Tennis: The greats of tennis gather to mourn Vitas Gerulaitis

(Photograph omitted)

Former tennis champions John McEnroe (left), Bjorn Borg (centre) and Jimmy Connors (right) were among pallbearers at the burial service of Vitas Gerulaitis in Oyster Bay, New York, yesterday. Among the 600 people who attended the service were Billie Jean King, Chris Evert and John Lloyd. Friends described Gerulaitis, 40, as a fiercely competitive man who personified, with Connors and McEnroe, the fast-living, jet-setting young American tennis players in the 1970s and early 1980s. He was killed by carbon monoxide fumes in a beach cottage in Southampton, Long Island, on Sunday