2 Responses to wb81mcenroe_frawley.

1. Voo de Mar says:

   October 25, 2025 at 2:24 pm

   Points won by each set: | 47-44, 32-26, 47-38 |
   Points won directly behind the serve:
   36 % McEnroe – 41 of 111
   26 % Frawley – 32 of 123

   The Wimbledon ’81 semifinals featured a unique line-up… three titans of the game, and Frawley [112], an obscure Australian veteran who hadn’t won a Grand Prix title, hadn’t even been considered as a doubles specialist, and prior to Wimbledon ’81 he was regularly losing in the first or second rounds that year. However, grass was a favorite surface of the vast majority of Aussie players in the 20th Century, besides Frawley picked up a graphite racquet (Head “Edge”) being in minority with this new technology at the beginning of the 80s; it was a period of time a few years before it’d become a standard equipment. Perhaps these two factors gave him the edge in the fortnight – among five players he defeated, four were higher ranked. Against McEnroe, Frawley remained competitive for three hours, and put himself in front in each set he lost:
   1st set: he had three break points at 2:0 (lost 2/7 in the tie-break)
   2nd set: led 4:3 holding his serve quite convincingly
   3rd set: led 5:4 after a point penalty for McEnroe (his second warning for obscenity)
   At 5-all Frawley led 40/0 on serve, but lost his timing, committed two straight double faults, and got broken after six deuces (the longest game of the semifinal). After the match, as the reporters argued among themselves, McEnroe stormed out of the interview room calling the media ‘trash’. McEnroe and Frawley met two more times with BigMac winning both matches in Sydney (5-0 in their H2H in the end).

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2. Voo de Mar says:

   October 25, 2025 at 2:49 pm

   ☆ Such a unique line-up would be repeated ten years later in Melbourne, and again a heavy underdog played a good match against the eventual champion:

   Wimbledon 1981: Borg [1], J.McEnroe [2], Connors [3]… Frawley [112]
   Aussie Open 1991: Edberg [1], Becker [2], Lendl [3]… P.McEnroe [114]

   ☆☆ Both McEnroe and Frawley had a younger brothers who’d become professionals; just like in the McEnroe family saga, the younger Frawley achieved less considering singles & doubles, but the difference between the Frawleys is subtle, in singles for example John Frawley reached higher ranking than his older brother Rod [35 vs 42] despite winning 40 matches fewer.

   Short comparison of the Frawley brothers:
   Rod (b. 1952)… 1 title… record: 110-144… best Slams: Wimbledon ’81 SF, Aussie Open ’79 QF
   John (b. 1965)… 0 title… record: 70-90… best Slam: three times 4R

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