Vilas Still Wandering--as a Player, Minstrel : Tennis: Argentine star works on his poetry, music while staying active on Champions Tour. He faces Connors tonight at Sherwood Country Club.

The six cartons of peach yogurt and the pasta with sun-dried tomatoes he had for brunch on Thursday must have agreed with Guillermo Vilas. The 43-year old Argentine is relaxed and talkative.

In the midst of conversation, a woman approaches Vilas for an autograph.

“You played so well last night, we love watching you,” she says while offering a pair of color photos for Vilas to sign. “Will you be playing at Pebble [Beach] next year?”

Most tennis fans know Vilas as the woman does: a top-10 player on the mainstream Assn. of Tennis Professionals tour from 1974 to 1983, a winner of 15 tournament titles, and a current member of the Champions Tour for players 35 and older.

Vilas, along with headliners Jimmy Connors and Bjorn Borg, is among a dozen players at the Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks through Sunday for the Champions tournament, the seventh of 14 stops in the tour’s second season.

In a first-round singles match Wednesday, Vilas defeated Roscoe Tanner. Tonight at 7:30, he faces Connors, the top-seeded player and tour co-founder, in a quarterfinal match.

More than 20 years after he first made his mark on the international tennis scene--he was ranked No. 4 in the world in 1974 by the ATP--Vilas is among a second tier of players on the Champions Tour, a rung lower than players such as Connors, Bjorn Borg and Johan Kriek.

In Champions tournaments, Vilas has advanced to the semifinals only once each in singles and doubles. He missed several tournaments last year because of a leg injury.

But there is more to Vilas than his elusive topspin shots and his trademark flowing hair. He is a thoughtful man who has published two books of his poetry and plans to finish a third within a year. A musical enthusiast who travels with a guitar and a computer full of lyrics, he is scheduled to release an album in March.

“I communicate what I want to say in my lyrics,” Vilas said. “I’m a communications freak; it’s important. A lot of our problems are caused by a lack of communication. People do things without meaning them and if they could talk to each other those problems could be solved.”

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Then again, Vilas doesn’t always practice what he preaches. Though the Champions organization goes to great lengths to promote an aura of camaraderie among its players, Vilas pulls no punches when he discusses relations on the tour.

“We still like and dislike the same guys,” Vilas said. “It’s not all roses. You go to the court and you’ll see some [conflicts].”

The player Vilas was closest to on the ATP and Champions Tour is no longer alive. When Vitas Gerulaitis died of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning last September, Vilas lost his musical mentor, a confidant and a friend who delighted in spontaneity.

“Every time we were together something would happen,” said Vilas, who met Gerulaitis in the mid-1970s and enjoyed exploring New York City with him. “He could call at 5 a.m. and know that I would be ready to do something with him.”

Vilas’ first guitar was a present from Gerulaitis and he eventually bought a house near his friend on Long Island. The two traveled to tournaments together and Vilas was constantly amused by his friend’s forgetfulness and fashion trend-setting.

“He showed me a very free type of life, without worrying about time or other things,” Vilas said. “His funeral was noisy. People were celebrating his life, they were remembering how he was. Only Vitas could have left such a gathering in his wake.”

Vilas’ emotions play a large part in his music. He compares his style to early work by Rod Stewart and the Rolling Stones, with whom he is a regular backstage visitor. He has performed publicly more than 50 times, including a Los Angeles jam session last year with Mats Wilander at a House of Blues charity event.

“I write about my experiences but I put it in a way everyone can share and understand,” said Vilas, whose album will be released first in Spanish and then, possibly, in English. “If someone can make you understand their pain or happiness you can understand their spirit.”