Great Moments in Tennis

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It was Wimbledon’s longest match and some say its greatest match; tennis fans can’t get over Rafa Nadal’s 6-4 6-4 6-7 6-7 9-7 victory last month in the Men’s Finals at Wimbledon. But was it the greatest tennis match ever?

As we all gear up for a possible rematch of the two top seeds at the US Open this week, let’s take a look at some other great matches.

Borg v McEnroe, 1980

One of the sport’s greatest rivalries ever became the stuff of legend that year, beginning at the men’s finals at Wimbledon. Twenty-four-year-old Bjorn Borg was going for his fifth consecutive title while John McEnroe, 21, was vying for his first. Borg went on to win the title, but not after losing a grueling fourth set 18-16 tie break.

The pair met again two months later at the US Open, a venue that Borg–the number one player in the world at the time–just couldn’t win. This time was no different; when it was over, John McEnroe had triumphed 7-6, 6-1, 6-7, 5-7, and 6-4.

A year later, McEnroe took Wimbledon as well as the US Open and Borg’s career was effectively over. After his four-set loss at the Open, Borg walked off the court, refusing to talk to the press. He never played in a major pro tournament again.

Wimbledon 1984
Jimmy Connors v. John McEnroe

John McEnroe trounces two-time champion Jimmy Connors, 6-1, 6-1, 6-2 in only 80 minutes. It was a nearly faultless game for McEnroe–he connected on 74 percent of his first serves, had 10 aces, no double faults and lost only 11 points in his 11 service games. It was the sixth straight time he defeated Connors, to raise his record to 15-12 against him.

That was perhaps McEnroe’s best year on the tour; in 1984 he went 82-3 and won a career-high 13 singles tournaments, including Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. He also was on the U.S.’ winning World Team Cup and runner-up Davis Cup teams.

Wimbledon 1975
Arthur Ashe v. Jimmy Connors

That year, the two were fighting as often in the law courts as the tennis court: Connors was suing Ashe for libel over remarks Ashe made about Jimmy’s refusal to join the Davis Cup Team. He was also suing the Association of Tennis Professionals, of which Ashe was president.

Ashe was considered the underdog in this match against defending champion Connors. But after Connors won the first game, it was over. Ashe took 12 of the next 13 games. His 6-1, 6-1, 5-7, 6-4 victory made him the first black man to win Wimbledon.

Wimbledon 1985
Boris Becker wins at age 17

Boris Becker came into the tournament as an unseeded outsider. After three hours and 18 minutes against eighth-seeded Kevin Curren, he was the youngest man ever to win the Men’s Final here and the first German winner.

US Open 1968
Arthur Ashe wins first US Open

Ashe is the first African-American to win a men’s singles title at a Grand Slam Championship and the first American to win the U.S. men’s singles title since 1955. The win is “the most notable achievement made in the sport by a Negro male athlete,” according to the New York Times.

As an amateur, the 25-year-old Ashe, a US Army lieutenant, was ineligible to receive the $14,000 first prize in the $100,000 event. Instead, Ashe collects only his $20 per diem.

But Ashe wasn’t the player who broke the color line in tennis. That milestone goes to a woman: Althea Gibson, who in 1950 was the first African American to play in the U.S. National Championships.

Gibson was also a tournament winner: She won singles titles at the French Championships in 1956, at Wimbledon in 1957 and 1958, and at the US Nationals in 1957 and 1958.

Chris Evert v. Martina Navratilova

You only need to look at the number of times these two played each other–80 times–to see this was a mammoth face-off.

At their first match in Akron, Ohio, in 1973, Chris was a star while Martina was an unknown. It would be two years before Martina finally beat Chris, and another year—after Navratilova had dropped twenty pounds and improved her game—before Evert publicly betrayed her first hint of concern.

Evert won 11 of their first 12 matches, but Navratilova eventually overtook her and finished with a record of 43-37. In the end, both finished their careers with 18 Grand Slam victories a piece. Evert earned 157 titles, while Martina took 167–a n all-time ATP record for men as well as women.

Sampras V. Agassi
Australian Open 1995

The Sampras-Agassi rivalry goes all the way back to 1979 when they played against each other in a junior tournament in Northridge, California at ages eight and nine respectively.

But the ongoing competition reached its height in 1995. The two players traded the number one ranking several times that year, and each player agreed to participate in the Davis Cup only if the other also played. They were concerned that if one played while the other rested during the weeks leading up to the French Open, the one who rested would have a competitive advantage. Both men did play and the U.S. won the Davis Cup that year.

Agassi with his newly shaved head won the Australian Open (above), his first tournament there. Agassi and Sampras met in five tournament finals in 1995, all on hardcourt, with Agassi winning three of the five.

The next time Sampras and Agassi met in a Grand Slam final was at 1999 in Wimbledon; this time Sampras won in straight sets.

The second highest-rated match of their rivalry was the final of the 2002 US Open. It was the first Sampras-Agassi meeting in a US Open final since 1995. It was also notable because both had defeated several up-and-coming players to get there.

The sibling rivalry:
Venus v. Serena

Many tennis fans have downplayed the ongoing competition between the Williams’ sisters, charging that neither have played their best when facing the other. Allegations have also been made that when the two sisters face each other on the court, the family has already decided which sister will win.

Much of those suspicions should be erased after this year’s final at Wimbledon.

There was no sign of the obligatory apology from Serena as the ball trickled over after flirting with the net cord. There were sighs of exasperation when Venus repeatedly pulled out of serves as the breeze buffeted her ball toss. Serena tried to intimidate by blazing one viciously hit backhand into her opponent’s body, and when Venus tumbled when trying to turn wide in her backhand court, there was barely a look of concern. At one stage Serena even questioned Ramos when she felt that her sibling was taking too long between points.

These two hit the ball harder than anyone in the women’s game and the extended rallies saw the ball pummelled back and forth with groundstrokes full of venom. No quarter was asked for, none given, and if Elena Dementieva — suspicious of the sisters’ competitive instincts in big matches against each other after losing the semi-final to Venus two days earlier — had cared to watch, she would have reason to reassess.

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