CHARLOTTE — On October 10, 1971, Stan Smith defeated Ion Tiriac 8-6, 6-3, 6-0 at the Olde Providence Racquet Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, to seal the United States' victory over Romania in the last ever Davis Cup Challenge Round. The straight-sets win clinched the tie for the defending champion United States in a final remembered as much for its dramatic court-drying efforts as for the tennis.
The final was played under the Challenge Round format, where the defending champion United States automatically qualified for the final while Romania had to win six ties to earn its challenge. Romania advanced through Europe Zone B with wins over Netherlands, Israel, Yugoslavia and West Germany, then beat India and Brazil in the Inter-Zonal tournament. After the wrong Romanian national anthem was played to open the tie, Smith beat Ilie Nastase 7-5, 6-3, 6-1 on day one, while Frank Froehling rallied from two sets down to beat Tiriac 3-6, 1-6, 6-3, 6-1, 8-6. Tiriac and Nastase, the 1970 Roland-Garros champions after beating Arthur Ashe and Charlie Pasarell 6-4, 6-3, 6-2, responded by beating Smith and Erik van Dillen 7-5, 6-4, 8-6 in doubles.
Heavy rain fell on Charlotte on Saturday night, threatening a delay on the clay courts. Officials first rented a helicopter to hover over the stadium to dry the surface, but when that proved inefficient they doused the court with petrol and set it on fire. The method worked, leaving the court dried to the point it played more like asphalt than clay. That favored Smith, who had learned to play on cement growing up in California, and his serve-and-volley game proved too much for Tiriac. The 24-year-old Smith was playing only his fourth Davis Cup match against Tiriac, who had played more than 50.
Smith was born in 1946 in South California and was once turned down as a ball boy for the Davis Cup for being too clumsy before playing collegiate tennis at the University of South Carolina and turning pro 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 avenged that loss 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 in the first US Open final to end with a tiebreak. Tiriac, born in 1939 in Transylvania and nicknamed the "Brasov Bulldozer" and "Count Dracula," was a former table tennis prodigy and member of Romania's hockey team at the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, who reached the Roland-Garros quarterfinal in 1968, leading Rod Laver 2-0 before losing 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-0.
The two 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 a controversial match in which he claimed he was cheated by linesmen. Smith went on to win Wimbledon in 1972 over Nastase 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 7-5, winning nine tournaments that year and finishing as the world No. 1 before ATP rankings existed. He finished his career with 37 singles titles and five major doubles titles partnering Robert Lutz, and the 1971 final remains the last played under the Challenge Round system.