The History of Men's Tennis (Open Era)

I’ve made some changes in navigation this week to make the site more dynamic. Because current tournaments are intertwined with old Grand Slams, I’ve changed the format of entries considering current events. Since now, they will be displayed only with a few lines, you need to click on “Continue reading -›” (or the entry’s title) to see the full text. When you click on “More Galleries” you’ll be directed onto a page with entries of all weeks of the regular ATP season and Davis Cup weekends. Tournaments are tagged now. If you want to compare descriptions of a particular tournament by years, just click on its tagged name, and you’ll go to a page(s) that shows the tournament you’re interested in.

It was a time when Rafael Nadal had already shown his amazing clay-court potential, however, his ability to play very well on other surfaces was still questioned. Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic were teenagers then, a couple of years before their emergence as the real threats… It was a time when Lleyton Hewitt and Andy Roddick were the biggest rivals of Roger Federer. The Swiss established his supremacy over them, defeating Hewitt and Roddick twice at Wimbledons 2004 & 2005, and he did it in impressive style. Read more…

The first Roland Garros triumph of Ivan Lendl and Rafael Nadal… One of the most memorable finals of the Open era occurred in 1984. John McEnroe prior to that final had been playing unreal tennis from the beginning of the season, he was on a 42-match winning streak, including five wins over his final opponent – Lendl, who had failed to win his four previous major finals. In Paris ’84, McEnroe displaying brilliant offensive tennis led 2-0 in sets against Lendl, and everyone could expect he would overcome a theory that serve-and-volley guys cannot triumph at Roland Garros. However, he lost his composure in the 3rd game of the 3rd set and his magic touch as well, allowing the Czech(oslovak) to get a second wind. McEnroe was two games away in three consecutive sets from taking the title, but couldn’t break his biggest rival in those most important moments, couldn’t also hold his serve under pressure. Read more…
All eyes were on Nadal, the 18-year-old muscular Spaniard, who had missed two previous editions due to injuries, in 2005 was fit and enjoying a top form for the first time in life (triumphed in Monte Carlo and Rome prior to Paris). Nevertheless “I am not the favorite” he insisted at the start of the tournament. During press conferences he was modest, but on court very eager to show different behavior – he was amazingly self-confident and merciless for opponents. Only Mariano Puerta in the final threatened him seriously. Puerta rose like a phoenix from the ashes after a nine-month suspension because of taking an illegal substance. Unfortunately he was a habitual offender and was once again banned at the end of 2005, this time after it was revealed that he had tested positive for the use of the cardiac stimulant, etilefrine – he was forced to forfeit all his rankings points and prize money from the 2005 French Open onwards. Read more…

I’ve also added Australian Open 1993 & 2007 this week.

In 1986 only one American player advanced to the quarterfinals, and it was the worst tournament for the Yankees of the Open era at the time. The left-handed legends, Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe had their best times behind with little chance to get another major title. The crisis of the American tennis was intermediate though, a new wave of exceptionally capable Americans emerged in the late 80s: Bollettieri’s “childs” Andre Agassi,  Jim Courier and David Wheaton, plus a bit younger Michael Chang and Pete Sampras – all those boys displayed a potential which might have suggested they could achieve much more than their predecessors  in general (the weakest link Wheaton dropped out of “the magnificent 5” around 1992, but soon was replaced by Todd Martin, who was anonymous across the decades) #. They made a lot of buzz in 1989, matured within the year, and a final of the US Open 1990 was an internal U.S. affair, the first one since 1979 when McEnroe ousted Vitas Gerulaitis. Sampras rather unexpectedly outclassed Agassi in the ’90 final, and a new great rivalry – that lasted 12 years – was established out there. It wasn’t fluke they met in the final, during those two tournaments they defeated five players who had won 12 previous editions (Sampras overcame Mats Wilander, Ivan Lendl & McEnroe whilst Agassi took care of Connors & Boris Becker)!

US Open 1988-89                                                              US Open 1990-91

# Five-best under-21 Americans in 10-year intervals:

1980
2 – McEnroe (21 years old), 28 – Purcell (21), 41 – Buehning (20), 85 – Wilkison (21), 90 – Winitsky (21)
1990
4 – Agassi (20), 5 – Sampras (19), 15 – Chang (18), 25 – Courier (20), 27 – Wheaton (21)
2000
156 – Roddick (18), 181 – Dent (19), 212 – Blake (21), 305 – Fish (19), 343 – Kendrick (21)
2010
127 – Young (21), 173 – Harrison (18), 366 – El Mihdawy (21), 472 – Cox (18), 496 – Kudla (18)

Those Wimbledon tournaments are connected to themselves somehow. In 1992  Andre Agassi became the first baseline player since Jimmy Connors in 1982 to win the title at the All-England Club whilst Lleyton Hewitt was the first champion of this type since Agassi. Moreover finals in 1992 & 2002 were played between the youngest pairs, 22-20 & 21-20 years-olds.

At Wimbledon ’92 Andre Agassi and Goran Ivanisevic took their best shots to another level: the passing-shot and the serve respectively. They met in the final and thanks to their contrasting styles, one of the most memorable Grand Slam finals was made, in which passing-shots triumphed over serves by a small margin. 33-year-old John McEnroe, 15 years after his sensational Wimbledon semifinal, advanced to the last 4 once again (triumphed in doubles) and it was his swan-song at majors; in turn fellow American, Pete Sampras, the future seven-time Wimbledon champion, reached his first Grand Slam semifinal on grass; he never had been past the second round at Wimbledon in three previous attempts! Other future champion, Richard Krajicek made his controversial remarks considering women’s tennis. Read more…
Ten years later…
…a shift of paradigm in men’s tennis occurred: it’s a tournament that ended an era of serve-and-volley specialists. Prior to Wimbledon 2002, baseliners were always in minority as far as quarterfinals are concerned, that time there were as many as six baseline players in the last eight, and two of them advanced to the final making the first duel at that stage based on ground-strokes since 1978… Actually it was almost a surreal event: 8 out of 10 highest seeded guys dropped before the third round including an inexplicable Pete Sampras’ loss to George Bastl; three South Americans went through to the quarterfinals; David Nalbandian secured a place in the final playing his first main-level tournament on grass, not having played a match on Centre Court before the final! Under those bizarre circumstances 21-year-old Lleyton Hewitt was unstoppable – he won 6 out of 7 matches easily, and rather no-one had expected it would have been his last major triumph. Read more…

During John McEnroe’s sabbatical, Ivan Lendl seemed untouchable; in Paris ’86 he won his seventh tournament of the year, having obtained a final and semifinal in two other appearances (46-2 record). He worked out perfection in keeping concentration through long period of time, and notched amazing, 13-, 12- and 9-game-winning streaks respectively, in his last three matches of the event! It was a time of absolute Swedish ascendancy. The Swedish tennis was producing new faces every year in the mid-80s. That year in Paris all four seeded Swedes surprisingly dropped before last 16, but popped out of nowhere two others in the second week: Ulf Stenlund – playing his first main-level tournament advanced easily to the fourth round (!) whilst Mikael Pernfors at his 17th event, stunned four seeds moving through to the final. Two-time Australian Open champion, 28-year-old Johan Kriek participated in his just second French Open, and surprised even himself reaching the semifinals. Read more…
US Open 1993 – it was a tournament of bizarre occurrences: within one hour two out of four longest Grand Slam tie-breaks in history took place in the first round; in the fourth round Wally Masur won the only recorded Grand Slam match losing 0:5 in the deciding set; seeds were dropping like flies; finally a guy with an aluminum racquet (Prince Magnesium; it was a time when all players were already using graphite ones) 24-year-old Cedric Pioline, who had never won an ATP title, advanced to the final! Pete Sampras was above all, he was enjoying the best period of his career (extended from Key Biscayne ’93 to Rome ’94) and grabbed the second US Open title without serious troubles. Read more…