TENNIS : A Last Look at Some Great Matches in a Memorable Year

As professional tennis gets ready to move into the last decade of the 20th Century, it is time to say goodby to 1989, a year noteworthy for victories by two 17-year-olds in Paris and a West German named Boris.

The most memorable matches of the year? Well, it’s a crowded field, but here is a completely subjective list. In it, you will find outcomes that surprise, upset and shock, without which it wouldn’t be much of a year.

There are also turning points and ends, and that seems a fairly appropriate way to conclude a year, doesn’t it?

1. Michael Chang vs. Ivan Lendl

June 5, fourth round, French Open

Playing the fifth set with leg cramps so painful he had to stand during changeovers, Chang, 17, shocked the No. 1 player in the world and won the 4-hour 36-minute match, 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3. Bud Collins of the Boston Globe and NBC-TV called it “the most colossal upset in the history of tennis.” Said Lendl, when asked if he would have won if Chang hadn’t had cramps: “That we will never know.”

2. Steffi Graf vs. Arantxa Sanchez

June 10, final, French Open

Nearly as stunning was the 7-6 (8-6), 3-6, 7-5 victory of the previously unheralded 17-year-old Sanchez over the seemingly invincible Graf. After match point, Sanchez tumbled onto the red clay of Roland Garros and when she got up, she said: “I have beaten the No. 1 player in the world.” Graf, who served for the match at 5-3 in the third set and did not win a single point, found a plus in the defeat: “No more questions about the Grand Slam, I guess.”

3. Boris Becker vs. Ivan Lendl

July 8, semifinal, Wimbledon

A 76-minute rain delay gave Becker time to regroup from a one-set deficit in the fourth set when he was down two service breaks. Lendl led, 3-0, when the rains came, and he appeared well on his way to reaching the final of the tournament he craves more than any other. “I knew I was going to be out of these championships in about 15 minutes,” Becker said. Instead, Lendl was out, hollow-eyed and winless for a 10th time. Reporters surrounded Lendl. How do you get over something like this? “Time,” he said.

4. Boris Becker vs. Andre Agassi

July 21-22, Davis Cup, Munich

Even by tension-wracked Davis Cup standards, this one was special, a 6-7 (7-4), 6-7 (7-5), 7-6 (7-4), 6-3, 6-4 come-from-behind victory for Becker. The match was halted after four sets because it was past midnight, and by Davis Cup rules, it could be postponed until the next day if both sides so desired. Becker finished it the next day and said, “It is so much more than a Davis Cup semifinal for people in this country.” Agassi leaped the net to congratulate Becker: “When you pour your heart and guts into (a match) you just feel such great emotion.”

5. Michael Chang vs. Stefan Edberg

June 11, final, French Open

Chang won, 6-1, 3-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2, to become the first American male to win the French Open since Tony Trabert in 1955. He also became the youngest man ever to win a Grand Slam event. Said Chang: “It’s hard to really think about it. It just doesn’t click in my head. It’s definitely an achievement that will be with me the rest of my life.” Edberg said that Chang should have been worried. “But he’s young and probably doesn’t think too much.”

6. Chris Evert vs. Zina Garrison

Sept. 5, quarterfinal, U.S. Open

It was the end of an era in women’s tennis. Buoyed by a flashy victory over 15-year-old Monica Seles in the previous round, Evert had high hopes. But her match with Garrison became her 113th and final one at her 19th and final U.S. Open. Garrison won, 7-6 (7-1), 6-2, and said she felt like a villain because Evert had announced that she was playing in her last major tournament. Said Ted Tinling, historian of women’s tennis for more than 60 years: “Now, the sun has truly set.”

7. Thomas Muster vs. Yannick Noah

March 31, semifinal,

International Players Championship

On the verge of a big breakthrough after forcing Lendl to go a tough four sets in an Australian Open semifinal, Muster made a furious comeback to defeat Noah, 5-7, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-2, and earn the right to play Lendl in the final. It was a grand victory for the Austrian Muster, who got a massage and drank a beer with coach Ronnie Lietgeb. Then Muster went out for a sandwich but was involved in a freakish autombile accident when a driver, apparently drunk, rammed Muster’s parked car and pushed it back into his knee. Muster suffered torn ligaments in his left knee. “It was a great moment for us,” Lietgeb said. “Unfortunately, it was a very short celebration.”

8. Mats Wilander vs. Ramesh Krishnan

Jan. 19, 2nd round, Australian Open

This match marked the beginning of the end for Wilander, who came to Melbourne as the Australian Open’s defending champion, as well as the No. 1-ranked player in the world. But after Wilander lost to Krishnan, 6-3, 6-7, 7-6, he saw Lendl replace him as No. 1. Wilander’s explanation: “I just played terrible.” He wouldn’t play much better the rest of 1989 and closed out his most disappointing year at No. 12. But this match against Krishnan signaled the beginning of the slide.

9. John McEnroe vs. Darren Cahill

June 27, 1st round, Wimbledon

On a gray, windy Tuesday on the finely manicured green lawn of Centre Court, John McEnroe had to struggle in the first match he played. McEnroe dropped the first two sets before his array of precision volleys put away the upstart Australian, 4-6, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 8-6. Afterward, McEnroe said: “I know I can win this tournament. I’ve done it before and I hope I can do it again.” Not this year, he wouldn’t. McEnroe lost to Edberg in the semifinals, 7-5, 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-5). “I did the best I could; it just wasn’t good enough,” McEnroe said of the match against Edberg.

10. Aaron Krickstein vs.

Brad Gilbert, Michael Chang

Sept. 23-24, semifinal, final,

Los Angeles Open

Krickstein entered this tournament ranked No. 16 and finished the year No. 8, due in part to his victory at UCLA, where he became a champion of adversity. First, Krickstein faced seven match points and saved them all. He trailed Gilbert, 1-6, 2-5, and still won. Then Krickstein played hometown favorite Chang in the final, fell behind again, 2-6, 1-4, and again came back to win, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2. Just after he put away a volley on match point, Krickstein yelled: “I did it.” He surely did.

Shot of the Year

That would be the luckiest shot of the year, too, the one Becker hit against Derrick Rostagno in the second round of the U.S. Open. In the fourth set, Rostagno had match point against Becker and was already in position to win the match on an easy volley, but Becker’s shot clipped the top of the net, and Rostagno could only swing wildly at it and miss. Becker eventually won in a fifth set and went on to take his first Grand Slam title other than Wimbledon.

Quote of the Year

From the quirky mind of the slow-talking, slow-walking, bearded Czechoslovak, Miloslav Mecir, who was asked at the Australian Open to expand about his feelings of urban areas, such as Melbourne, and nature:

“I like nature more. I think each country has different nature. And the buildings, sometimes they’re made of different architecture. But nature is something different. You cannot change it just like that. It has to be there for a long time.”

Oh.