French Open : It Isn’t Poetry in Motion, but Lendl Wins

Undoubtedly, there have been more artistic championship matches in tennis history. Certainly, there have been more dramatic matches and without question there have been more exciting ones, too.

But when it comes to strange, even eerie, Sunday’s French Open final is right at the top of the list. Almost five hours after they began, after one rain delay, a first set out of The Dark Ages and a tiebreaker played in a downpour, Ivan Lendl emerged from the darkness of Roland Garros Stadium with his third French Open title, beating Mats Wilander, 7-5, 6-2, 3-6, 7-6.

The playing time was 4 hours 17 minutes. The rain delay was 36 minutes. It was 8:30 at night by the time they finished and, if Wilander had been able to extend the match to a fifth set, it 1970168943behind the baselines.

“I knew if I didn’t win it then we were coming back here tomorrow and I didn’t even want to think about that,” Lendl said. “I told myself that if I was going to lose the tiebreaker, I better do it by making him hit good shots.”

Lendl hit four straight winners to lead, 4-0, got lucky on a near double-fault to reach match point, then won it when Wilander hit a forehand deep.

It was a match that started as a torture test for the fans, neither player willing to attack during a first set that lasted 80 minutes. To compare, the women took 69 minutes to play two sets during their final Saturday.

Lendl deserves credit for finally recognizing that the first player to show some kind of initiative was going to benefit. He began to jump on Wilander’s weak second serve, began to hit out on his forehand and pushed Wilander further and further back. During the first eight games, each player broke twice. During his next five service games, Lendl lost two points.

“I wasn’t surprised Mats played the way he did because he usually starts that way,” Lendl said. “I had that in my (scouting) book so I wasn’t surprised. He likes to start defensive then pick it up, pick it up. If you get tired, he’ll just bury you.”

Lendl could have put Wilander out of his misery quickly had he converted two excellent break opportunities at the start of the third set. He had Wilander, 0-30, in the first game, but let him get away. He had him, 0-30, again in the third game, but let him escape again. Ever so slowly, Wilander was finding some confidence. Now, finally, he was coming in. He was starting to get some first serves in and Lendl, although he was still holding, was not doing it at love as he had done four times in the second set.

Wilander won the third set when he broke Lendl to go up, 5-3. He got the break with two sharp volleys, a Lendl error and a crunching backhand pass down the line. Normally so placid, Wilander shook his fists joyously as the backhand sailed past an upset Lendl. Quickly he held for the set and stalked to his chair.

He began the fourth on the same roll, hitting two winners for 0-30, getting to 15-40 on Lendl’s double-fault and then crunching a Lendl overhead past him down the line. But the last shot landed an inch wide. Lendl saved two more break points to hold. Then they traded breaks to reach 2-2. Lendl held for 3-2 and then came the rain.

They returned after the 36 minutes to play in near darkness. No one broke or even got to deuce until they hit 6-all. By that time it was raining harder than it had rained all day.

“If he (chair umpire Jacques Dorfman) had stopped it, I wouldn’t have minded,” Lendl said. “It was raining hard. But he wanted to get the tiebreaker in. I’m glad he did.”

Lendl attacked on point one and Wilander hit a forehand pass wide. Lendl then hit two gorgeous winners, a backhand pass and a screaming forehand return. A near ace and he led, 4-0. Wilander came back to 4-2, but Lendl responded with the shot of the match, a running, reaching backhand pass right down the line for 5-2.

At 5-2, Lendl’s second serve either nipped the line or went just deep. Wilander saw it deep and his blocked back return went long. He argued the call to no avail.

“I thought it was on the line,” Lendl said. “Mats had no chance to hit it though because it skidded on the wet clay.”

Lendl had four match points. Wilander saved one with an overhead, but on the second, one last topspin forehand missed and, at last, it was over. For Lendl it was his third French title in four years, his fifth Grand Slam championship overall and vindication after a spring full of whispers in the locker room that at 27 he might be slipping just a little.

“This was my toughest Grand Slam win of all,” he said. “I had tough matches--he lost six sets--through the whole tournament, so I had to work for it. I heard coming in I wasn’t fit, I wasn’t prepared, I had lost confidence. I’m glad I proved everybody wrong. Then I read I wasn’t mentally tough, that Mats was mentally tougher than me. I said to myself, ‘Where do these guys get these things?’ ”