Guillermo Vilas Bitter About Losing Record to Rafael Nadal

Spain's Rafael Nadal, left, smiles after winning a first round match against Sweden's Robin Soderling and breaking the record of 53 consecutive wins on clay, held by Argentina's Guillermo Villas in 1977, seen at right, during the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Monday May 29, 2006.

Guillermo Vilas was unimpressed by Rafael Nadal's winning streak on clay even though the Spaniard broke the Argentine's record with a 6-2 7-5 6-1 victory over Robin Soderling in the first round of the French Open on Monday

The 19-year-old Nadal chalked up an unprecedented 54th consecutive claycourt win in the men's game to surpass Vilas's previous record of 53 set in 1977.

"First of all, Nadal's performance is spanning over two years, which is not the same," the 53-year-old Vilas told Reuters on Monday before Nadal's match.

"Then, I have the feeling he added easy tournaments on his schedule just for that purpose."

On Monday, Vilas was on hand to present Nadal a trophy on centre court to commemorate the feat.

"They never gave me any trophy at the time," Vilas quipped.

The Argentine also pointed out that he still owned two other records that Nadal "would never beat."

"I also have won 46 matches in succession on any surface and I have won 14 tournaments in the same year," he said.

"The record of 46 consecutive wins will not be beaten soon."

Vilas had his 1977 run ended in the Aix-en-Provence tournament semi-finals by Ilie Nastase.

"I did not lose to a player but against a racket," he said, referring to the double-strung racket the Romanian was using at the time.

"I could not play him. When I was 6-1 7-5 down, I threw in the sponge," said Vilas, who had won the Tehran, Bogota, Santiago and Buenos Aires tournaments that year.(Reuters)

Vilas is a bitch! Now, lets all look at some more pictures of Rafael!!