Short lived but possibly the best contrast of styles in the early 70
The cool and well mannered guant from Pasadena who lived on serve and volley and the megatalented,artist romanian whose tantrums made him legendary
Blond vs Dark,light vs shadows..I vividly recall that London final in 72 which is one of the best in Wimbledon' s almost bicentennial history.
Smith beat the romanian as he did in the New York indoors and specially two DC finals..the second one also in 72 played..on the clay courts of Bucarest,home of Nastase..if they played 10 more times there,Nasty wins all of them but Stan Gozilla won when it mattered.
Ilie won 2 dramatic 5 sets Masters finals..of course one of them in their hottest year of their rivalry..1962 when both were almost tied up for the number one ranking..and he had also a great win over Smith in the finals of the LA hard court tournament
So it is 3 all with 4 out of 6 matches played in that fantastic 1972 year
They never played each other again..their rivalry was meant to be short lived but..man..how many great memoirs
Does anybody vividly recall it?
The cool and well mannered guant from Pasadena who lived on serve and volley and the megatalented,artist romanian whose tantrums made him legendary
Blond vs Dark,light vs shadows..I vividly recall that London final in 72 which is one of the best in Wimbledon' s almost bicentennial history.
Smith beat the romanian as he did in the New York indoors and specially two DC finals..the second one also in 72 played..on the clay courts of Bucarest,home of Nastase..if they played 10 more times there,Nasty wins all of them but Stan Gozilla won when it mattered.
Ilie won 2 dramatic 5 sets Masters finals..of course one of them in their hottest year of their rivalry..1962 when both were almost tied up for the number one ranking..and he had also a great win over Smith in the finals of the LA hard court tournament
So it is 3 all with 4 out of 6 matches played in that fantastic 1972 year
They never played each other again..their rivalry was meant to be short lived but..man..how many great memoirs
Does anybody vividly recall it?
