CHARLOTTE — On 10 October 1971, Stan Smith defeated Ion Tiriac 8-6, 6-3, 6-0 at the Olde Providence Racquet Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, to seal victory for the United States over Romania in the last ever Davis Cup Challenge Round. The straight-sets win gave the defending champions an unassailable 3-1 lead in the tie, closing the 71-year-old format where the holders qualified automatically for the final.
The tie had opened chaotically after the wrong Romanian national anthem was played. Smith then beat Ilie Nastase 7-5, 6-3, 6-1 before Frank Froehling recovered from two sets down to defeat Tiriac 3-6, 1-6, 6-3, 6-1, 8-6 to put the United States 2-0 ahead. Romania responded in the doubles as Tiriac and Nastase, the 1970 Roland-Garros champions who had beaten Arthur Ashe and Charlie Pasarell 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 in that final, dismissed Smith and Erik van Dillen 7-5, 6-4, 8-6. Heavy rain fell on Saturday night and officials, keen to avoid delay and wary that slow, humid clay would favour Romania, first tried to dry the court with a hovering helicopter before dousing the surface with petrol and setting it alight, leaving a fast, asphalt-like court that suited Smith's serve-and-volley game.
Smith, born in 1946 in South California, had been turned down as a Davis Cup ball boy as a child for being too clumsy and later played collegiate tennis at the University of South Carolina before turning professional in 1968. By September 1971 he had claimed 11 singles titles, including the 1970 Stockholm Open over Arthur Ashe 5-7, 6-4, 6-4, the 1970 Tokyo Masters over Rod Laver 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 and the 1971 Queen's Club Championship over John Newcombe 8-6, 6-3. Newcombe reversed that result three weeks later in the Wimbledon final 6-3, 5-7, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, before Smith won his first Grand Slam title at Forest Hills over Jan Kodes 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 7-6, the first US Open final to end with a tiebreak. Tiriac, born in 1939 in Transylvania and nicknamed the "Brasov Bulldozer" and "Count Dracula", had been a table tennis prodigy and represented Romania in ice hockey at the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck before focusing on tennis, reaching the Roland-Garros quarter-final in 1968 where he led Rod Laver by two sets before losing 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-0.
The 1971 final was the last played under the Challenge Round system, under which the United States as holders hosted automatically while Romania had to win six ties to earn their challenge. Tiriac and Nastase came through Europe Zone B against Netherlands, Israel, Yugoslavia and West Germany, then won the Inter-Zonal tournament against India and Brazil to reach Charlotte. The 24-year-old Smith was playing only his fourth Davis Cup match against Tiriac, who had played more than 50, but the baked court nullified the Romanian's advantage.
The pair met again in the 1972 Davis Cup final in Bucharest, where Smith prevailed in five sets 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, 2-6, 6-0 after complaining about the linesmen. Smith would build on his 1971 breakthrough with a second Grand Slam title at Wimbledon in 1972, beating Nastase 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 7-5, winning nine tournaments that year to be recognised as world No 1 before ATP rankings existed. He finished his career with 37 singles titles and five major doubles titles partnering Robert Lutz.