Friday, February 12, 2016

Sure Could Have Fooled Me!

Mats Wilander beat John McEnroe in their first meeting on grass. And it was in a best-of-five Grand Slam contest. Huh?

I'd always assumed that the Swede, unlike Bjorn Borg and later Stefan Edberg, wasn't very good on grass. I remember thinking that, yes, he'd won the Australian Open on grass, but in a weak field.  The Australian Open moved to January in 1987, the last year the fourth best slam was held on grass. There was no event in 1986. Edberg won it 1985 and 1987.

But Wilander beat his fellow Swede to the punch down under.

The 1983 Australian Open was held in late November / early December, and this time the draw was deep. Waiting in the quarterfinals for Wilander was the two-time defending champion Johan Kriek. Kriek was out to prove that his wins in 1981 and '82 were not the result of inferior competition.

Kriek made it through three matches (Receiving a bye in the first round) without losing a set, but Wilander was too good. The Swede took it in three sets himself, winning a third set tiebreaker to clinch it. So, guess who's next?

John McEnroe was playing in his first Australian Open, and for very good reason. He seemed unstoppable on grass. Only supreme efforts from Bjorn Borg and Jimmy Connors had stopped him from winning five straight Wimbledons from 1980-1984. He'd beaten Borg in four sets in 1981 (The Swede's last trip to that event as a player) and then routed Connors in '84, losing just four games in the finals.

So, McEnroe, who'd made it look easy against Chris Lewis of nearby New Zealand in the finals in London in '83, ventured Down Under for the first time.


And he had to be the favourite. He stormed through his first four matches (Also receiving a bye), by allowing the opposition one set, total. Poor Wally Masur, managed to win just five games against him in the quarterfinals. McEnroe was 4-0 lifetime in the Australian Open. And in his next match, after the first set, it appeared that he'd be 5-0, and be in the finals of another grass Grand Slam in 1983.

But Wilander, after dropping the first set 6-4, stormed through the next three sets. The set he'd lost to McEnroe would proved to be the last one he lost in the 1983 Australian Open (He'd thrash Ivan Lendl in the finals, losing just nine games). The 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 win vaulted him into his first grass court Grand Slam finals (Wilander never made it past the quarters at Wimbledon). This also marked the second time in the slams of that year that McEnroe had won the first set against the Swede, only to lose the next three. They'd met (For the first time) in the quarters of the French that year. Wilander lost just six games after McEnroe won that many in the first set alone.


McEnroe came back to Australia in 1985, only to lose in the quarterfinals. As it turns out, semifinal run of his in 1983 was his best ever result. Not his most famous moment, of course. In 1990, he was defaulted in his fourth round match with another Swedish player, Micheal Performs.


But the good folks down under hadn't heard the last of John McEnroe. Maybe they wish they'd had. But in 1992, after skipping the event in '91, he came back and faced Boris Becker in the third round. This time, McEnroe kept it all in check, and rolled back his nearly 33-year old clock for the win.


Wilander went on to win the Australian Open again in 1988, but on a new surface. His '88 year was a grand one. He won three of the four majors. He lost only to Miloslav Mecir at the quarterfinals of Wimbledon.

McEnroe and Wilander met right there the next year. Same Mac-Round. Same Mac-Tournament. McEnroe hadn't been to the semifinals of Wimbledon since 1984, and was determined, as Mercir was in 1988, to prevent an all-Swedish semifinals at London. McEnroe took it. It was the last time the two would meet on such a stage.


References

Callery, Sean. The Pictorial History of Tennis. New York: Gallery, 1990. Print.

Collins, Bud. The Bud Collins History Of Tennis: An Authoritative Encyclopedia And Record Book. 2nd ed. Washington, D.C.: New Chapter, 2010. Print.

Feinstein, John. Hard Courts. New York: Villard, 1991. Print.

Haylett, John, and Richard Evans. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of World Tennis. New York: Exeter, 1989. Print.

Infosys, FedEx, Peugeot, and LeSports. "Official Site of Men's Professional Tennis | ATP World Tour | Tennis." ATP World Tour. Emirates. Web. 02 Feb. 2016.  <http://www.atpworldtour.com/>

Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 02 Feb. 2016. <https://en.wikipedia.org/>

Youtube. Web. 02 Feb. 2016. <https://www.youtube.com/>

No comments:

Post a Comment