While we can admire Novak Djokovic streak, the man who holds the record, and that record should have been nearly twice as long, is Guillermo Vilas.  Vilas won 46 matches in a row.  He only lost the streak because Nastase used a spaghetti racquet, which wasn’t banned then, and beat Vilas, who retired, considering it a travesty.

Just to give you a sense of how this all came down, let’s list his 46 matches, plus his wins until his next true loss, to Eddie Dibbs (he doesn’t even play this match).

A few notes.

  1. By my count, Vilas won 45 matches.  He loses the 46th to Ilie Nastase who uses a spaghetti racquet to “win”. CORRECTION: I missed a match in Washington DC.  It is 46 matches.
  3. Vilas played nearly non-stop throughout this period.  He gets to 46 wins in roughly 3 months of continuous play.  Djokovic is at 38 wins (including December 2010) but it’s taken him over 5 months to get this far.
  4. All but two tournaments in this streak are played on clay.  Vilas gets lucky that nearly every US tournament, including the US Open, is played on clay.  The US continues to hold clay tournaments until about 1983 when they start switching to hard courts and realize Americans aren’t that good on clay.  The two tournaments are at the very end, one at Johannesburg, on hard courts, and the Masters, which is indoors.
  5. Vilas continues to win after his loss to Nastase.  Had Nastase played a legal racquet, he probably would have lost to Vilas, and Vilas’s streak would be in the low 70s.
  6. Vilas won 12 tournaments in half a year.  The loss to Nastase would have been 13, and he won 2 other tournaments and reached the finals of 5 other tournaments.  This means, he was in 20 tournament finals.  20!
  7. Vilas never played his big rival, Bjorn Borg, during this entire streak.
  8. Vilas had his best Slam year in 1977, winning the French, the US Open, and reaching the finals of the Australian Open.

This is a list of his wins, and “assumes” Vilas would have won the Nastase match to give an idea how much of a roll he was on starting in early July 1977.

Kitzbuhel, Austria (July 11, 1977)

(1) Alvin Gardener, 7-5, 6-3 (R32)

(2) Ramiro Benavides, 6-1, 6-3 (R16)

(3) Buster Mottram, 6-4, 6-1 (QF)

(4) Zeljko Franulovic, 6-2, 7-5 (SF)

(5) Jan Kodes, 5-7, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 (F)

Washington DC, July 18, 1977

(6) Larry Gottfried, 6-3, 6-1 (R64)

(7) Van Winitsky, 6-4, 6-1 (R32)

(8) Victor Pecci, Sr, 6-3, 6-7, 6-1 (R16)

(9) Ricardo Cano, 6-2, 6-3 (QF)

(10) Eddie Dibbs, 7-6, 6-2 (SF)

(11) Brian Gottfried, 6-5, 7-5 (F)

Lousville, KY, July 25, 1977

(12) Frank Gebert, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 (R64)

(13) Tim Gullikson, 6-3, 6-3 (R32)

(14) Brian Fairlie, 6-4, 6-2 (R16)

(15) Ion Tiriac, 6-0, 6-1 (QF)

(16) Phil Dent, 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 (SF)

(17) Eddie Dibbs, 1-6, 6-0, 6-1 (F)

South Orange, NJ, July 31, 1977

(18) Colin Dibley, 6-4, 6-1 (R32)

(19) Peter Fleming, 6-1, 6-7, 6-1 (R16)

(20) Jeff Borowiak, 6-3, 7-5 (QF)

(21) John McEnroe, 6-2, 2-6, 6-0 (SF)

(22) Roscoe Tanner, 6-4, 6-1 (F)

Columbus, Ohio, August 8, 1977

(23) Keith Richardson, 7-6, 7-5 (R64)

(24) Nicola Spear, 6-4, 6-2 (R32)

(25) Brian Fairlie, 6-3, 6-1 (R16)

(26) Tim Gullikson, 6-4, 6-4 (QF)

(27) Billy Martin, 6-0, 6-2 (SF)

(28) Brian Gottfried, 6-2, 6-1 (F)

US Open, New York, NY, August 31, 1977

(29) Manuel Santana, 6-1, 6-0 (R128)

(30) Gene Mayer, 6-3, 6-0 (R64)

(31) Victor Amaya, 6-3, 6-3 (R32)

(32) Jose Higueras, 6-3, 6-1 (R16)

(33) Raymond Moore, 6-1, 6-1, 6-0 (QF)

(34) Harold Solomon, 6-2, 7-6, 6-2 (SF)

(35) Jimmy Connors, 2-6, 6-3, 7-6, 6-0 (F)

Davis Cup, Argentina vs. Australia, Buenos Aires, Sept 16, 1977

(36) Phil Dent, 6-2, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3

(37) John Alexander, 6-4, 7-5, 4-6, 6-2

Paris, September 19, 1977

(38) Deon Joubert, 6-0, 6-2, (R32)

(39) Jairo Velasco Sr, 6-3, 6-0 (R16)

(40) Hans Gildemeister, 6-1, 6-2 (QF)

(41) Patrick Proisy, 3-6, 6-2, 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 (SF)

(42) Christophe Roger-Vasselin, 6-2, 6-1, 7-6 (F)

Aix en Provence, France, September 26, 1977

(43) Lars Elvstrom 6-1, 6-0 (R32)

(44) Peter McNamara, 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 (R16)

(45) Jose Higueras, 7-6, 7-5 (QF)

(46) Eric Deblicker, 6-4, 6-7, 6-7, 6-3, 6-1 (SF)

(47) Ilie Nastase 1-6, 5-7, RET LOSS

Tehran, Iran, October 3, 1977

(48) Richard Lewis, 6-4, 7-5 (R64)

(49) Vladimir Zednik, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 (R32)

(50) Ion Tiriac, 6-4, 6-4 (R16)

(51) Buster Mottram, 6-1, 6-2 (QF)

(52) Wojtek Fibak, 6-1, 7-6 (SF)

(53) Eddie Dibbs, 6-2, 6-4, 1-6, 6-1 (F)

Bogota, Colombia, November 7, 1977

(54) Ricardo Cano, 6-4, 6-2 (R32)

(55) Paul McNamee, 7-5, 7-6 (R16)

(56) Ramiro Benavides, 6-3, 6-3 (QF)

(57) Victor Pecci, Sr, 6-4, 6-2 (SF)

(58) Jose Higueras, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 (F)

Santiago, Chile, November 14, 1977

(59) Paul McNamee, 7-5, 6-1, (R32)

(60) Eric Deblicker, 6-3, 6-4, (R16)

(61) Gene Mayer, 6-4, 6-4 (QF)

(62) Ricardo Yzaga, 6-1, 6-1 (SF)

(63) Jaime Fillol, Sr, 6-0, 2-6, 6-4 (F)

Buenos Aires, November 21, 1977

(64) Erick Deblicker, 7-6, 6-2, (R32)

(65) Ivan Molina, 6-3, 6-0, (R16)

(66) Belus Prajoux, 6-3, 6-2 (QF)

(67) Hans Gildemeister, 7-6, 6-4 (SF)

(68) Jaime Fillol, Sr, (F)

Johannesburg, South Africa, November 28, 1977

(69) Onyy Parun, 1-6, 6-2, 7-5, (R32)

(70) Jim Delaney, 6-1, 6-1 (R16)

(71) Peter Fleming, 7-6, 0-6, 6-4 (QF)

(72) Stan Smith, 6-2, 6-4 (SF)

(73) Buster Mottram, 7-6, 3-6, 6-4 (F)

Masters, New Work, New York, Jan 4, 1978

(74) Jimmy Connors, 6-4, 3-6, 7-5

Loses to Eddie Dibbs in a walkover