felt to 'hand on the baton.'

How do you feel about Rafael Nadal beating your record of 53 consecutive wins on clay?

Guillermo Vilas: I held a number of records - there was the one on clay, which has now been beaten, and there was also the record of 46 consecutive victories on any surface. Nadal has beaten the first one, but no-one has got near the other one for the moment. These two records I held came to an end when I lost to Ilie Nastase, who was using the 'spaghetti racquet' (which was double strung to put more spin in the ball and was very soon banned). So you could say that it wasn't a fair result when my series of wins finally came to an end. And afterwards, I went on to win six or seven tournaments in a row. Having said that, Nadal is a really nice young lad and I'm very happy for him.

Is it harder to win a record like this now than it was back in your day?

GV: It's hard to compare the two, other than to say that I established my record in a single season and it took Rafael two years to beat it. That shows that I played more games than he does. The main difference comes from the fact that it was a lot tougher on the circuit in my day. You've got someone looking after you nowadays - one phone call and you can sort out all the logistics for the entire week. In my day, that wasn't an option, and a lot of players dropped out of the circuit since they couldn't stand all the hassle. There were very few direct flights in those days, so we had to stop off in between flights. It really was no fun, and it got to people in the end.

Have you spoken to Nadal about the record?

GV: Of course, I even called him the other day in Barcelona to have a bit of fun with him. I started off calling him all the names under the sun, and all he could say was "Who is this? Who is this?" He seemed pretty worried, so I told him "It's me, it's Vilas!" I congratulated him of course. notas_de_prensa_archivo