Vytautas Kevin Gerulaitis (July 26, 1954 – September 17, 1994) was a Lithuanian–American professional tennis player. He is known for winning the men's singles title at one of the two Australian Open tournaments held in 1977. Gerulaitis won the tournament held in December, while Roscoe Tanner won the earlier January tournament. Gerulaitis also won two Italian Open titles, in 1977 and 1979, and the prestigious WCT Finals in Dallas in 1978.
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Vytautas Kevin Gerulaitis (July 26, 1954 – September 17, 1994) was a Lithuanian–American professional tennis player. He is known for winning the men's singles title at one of the two Australian Open tournaments held in 1977. Gerulaitis won the tournament held in December, while Roscoe Tanner won the earlier January tournament. Gerulaitis also won two Italian Open titles, in 1977 and 1979, and the prestigious WCT Finals in Dallas in 1978.
Gerulaitis led the Pittsburgh Triangles to the World Team Tennis championship title at Pittsburgh's Mellon Arena in 1975. He 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 a long Wimbledon semi-final to his close friend and practice partner, Björn Borg 6–4, 3–6, 6–3, 3–6, 8–6. In 1977 Gerulaitis won the most significant title of his career at the Australian Open, when he defeated John Lloyd in the men's singles final in five sets.
In 1978 Gerulaitis won the year...
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