You might have to be a die-hard acquaintance of mine to slog your way through this next set of posts. It’s about my lifelong fascination with that most popular of sports: tennis. Not with playing it, mind you – nothing so active or engaging – but simply, watching it. I’m one of the three Americans who is an actual fan of professional tennis. Roughly the same number of people that follow this blog.
Last Friday, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic played an epic semi-final match at the 2013 French Open. I, of course, as per my habit, did not see this. Why? Because we couldn’t figure out how to make our Chinese cable work. This marks the latest in a lifelong series of great matches that I have not seen – those amazing tennis contests, some of which are considered among the greatest ever played, that for one reason or another, chronological or banal or stupid, I was unable to see and in some cases, to this day have never seen. It’s a story of fandom thwarted.
Sound fun? Follow me below the jump, you incurable masochists, for a tour of tennis viewing opportunities lost.
I fell in love with tennis at the age of 14. The year was 1985, the event Wimbledon, and the champion a young, 17-year-old Boris Becker. Becker didn’t exactly come out of nowhere, but it’s safe to say that this was far and away his most amazing feat as a tennis player to that point. He was a teenager with a booming serve, using one of the new and still somewhat controversial graphite rackets that could be strung tighter and generate more power than their old-school wooden counterparts. I didn’t know this at the time. I just knew that an incredible underdog, not too far from my own age, had come (to me) seemingly out of nowhere to win the most prestigious tournament in the sport. I don’t remember why I watched Wimbledon that year, but it didn’t matter. The hook was set, and set deep.
What’s interesting about this from the perspective of “tennis I missed,” is how unaware I was of anything in tennis history that preceded this year. For example, I had heard of John McEnroe, but I didn’t have any idea how titanic a presence he was in the tennis world. I didn’t know that in 1984, for example, he had compiled an almost unbelievable 82-3 singles record, won his 3rd Wimbledon champion as well as the U.S. Open, and was considered to be one of the best tennis players who had ever lived. To me, McEnroe was just the guy who lost unexpectedly to 8-seed Kevin Curren in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon in 1985, then got tired and decided to take 6 months off in 1986. He would never regain his previous form. So McEnroe wasn’t much more than an asterisk to the beginning of my tennis fandom.
Those of you who know anything about tennis, of course, know how ridiculous this is. It wouldn’t be crazy to say that the decade preceding 1985 was something of a “golden age” in tennis. Bjorn Borg (whom I’d never heard of at that time) won Wimbledon an unbelievable 5 straight times from 1976-1980. The last year, 1980, Wimbleon and McEnroe played a 5-set semifinal that some still consider one of the greatest – if not the greatest – matches ever played, going to an unreal 18-16 tiebreak in the 4th set, won by McEnroe, before Borg pulled out the match in the 5th set. This match is still shown frequently during rain delays at major tennis events. The next year McEnroe finally broke through to win his first Wimbledon. In 1982, Jimmy Connors shocked McEnroe to take the Wimbledon title. These men are legends of the game. On the women’s side, Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert were well into and even already on the downside of their great rivalry by the time I started watching the sport.
So I missed a lot of incredible tennis, and not by decades… by just a few short years. I was an avid watcher during what I might term the “Becker-Edberg-Lendl-Wilander-Courier” era. Not to take anything away from those guys, all great champions, but not necessarily the most exciting bunch ever to hit the court. So it’s safe to say that in those early days, I may have been watching quality tennis but it wasn’t exactly exciting, by the standards of the previous era.
Typical, as I will now demonstrate by counting down the Top 5 greatest tennis matches I did not see, starting with this one:
5. Jimmy Connors vs. Aaron Krickstein, 1991 U.S. Open Round of 16
That brings us to 1991 and the U.S. Open in New York. Some guy named Jimmy Connors decided to make a run to the semi-finals that year, at the age of 38 (he would turn 39 during the tournament). For those of you who don’t know tennis, playing professionally at the age of 39 might be similar to playing baseball or football in your 50’s. Tennis players burn out young. You could make a convincing case that Roger Federer is the greatest tennis player of all time. He’s 31, and already considered to be on the downside of a tremendous career. There’s something about the punishing quickness of the game that renders players unable to keep up by their early 30’s. So for Connors to get to the semis at 39 is, I don’t know, like a 55-year-old going 4-for-4 in the World Series, or throwing 4 touchdown passes in the Super Bowl. Connors didn’t even really play tennis the year before. It was “I can’t believe I’m seeing this” amazing.
Except, of course, that I didn’t really see it. Or the important parts, at least. Probably the marquis match was against Krickstein in the Round of 16 (the one they play before the quarterfinals). It took place on Labor Day, and it also happened to be Connors’ 39th birthday. Krickstein won the first set, and looked to be on his way to winning the 2nd. It being Labor Day, my uncle and cousins were visiting and we were having a family picnic of sorts. The match looked on its way to being over, so we turned it off and went outside to enjoy the nice weather and a bit of potato salad. I think we played lawn jarts. What seems in retrospect to be about 3 hours later, we turned on the TV again to find Connors and Krickstein still playing. Connors had won that second set in a tie-break, lost the third, won the fourth, gone down 5-2 in the fifth, fought back to get to a tie-break, and then finally won the thing. His multiple fist pump on winning the match was one of the iconic images of sports that year. I saw the tiebreak… missed all the great stuff that came in between. Connors would go all the way to the semi-finals before finally succumbing to defending French Open champion Jim Courier, but it was and remains one of the most amazing tournament runs in history by a great athlete long past his prime.
I’m sure that potato salad was worth it though.
Below you can find a moment from Connors’ quarter-final match with Paul Haarhuis that year, a jaw-dropping point that brought the usually jaded, hard to impress New York audience to its feet in electrifying fashion.
Next up tomorrow: An unheralded and largely unremembered player takes on one of the all-time greats, the only tennis match I know of that featured on-camera vomiting. Hooray!
Last Friday, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic played an epic semi-final match at the 2013 French Open. I, of course, as per my habit, did not see this. Why? Because we couldn’t figure out how to make our Chinese cable work. This marks the latest in a lifelong series of great matches that I have not seen – those amazing tennis contests, some of which are considered among the greatest ever played, that for one reason or another, chronological or banal or stupid, I was unable to see and in some cases, to this day have never seen. It’s a story of fandom thwarted.
Sound fun? Follow me below the jump, you incurable masochists, for a tour of tennis viewing opportunities lost.
I fell in love with tennis at the age of 14. The year was 1985, the event Wimbledon, and the champion a young, 17-year-old Boris Becker. Becker didn’t exactly come out of nowhere, but it’s safe to say that this was far and away his most amazing feat as a tennis player to that point. He was a teenager with a booming serve, using one of the new and still somewhat controversial graphite rackets that could be strung tighter and generate more power than their old-school wooden counterparts. I didn’t know this at the time. I just knew that an incredible underdog, not too far from my own age, had come (to me) seemingly out of nowhere to win the most prestigious tournament in the sport. I don’t remember why I watched Wimbledon that year, but it didn’t matter. The hook was set, and set deep.
What’s interesting about this from the perspective of “tennis I missed,” is how unaware I was of anything in tennis history that preceded this year. For example, I had heard of John McEnroe, but I didn’t have any idea how titanic a presence he was in the tennis world. I didn’t know that in 1984, for example, he had compiled an almost unbelievable 82-3 singles record, won his 3rd Wimbledon champion as well as the U.S. Open, and was considered to be one of the best tennis players who had ever lived. To me, McEnroe was just the guy who lost unexpectedly to 8-seed Kevin Curren in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon in 1985, then got tired and decided to take 6 months off in 1986. He would never regain his previous form. So McEnroe wasn’t much more than an asterisk to the beginning of my tennis fandom.
Those of you who know anything about tennis, of course, know how ridiculous this is. It wouldn’t be crazy to say that the decade preceding 1985 was something of a “golden age” in tennis. Bjorn Borg (whom I’d never heard of at that time) won Wimbledon an unbelievable 5 straight times from 1976-1980. The last year, 1980, Wimbleon and McEnroe played a 5-set semifinal that some still consider one of the greatest – if not the greatest – matches ever played, going to an unreal 18-16 tiebreak in the 4th set, won by McEnroe, before Borg pulled out the match in the 5th set. This match is still shown frequently during rain delays at major tennis events. The next year McEnroe finally broke through to win his first Wimbledon. In 1982, Jimmy Connors shocked McEnroe to take the Wimbledon title. These men are legends of the game. On the women’s side, Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert were well into and even already on the downside of their great rivalry by the time I started watching the sport.
So I missed a lot of incredible tennis, and not by decades… by just a few short years. I was an avid watcher during what I might term the “Becker-Edberg-Lendl-Wilander-Courier” era. Not to take anything away from those guys, all great champions, but not necessarily the most exciting bunch ever to hit the court. So it’s safe to say that in those early days, I may have been watching quality tennis but it wasn’t exactly exciting, by the standards of the previous era.
Typical, as I will now demonstrate by counting down the Top 5 greatest tennis matches I did not see, starting with this one:
5. Jimmy Connors vs. Aaron Krickstein, 1991 U.S. Open Round of 16
That brings us to 1991 and the U.S. Open in New York. Some guy named Jimmy Connors decided to make a run to the semi-finals that year, at the age of 38 (he would turn 39 during the tournament). For those of you who don’t know tennis, playing professionally at the age of 39 might be similar to playing baseball or football in your 50’s. Tennis players burn out young. You could make a convincing case that Roger Federer is the greatest tennis player of all time. He’s 31, and already considered to be on the downside of a tremendous career. There’s something about the punishing quickness of the game that renders players unable to keep up by their early 30’s. So for Connors to get to the semis at 39 is, I don’t know, like a 55-year-old going 4-for-4 in the World Series, or throwing 4 touchdown passes in the Super Bowl. Connors didn’t even really play tennis the year before. It was “I can’t believe I’m seeing this” amazing.
Except, of course, that I didn’t really see it. Or the important parts, at least. Probably the marquis match was against Krickstein in the Round of 16 (the one they play before the quarterfinals). It took place on Labor Day, and it also happened to be Connors’ 39th birthday. Krickstein won the first set, and looked to be on his way to winning the 2nd. It being Labor Day, my uncle and cousins were visiting and we were having a family picnic of sorts. The match looked on its way to being over, so we turned it off and went outside to enjoy the nice weather and a bit of potato salad. I think we played lawn jarts. What seems in retrospect to be about 3 hours later, we turned on the TV again to find Connors and Krickstein still playing. Connors had won that second set in a tie-break, lost the third, won the fourth, gone down 5-2 in the fifth, fought back to get to a tie-break, and then finally won the thing. His multiple fist pump on winning the match was one of the iconic images of sports that year. I saw the tiebreak… missed all the great stuff that came in between. Connors would go all the way to the semi-finals before finally succumbing to defending French Open champion Jim Courier, but it was and remains one of the most amazing tournament runs in history by a great athlete long past his prime.
I’m sure that potato salad was worth it though.
Below you can find a moment from Connors’ quarter-final match with Paul Haarhuis that year, a jaw-dropping point that brought the usually jaded, hard to impress New York audience to its feet in electrifying fashion.
Just watched Serena Williams destroy opponents at the French Open. You should have seen it, it was great. She the greatest female tennis player ever.
ReplyDeleteHey Charlie, thanks, that makes me feel so much better. Patience, however. You personally will feature prominently in my top 2 missed tennis matches of all time.
ReplyDeleteSo one of the things that I love about this whole post is that it was the same player and major that brought both of us to Tennis. I was 17, had just graduated college and for some reason was home that day watching TV and flipped on Wimbledon and there was this kid who wasn't really a kid. He was massive (those thighs!), blonde and everything that tennis players really hadn't been (to me anyway). I was hooked and continued to watch and the rest they say is history...
ReplyDelete