“This is not my life, this is not my life,” he used to say to me as we studied. “He had a passionate passion for playing tennis, but his parents told him that he had to study because tennis was not going to live forever.”
From Madrid and with a smile, Santa Rosa Arturo Romero remembers his days as a student with his fellow student, Guillermo Vilas, who at that time was beginning his law career and who years later, accompanied by his inseparable friend from the Pampas, would become in the greatest tennis player in Argentine history, to the point of changing the vision and projection of that sport in the country.
Roommate, friend and confidant, Romero accompanied Vilas from different places throughout his career, being a privileged witness to the growth and explosion of a phenomenon that did not officially hang the No. 1 of the ATP due to the whims of the numbers of the ranking of those times, but in 1977 he was, without a doubt, the best tennis player in the world.
Friends race.
Arturo is the son of Luis Romero and nephew of Honorio Romero, two characters closely linked to sports in our province. His father Luis was a renowned athlete, teacher, coach and manager of the first modern gym in the city in the mid-1960s, and his uncle Honorio was a multiple medalist in the 1964 Tokyo Paralympic Games and the 1976 Toronto Paralympic Games. adapted table tennis disciplines and precision javelin, respectively.
“My family was historically related to sports, but in my case I practiced some activities only as an amateur”, sums up Arturo, who chose other paths and at the beginning of the ’70s he went to Buenos Aires to study Law. Although due to those paradoxes of life, he ended up even more linked to sport than his family predecessors.
At the San José University Residence, where he stayed to study, he met Guillermo Vilas, who already stood out at the national level in a sport that, until that moment, had not had the explosion that he would later achieve precisely from his figure .
“We shared a room that was for four, with two more colleagues, and from there we became great friends,” says the pampeano, who began to share not only the study of law with Guillermo, but also his progress as a tennis player.
«When we started to study Guillermo was number 2 in the Argentine ranking of a sport that was very little known at that time. It wasn’t the tennis that was after, which exploded in the mid-’70s. But he, despite the fact that his parents told him he had to study, had a very professional vision and wanted to dedicate himself one hundred percent to tennis, “adds Arturo, who just over a year after starting his university career, left her to accompany your friend on his foray as a professional athlete.
“We both dropped out of school and in my case I devoted myself entirely to Guillermo’s activities,” explains Romero about the continuity of the bond: they went to live together in an apartment in Olivos with another friend and sport became the axis of their lifes.
«Guillermo had the company GV y Asociados, of which I was vice president. I was in charge of the Vilas-Tiriac International office and I was in charge of Guillermo’s activities in Argentina, just at the time of his great sporting and therefore media explosion. All under the direction of Ion (Tiriac), who was Guillermo’s coach and manager in the world, “says the Santa Rosa.
In those years, in addition to accompanying Vilas on a circuit that already had him as a figure, Romero began to definitely venture into the sports business world, first with the license of the Italian clothing brand Ellesse for Argentina, Chile and Uruguay (since 1980 ), and then with the Fila brand (he was director in Argentina and Brazil between 1990 and 2010).
«Then I come to Madrid. Tiriac invites me to work within the structure of his tournament in Madrid (the Masters 1000) and I create a merchandising company specialized in sports towels and techniques for players. Today I have my own company; I am a supplier of the products for changing rooms and courts used by players in the Madrid tournament and in the Davis Cup finals. And we also supply the Guillermo Vilas de Mallorca Academy », he closes from the Spanish capital to summarize his successful business career.
– Among other things, you are also responsible for the development of the Vilas Racket Club …
– Yes, in ’85 we made Guillermo’s club dream come true. It was a project of mine that became the Vilas Racket Club after five years of looking for investors, land, sponsors …
– And I understand that you were a friend of Flaco Spinetta and that you organized a particular rock concert. Is that so?
– Yes, it was at the Buenos Aires Lawn Tennis Club. For the first time we put a folder on the court so as not to tear it; there we installed the stalls and organized the concert. It was Almendra’s farewell concert.
Vilas 100%.
«Guillermo was always a fantastic guy, very sensitive, music lover, great friend, very plain, very humble. I remember that once someone wanted to pay him a tribute and he said: ‘don’t worry, I’m from muscle, not bronze’. And very funny, we share many beautiful things with other friends of the time “, sums up Arturo when trying a semblance of Vilas beyond the tennis courts.
– He came to Santa Rosa several times …
– Yes; the first time he went to Santa Rosa we all stopped at home. It was the year ’76, Guillermo was already a figure and there was like a permanent demonstration of people at the door of the house. I also remember that we went to do a knife hunting experience for wild boar, with some baqueanos and with dogs. He worked out in Daddy’s gym; He had a lot of fun making gloves and watching boxing.
– In everything he was detailed, methodical and tenacious as he was in his sporty face?
– I tried to do everything to the maximum of what I could. What is wonderful about Guillermo, as an image and inspirational message, is that he is a guy who did not give 99% for the activity he chose, but gave 100%. If you ask me, what else could Guillermo have done to be more? Nothing. It gave 100% of its potential. And I say that it is inspiring because there are very few people who manage to say ‘in what I chose to do and in my vocation, I achieved and gave him 100% of everything I had to give’. Guillermo did not have a drop of sweat, sacrifice, effort …
– We learned that recently Guillermo had health complications due to cognitive impairment. How is he doing today?
– Guillermo is fine, living in Monaco and enjoying his family. It’s okay.
– Do you visit regularly?
– Yes, in the last year I have been to Monaco three times, the first of them for his birthday.
– Do you plan to live in Argentina again at some point?
– No, not anymore. Madrid is my second place in the world and I have already developed my life here. I say that I am from Pampas by heart and from Madrid by adoption.
Tiriac, from Romania to La Pampa
In addition to his friendship with Guillermo Vilas, Arturo Romero has also had a very close bond with Ion Tiriac, the historic manager of the best tennis player in Argentine history, who also led the careers of Boris Becker and Goran Ivanisevic, among others. .
«Tiriac is a unique person who did everything; in tennis and also outside of sports as an entrepreneur. He is, according to Forbes magazine, one of the thousand richest guys in the world, and he comes from a very humble family, “says Romero about the Romanian, who was also an ice hockey player and a prominent tennis player.
Among his many activities, Tiriac also liked hunting and on that side he was about to be directly linked with our province. “I was interested in buying a game reserve in La Pampa and I traveled to Santa Rosa in 2010 to find out some things, but in the end the purchase did not materialize,” explains the pampeano.
Vilas in Santa Rosa
Guillermo Vilas, Arturo Romero and their dad Luis in the gym during one of the visits to Santa Rosa. The tennis player trained at the facilities of his friend’s father and particularly enjoyed boxing sparring. “There he also met my uncle Honorio, who was another great athlete,” Arturo recalled yesterday from Madrid.
An impossible doubles
Arturo Romero was the right hand of the best left-handed player that Argentine tennis knew, but he grabbed a racket when he was a grown-up, missing the possibility of “an impossible doubles” with the winner of four Grand Slam and more than 60 ATP tournaments, among other achievements. .
«During the ’70s I didn’t even play tennis; I started doing sports a long time later, although always informally. I was always a bad player », admits the pampeano, and gives the reasons for his late approach to the tracks as the protagonist.
“During the time I accompanied Guillermo on the circuit, it never occurred to me to play tennis because I saw it as such a distant thing, so perfectly done, that it was impossible for me. Next to (Björn) Borg, (Adriano) Panatta, (Ion) Tiriac saw everything so difficult that it seemed to me that it was unattainable for me sportingly. Besides, I had never practiced it », he explains, and gives rise to a brief anecdote.
“Once, coming back from Hawaii, Guillermo would stay in the United States and I would come to Argentina, and at the airport he told me: ‘What an idiot, you in La Pampa could have learned to play tennis and we could have made a doubles ! ‘ Then I did start playing, but it was late, “he closes with a smile.
