PARIS — It was 1975, and Guillermo Vilas — a charismatic Argentine with long hair, heavy topspin and a poetic streak — reached his first French Open final, losing to Bjorn Borg.
Vilas went on to win several other tournaments that year and finished No. 2 in the ATP rankings behind Jimmy Connors.
Forty years later, Vilas remains a major figure in tennis history and a cultural icon in Argentina. What he lacks is the No. 1 ATP ranking some supporters have come to believe he earned.
Despite pressure on men’s tour officials and a deeply researched effort from the Argentine journalist Eduardo Puppo to grant Vilas that honor retroactively, the ATP Tour and its chief executive Chris Kermode have decided not to.