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Guillermo Vilas is not “the world No.1 who was stripped of his title”. He is the player who was never recognised because the APT chose not to fully confront its own data. The story begins in the 1970s, when the ATP ranking was not weekly, not transparent and, above all, was never designed as a historical record. Rankings were published irregularly and the system was based on an average of results that penalised players who competed frequently. Vilas played all the time. In 2013, Argentine journalist Eduardo Puppo decided to check a basic question. If all the missing weeks were recalculated using the official ATP rules of the time, what would the rankings actually show. To do that, he involved Marian Ciulpan, a mathematician specialised in statistical models. Not a fan, not a former player, a mathematician. The work was massive. Minor tournaments, forgotten results, weeks that were never officially published. Years of reconstruction, fully documented. The conclusion was clear. Vilas emerged as world No.1 for several weeks between 1975 and 1976. Not by opinion, by calculation. The ATP received the study. It did not dismantle it. It did not challenge the methodology. It did not publish alternative calculations. It simply said no. The official justification was bureaucratic. Retroactive recognition would set a precedent. Translation: the archive matters more than the truth. From that moment on, the issue stopped being sporting. It became institutional. Meanwhile Guillermo Vilas fell ill. A neurodegenerative disease, progressive and irreversible. The person who should be at the centre of this story is no longer able to defend it himself. That is where Mats Wilander steps in. In a recent interview with CLAY @_claymagazine , he said explicitly: “Every day that passes is an additional injustice, especially considering his state of health. Tennis owes him a lot.” This is not rhetoric. It is an indictment. Because at this point the ATP is not protecting history, it is protecting itself. It is choosing not to correct a mistake while time makes that choice increasingly indefensible. The Vilas case is not about the past. It is about what kind of institution the ATP is today. And as long as it hides behind its paperwork, the message is clear. In tennis, the official record matters more than people. It matters to do it now, before Guillermo Vilas himself forgets. #ATP #VILAS #WILANDER @ATPMediaInfo @GuilleVilasOK