 |
This page requires Flash player to view. Please download it here |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Jimmy Connors shakes John McEnroes hand after a bruising 1984 defeat Arthur Ashe made history forty years ago as the first African American to capture a U.S. Open titleat a venue that would not have admitted him otherwise. Sixteen-year-old Chris Evert, tennis's freshest face in 1971, fought her way to the semifinals but was defeated by Billie Jean King. After his loss to Benjamin Becker in 2006, Andre Agassi bade farewell to the legion of tennis fans he had eventually won over. James Blake made a triumphant comeback in 2005, just one year after a serious accident resulting in partial paralysis took him out of commission. In the 1979 2nd round, it was Ilie Nastase, not John McEnroe, who was on the receiving end of the referee's sanctions. |
|
|
|
 |
 |
On the 40th anniversary of the U.S. Open, RL Magazine invited celebrated tennis historian Joel Drucker to count down his top ten favorite moments in the championship’s history. “The U.S. Open is less regal than Wimbledon, more high-stakes than Australia or the French Open, and everything you’d want from America’s Grand Slam—a carnival of commerce and commotion,” says Drucker, who’s been attending the top tourney since 1978. “But it’s also the tennis event where you’re most likely to see some incredible drama and intensity. Watch what goes on in this game and you’ll never again think of tennis as a country-club sport.”
10. A Nasty Night | 1979
On a sultry August night, a lively match between two temperamental artists spiraled out of control. Dependable bad boy John McEnroe was on good behavior, but the 33-year-old Ilie Nastase pulled every trick he could, stalling, hectoring linesmen, kicking a water cooler. Umpire Frank Hammond attempted to discipline Nastase to no avail. When the Romanian spewed obscenities at Hammond, the umpire opted to default him. The well-soused crowd erupted, throwing beer cans and paper cups down onto the court. (McEnroe would say later that it was noisier than any Davis Cup match he ever played.) Undercutting Hammond, the tournament referee reinstated Nastase and replaced Hammond in the chair. After midnight, McEnroe easily ran out the match. In the locker room afterward, Nastase invited the victor to dinner. At first McEnroe was stunned by the request from a man who, just an hour earlier, had triggered tennis’ equivalent of a riot. But then he figured, why not?
9. The Winner Was Tennis | 2005
In 2004, popular American James Blake had been sidelined by a broken neck, partial paralysis, and the emotional fallout of his father’s recent death. In 2005, Blake resurfaced with a vengeance. In the first Grand Slam quarterfinal of his career, Blake took on Andre Agassi. The tennis was superb; Blake’s high-octane game blazed through the first two sets. Agassi took the next two. A capacity crowd at Ashe Stadium and a prime-time TV audience hung on every point. Blake served for the match at 5-4 in the fifth, but Agassi fought back once again. Past midnight, the two entered a tiebreak. When Blake rocketed a forehand to take a 3-0 lead, he looked up the sky and said, “I love you, Dad.” But it was Agassi who reached match point first—saved by Blake with a forehand winner. And then, at 6-6, Agassi played two points for the ages, feathering a drop shot that opened up the court for a needle-threading backhand pass and finally closing out the match at 1:15 a.m. with a thundering forehand service return. “I wasn’t the winner tonight,” Agassi said. “Tennis was.”
8. The Cold War Comes to Tennis | 1975
At 10:30 on a Friday night, 18-year-old Martina Navratilova emerged from the Immigration and Naturalization Service office in Manhattan. The Czech star had decided to seek asylum. She woke the next morning to a phone call from Vera Sukova, traveling coach of the Czech Fed Cup team, asking, “Why did you do it?” Dashing out of her hotel, Navratilova relocated to an apartment in Greenwich Village. With INS, FBI, and assorted other secret agents nearby, Navratilova publicly declared her quest for freedom. A CBS runner breathlessly conveyed the news to the producer of that weekend’s tennis coverage, who knew just which image would most aptly sum up Navratilova’s story. Frank Chirkinian promptly requested a blimp shot of the Statue of the Liberty.
7. Farewell Andre | 2006
At first Andre Agassi was little more than what Ivan Lendl dubbed him: a haircut and a forehand. Insulting peers, officials, and the public, Agassi matured in a fishbowl. There were new coaches and new manners; there were public romances with Barbra Streisand, Brooke Shields, and, finally, Steffi Graf. His long hair was shorn and neon clothes gave way to white. At the 2006 U.S. Open, Agassi won two matches. Then he played what proved to be the last of his 98 U.S. Open matches, losing to Benjamin Becker. After it ended, he took the microphone. “Over the last 21 years,” Agassi told the crowd, “I have found you. And I will take you and the memory of you with me for the rest of my life. Thank you.” There wasn’t a dry eye in the house.
6. Birth of A Champion: Pete Sampras’s First U.S. Open Win | 1990
On the middle Sunday of the tournament, a serving of take-out pasta had made Pete Sampras so sick that he considered defaulting, but he recovered and rapidly blossomed. A five-set quarterfinal win over Ivan Lendl—who had reached eight straight finals—paved the way for easy victories over John McEnroe and Andre Agassi. Ripping winners, serving aces like he’d just rolled out of bed, the 19-year-old Sampras became the youngest man ever to win the U.S. Open men’s singles. “That guy,” said McEnroe a week later, “was just a cucumber.” Sampras’s parents, too nervous to watch, spent the final day walking through a Southern California shopping mall and only found out the result when a stranger said something about “this kid Sampras.” Years later Sampras said, “I was a pup going through a zone. I didn’t know what I was doing.”
5. Cinderella at the Ball: Chris Evert | 1971
“I notice more sweat than usual on my palms,” said 16-year-old Chris Evert as she walked around the West Side Tennis Club, about to make her Open debut. Taught to play by her father, Jimmy, at a public park in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Evert was a precocious powerhouse. In the second round, she fought off six match points to beat fourth-ranked American Mary Ann Eisel. The shy girl with the two-handed backhand reached the semis, up against the leader of the fledgling women’s tour, Billie Jean King. Although King was so nervous beforehand that she began crying, she ultimately prevailed. Despite the loss, citizens of Evert’s hometown wanted to throw a parade in her honor, but her father nixed the idea. She didn’t win the tournament, so what was the big deal?
4. Prime-Time Sister Act: Venus and Serena Williams | 2001
When his daughters Venus and Serena were children, Richard Williams prophesied they would be the best tennis players in the world. He was correct: “The Sisters vs. The World,” read a Time cover in 2001. And on September 8, the Williams sisters took the court in the finals of the U.S. Open—the first all-sister Grand Slam singles final since 1884. It was aired during prime time in a CBS special opened by Diana Ross singing the national anthem. Normally quite emotional, Venus and Serena on this night were exceptionally subdued. Said the victorious Venus afterwards, “If I was playing a different opponent, I’d probably be a lot more joyful.” Over the next two years, they would play five more Grand Slam finals against each other.
 Read The RL Magazine interview with Serena Williams
 View an excerpt from Venus’ new book of photos
3. Opening the Door | 1968
Even in a lily-white sport like tennis, the 1960s produced tumult. At the 1968 U.S. Open, African American player Arthur Ashe was the man of the hour. Ashe was not among the most radical reformers of the decade, but he spoke out frequently—in patient, measured tones—about civil rights. His racket spoke far louder at the West Side Tennis Club, an old-school venue that would have denied Ashe membership. Paced by a sleek serve and rapier backhand, Ashe’s shot-making made him a popular champion. For a nation seeking role models, he was an exemplary citizen, featured on the cover of Life As Ashe’s father came to the court to congratulate his son, the usually reserved Mr. Ashe burst into tears. “That boy almost died as a child,” he said.
2. Requiem for a Heavyweight | 1991
From hated punk to beloved warrior, Jimmy Connors had won over New York. But in 1990 a wrist injury forced him out of the U.S. Open for the first time. As he left the grounds that year, his career hanging in the balance, Connors vowed, “If I ever get back there, that place is going to rock and roll.”
He was true to his word. Down two sets to love and 0-3, love-40 versus Patrick McEnroe in the first round, Connors commenced a stirring comeback, ultimately winning the match at 1:36 a.m. Three rounds later, on his 39th birthday, Connors took on Aaron Krickstein. “You’re an abortion!” he yelled at the umpire. “Get your ass out of the chair!” Down 2-5 in the fifth, Connors fought back with trademark bluster and sizzling all-court tennis. As the two headed into a tiebreak, Connors shouted, “This is what they came for, this is what they want.” He won the tiebreak. “Those 20,000 people,” said Connors, “sounded like 60,000.”
Three nights later, holding a break point to get back on serve in the second set, Connors played the greatest point in U.S. Open history, throwing up four lobs and closing it out with a running, down-the-line backhand. He won that match and reached the semis for the 14th time, and although he eventually lost to Jim Courier, Connors’s sentimental journey had captured the world. “Those two weeks,” he said years later, “made the entire 20 years worth it.”
1. The Woodstock of Tennis | 1984
Three superb matches aired on CBS, lasting well into prime time. “Super Saturday” kicked off with powerful baseliner Ivan Lendl taking on rising Australian net-rusher Pat Cash. Lendl fought off two match points to squeak it out in a fifth-set tiebreak.
But that was only a prelude to two epic battles. While they waited for Lendl’s match to finish, rival women’s finalists Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert sat in the locker room and shared a bagel. Evert had lost 12 straight matches to Navratilova. But Chrissie took the first set 6-4, earning one of the largest ovations of her career. Navratilova won the next two 6-4, 6-4—a crushing loss that drove the stoic Evert to tears. Had she won, Evert felt that would have been the perfect moment to retire. Instead, she soldiered on for five more years, but never again reached a U.S. Open final.
After 7:30 p.m., two men who’d never share anything, Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe, played crackling all-court tennis. Their five-setter concluded at 11:13 p.m. with McEnroe’s victory. Connors’s five-year-old son Brett walked on to the court and his father consoled him. Or was it the other way around?
Over the past 25 years, the work of Oakland-based Joel Drucker has appeared in dozens of print and broadcast media outlets, including Tennis magazine, ESPN, the Tennis Channel, HBO, and CBS. His first book, Jimmy Connors Saved My Life, is considered one of the five “must-read” tennis books by Sports Illustrated.
Photography Credits:
1. - 3., 6. © Bettmann/CORBIS
4. © Justin Lane/epa/Corbis
5. © LUCY NICHOLSON/Reuters/Corbis
Learn more at USOpen.org
|
|
|
|
 |
|
