2 Responses to munich90gilbert_wheaton

1. Voo de Mar says:

   May 14, 2024 at 12:14 pm

   Points won by each set: | 37-26, 24-33, 45-41, 27-34, 35-30 |
   Points won directly behind the serve:
   40 % Gilbert – 64 of 157
   36 % Wheaton – 64 of 175

   The first edition of the Grand Slam Cup, and a famous 3-hour 53-minute “$1M dollar match”, due to physical confrontation between the US players (photo) which is unusual in tennis, especially at the highest level. It occurred after the 3rd set tie-break won by Gilbert 9/7. Prior to the tie-break it was rather a sleepy match of contrasting styles: Wheaton [27] was attacking the net constantly behind the serve while Gilbert [10] was glued to the baseline feeling his superiority in baseline rallies. In the tie-break Wheaton improved from *1:4 to 6:5 but Gilbert fought off the set point with a service winner. After the change of ends Gilbert played his trademark rally, attacking the net with an inside-out forehand… to hit two backhand volleys – the second one was called ‘out’ but the umpire made an overrule awarding the point to Gilbert:

   1) if the ball had been good (I think it was), the umpire’s decision was excellent because the ball was out of Wheaton’s reach
   2) if the ball had been wide, the umpire’s decision was terrible because it was a far side-line, thus the linesman was much closer to the ball

   After Wheaton’s tantrum towards the umpire, he served and ace followed by a double fault and another unreturned serve by Gilbert.
   At the change of ends the Americans began to exchange insults, and the officials had to intervene separating the players. Gilbert recalls: “Wheaton’s brother yelled at me: I’m going to kick your ass, Gilbert!” – I assume the brother went ballistic because during Wheaton’s argument with the umpire, Gilbert was indicating his wristwatch suggesting that Wheaton should have been serving as his 20 seconds had been prolonged (it was the first year when ITF cut the break between the points from 30 to 20 seconds). Wheaton said about Gilbert: “He started crying and whining and he got his way like a child. He came over and invaded my space. If he had thrown the first punch, I would have been pretty happy.” The rest of the match was conducted in a peaceful manner, a break in the opening game of the decider was crucial – afterwards the eight years older Gilbert saved break points in two games.

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2. Voo de Mar says:

   May 14, 2024 at 1:41 pm

   Gilbert and Wheaton faced each other six times; Gilbert won all the encounters having saved match points in their first two meetings:
   5-7, 7-6, 6-4 at Stratton Mountain ’89, and 6-7, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, 13-11 at Wimbledon ’90 (after 4 hours 10 minutes: 24-19 in aces for Wheaton)

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