It Just Can’t Be Forever for Evert as Garrison Wins

The Chris Evert era in women’s tennis officially ended a 19-year run Tuesday, far off Broadway in a place appropriately called Queens.

On an unseasonably cool and windy day, Evert played her 113th and final match at the U.S. Open. And unlike the first one she played in 1971, she lost.

As a 16-year-old, Evert defeated Eda Budding. Her last match was a straight-set quarterfinal defeat at the hands of fifth-seeded Zina Garrison.

It was not a long goodby. Evert blew a 5-2 lead in the first set and fell, 7-6 (7-1), 6-2, in 1 hour 13 minutes.

On her last match point at the U.S. Open, she stood there at the baseline to return serve, shifting her feet together as she always does, then sent a ball into the net.

She shook her head gently and ran to the net to shake hands with Garrison.

“Congratulations,” Evert told Garrison. “You played well.”

Evert packed her rackets, turned and gave a shy wave to the crowd. As she walked off the court with Garrison, they put their arms around one another for an instant and hugged.

Evert looked around one last time, then disappeared into a tunnel beneath the stands and was gone.

“Now, the sun has truly set,” said Ted Tinling, a historian of tennis for more than 60 years.

If there is a moment that truly represents a passing of an era in women’s tennis, this was it. But Evert’s leave-taking was not unexpected.

Winner of 1,304 matches, 157 tournaments, 18 Grand Slam singles titles and six times the U.S. Open champion, Evert has not won a tournament this year and her ranking has fallen to an all-time low of No. 4.

At 34, Evert said she is no longer willing to put in the time to play at the level she wished. The outcome of her match against Garrison only reinforced her intention to make this year’s Open her final major event.

“That’s why I’m retiring,” Evert said.

Evert turned back the challenge of 15-year-old Monica Seles in a fourth-round match two days earlier, but Evert was unable to come back with another such match at the same level.

“There are a lot of players that can cause upsets and then, two days later, lose to someone ranked 100 in the world,” she said.

“That’s why players like Steffi (Graf) and myself in the past, Martina (Navratilova), that’s why we have been great, because we have been able to never have a letdown in a two-week tournament.

“This year, I have had letdowns and that puts me right in with the average player.”

Evert isn’t exactly through playing tennis. She is scheduled to play Federation Cup for the United States in Tokyo and she will probably play in a tournament in Boca Raton, Fla., next spring.

There is also a series of exhibitions scheduled in various series with Navratilova, sort of a Chris Across America tour.

But as far as competing seriously is concerned, Evert says she will never do that again.

Garrison, who was 15 when she got Evert’s autograph at a tournament in Houston, felt slightly uncomfortable with her role in Evert’s career.

“That was the hardest match I’ve ever played in my life,” Garrison said. “It was so emotional. To be the villain, to have to take her out of this tournament . . .”

Next, Garrison has a chance to take out Navratilova. Navratilova, seeded second, won her quarterfinal over Manuela Maleeva, 6-0, 6-0, in only 47 minutes.

Navratilova was relieved that she avoided the task of playing Evert one last time.

“Obviously, emotionally, it’ll be easier,” Navratilova said. “It would have been the most emotional match of my life. I could do without it.”

After Evert took a commanding early lead, Garrison vowed to run down every ball on the court. She took a lead in the tiebreaker when Evert double-faulted and was never challenged the rest of the match.

The key game in the second set occurred with Evert serving at 2-2, 30-30. She engaged Garrison in a 24-shot rally, the kind of points on which she used to excel, but this one ended when she took a short ball and dumped a backhand into the net.

On break point, Garrison finessed a forehand slice cross-court for a winner and a 3-2 lead.

Evert won only five more points the rest of the way. She was broken to 5-2 when Garrison hit a backhand passing shot down the line.

Now Garrison was serving for the match.

Evert held a break point, but Garrison hit another forehand slice winner for deuce then set up match point with a deft cross-court backhand volley winner.

One serve later, it was over.

“I knew no matter what match I played, win or lose, it would be sad for me because my career really started here back when I was 16 years old,” Evert said.

“Gosh, I think that as I got older, the victories meant more to me because I was feeling more.”

She said she was not glad it was over.

“I was thinking that I would be relieved when the tournament was over for me, but after you lose a match like today, I’m really not relieved because of what I did two days ago.

“I thought I was just starting to play the kind of tennis and I did have high hopes for myself.”

She sounded sad, wistful, just like a champion accustomed to perfection and unable to find it. This was not the way she wanted it to end, but her expectations had been raised from the Seles match, so the eventual fall was longer.

Evert maintained her composure right after the match and in the interview room when she met the press. But on the way out, she reached for the arms of her husband, Andy Mill, and she cried.

It ended that way and women’s tennis may never be the same, as they say.

Look at it this way, though: The sun might have set, but it was a long and marvelous day.