U.S. Open Tennis - The 1980's Golden decade Appreciation Topic !

[Vince Evert]

With the 2023 U.S. Open around the corner , hows about a retro thread-based on the 1980's - some compilations , some full matches, all in context ?

 

[Vince Evert]

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US Open 1986 : Martina Navratilova Vs. Steffi Graf, Semi-Final...​

Arguably, the best ever 1980's women's match at the Open.

 

[PhiEaglesfan712]

That pretty much marked a changing of the guard, as Steffi Graf replaced Chris Evert as the #2 player in women's tennis, and the top rival to Navratilova. The fact that Navratilova's two biggest rivals were Evert and Graf strengthens her case for the GOAT in women's tennis.

 

[Vince Evert]

next one will be 1984 U S Open. But why cant the USTA put up THE WHOLE FINAL on their official youtube channel ?

 

[Vince Evert]

 

[Vince Evert]

No. 4 seed Martina Navratilova goes head-to-head with No. 1 seed Chris Evert in the 1981 US Open semifinals.

The opening point you see on this video must rate as the best rally in the womens singles U S Open history !!

 

[Vince Evert]

U.S Open 1983 4R - John McEnroe v Bill Scanlon...

40 years ago, can you believe !!!!

Probably the biggest U S Open upset of the decade. McEnroe then seeded 1 and three-time champion was eliminated in the fourth round.
Scanlon would then reach the semis but was soundlybeaten by Connors, who would win the open that year.

 

[Vince Evert]

Here is the 1981 Final, with defending champion Tracy Austin taking on Martina. Navratilova was denied a grand slam because of a tiebreaker final set - twice !
The second being to Hana Mandlikova in the '85 final (which i'll add here later).

 

[Vince Evert]

two changing of the guard matches happened at the 1988-89 U S opens where Andre Agassi took on 5-time champion, Jimmy Connors. It was like playing a right-handed version of himself.

 

[Vince Evert]

In her first ever Grand Slam semifinal, Steffi Graf (then 16 years of age) and Navratilova played in the1985 Open.

Martina won 6-2,6-3 but this heralded Graf's arrival.

 

[Vince Evert]

another huge upset happened in the 1989 championship, with defending champion and 1987 runners up Mats Wilander beaten by a rising talent, the then 18 year old Pete Sampras...

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1989 Second Round - Mats Wilander v Pete Sampras​

 

[Vince Evert]

Zina Garrison defeats Martina Navratilova in a three-set rollercoaster ! | US Open 1988 Quarterfinal...​

This was quite possibly the biggest surprise of the decade in womens competition, when Zina Garrison defeated Martina Navratilova in a quarterfinal. . Prior to that, Navratilova had defeated Garrison in their 21 previous matches and reached semifinals every year since 1983.

 

[Vince Evert]

another memorable womens semi-final from 1987 championship with Steffi Graf facing an attacking Lori McNeil -

 

[Vince Evert]

40 years ago, almost to the day !!!

Scanlon Silences McEnroe in Four Sets at U.S. Open​

John McEnroe insists he doesn't have to play volatile tennis to play winning tennis. Today, he contained himself and the furies that dwell within him and was contained by Bill Scanlon, who beat McEnroe at his own game and on his own turf, 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-2), 4-6, 6-3.


On Labor Day, everything worked for Scanlon. Nothing worked for McEnroe. Scanlon, the 16th seed, played like the No. 1 seed. McEnroe, the No. 1 seed, played like the 16th. Scanlon served better, returned better, behaved better and anticipated better. No matter where the ball went, he seemed to get there first. When it was over, Scanlon let out a long suppressed cry of joy, a "Yeah!" heard round the world.

From the beginning of the 3 hour 44 minute match, McEnroe's concentration wandered, along with his passing shots. His volleys caught the net as he caught his temper. Finally, serving at 2-2 in the fourth set, he was distracted by the noise of the crowd as it admired one of Scanlon's shots and approached the umpire's chair. Ken Slye of Alexandria, Va., asked the crowd to contain itself. "Please don't come out with oohs and ahhs during play," Slye said.


He was inundated with boos. The New York kid had alienated the New York crowd. McEnroe went to his chair and sat down. He returned to the game and missed two forehand volleys to give Scanlon break point. A forehand net cord return at McEnroe's feet gave Scanlon the first break of the set. He broke again in the last game to win it.

Scanlon lost to McEnroe in the fourth round of Wimbledon, 7-5, 7-6, 7-6, the last time they played, and had four match points against him the time before that. He said today he was more determined than ever to show he could win a match like this, to outplay McEnroe on the big points, which both agreed he did.


"You key on it by remembering what you're supposed to do, make sure you step into the ball, get your momentum going," Scanlon said. "A lot of times, when it's a big point, you have a tendency to stand back and play reaction tennis. Today, I didn't do that at all."

Ranked 17th, he began 1983 71st, with a reputation of unfulfilled potential. "If you are going to have a big win, what more could it be than to beat the No. 1 player in New York at the U.S. Open?" he said. "The crowd (20,701) was unbelievable."

McEnroe thought so, too, but said, "I could blame the crowd, the airplanes, the umpires, but in the final analysis, I didn't play good enough . . . I have no one to blame but myself."

Scanlon's vindication over his Wimbledon loss to McEnroe overshadowed everything else, including Chris Evert Lloyd's vindication over Kathy Jordan for her Wimbledon loss. It was a happy day for Evert, who won, 6-3, 7-6 (8-6), but a sad one for her husband John Lloyd, who lost to Mark Dickson, 6-7 (8-10), 7-6 (9-7), 6-0, 7-6 (7-3).

All the other top seeds in action this afternoon won, which was a relief because the day could only bear so much drama. In night matches, Martina Navratilova, the top women's seed, defeated Pilar Vasquez, 6-0, 6-1, and Jimmy Connors, the No. 3 men's seed, beat Heinz Gunthardt, 7-5, 6-4, 6-1.


McEnroe had not lost this early in a Grand Slam event since Paul McNamee beat him in the third round of the French Open in 1980. He had not lost this early in the U.S Open since 1977, when Manuel Orantes beat him in the fourth round.

Early on, it was clear that it was not McEnroe's day. With Scanlon serving at 5-6 in the first set, McEnroe objected to a call on a forehand volley that gave Scanlon 30-30. Scanlon held and they went to the tie breaker. McEnroe stood at the base line, refusing to serve, bouncing the balls vehemently with his right hand until Slye cited him for a code violation of time delay. Slye was cheered and McEnroe booed as he approached the chair for some conversation.

He let two more calls on first serves in the tie breaker disturb him and fell behind, 2-5. A forehand pass gave Scanlon set point. McEnroe stopped dead in his tracks when his first serve was called long, and later wondered why the linesman had called the serve long when the machine used to make those determinations had not sounded. He attacked behind his second serve and missed an easy forehand volley to give Scanlon the first set.

He struggled to stay in the second. Scanlon was sharp. McEnroe seemed to lack focus and precision. He made 14 unforced errors to Scanlon's four. His first-serve percentage was 51.4 to Scanlon's 57.1.

They went to a second tie breaker. But McEnroe, who said he never could get untracked, was not in this one, either. Scanlon got a minibreak, which he never lost, at 1-all, when McEnroe fended off three of his best passing shots but not a fourth. Scanlon won the next five points.

The match was 2 hours 58 minutes old when McEnroe won his first set, but it didn't come easily. Scanlon had two break points in the ninth game that would have allowed him to serve for the match. But McEnroe held firm, then broke as Scanlon played one of his few loose games of the match.

The game and the tactics that helped McEnroe win Wimbledon, that helped him win the Open in 1979-1981, failed him. With Scanlon serving at 0-1 in the fourth set, McEnroe swooped in on a short ball, wound up and aimed a backhand cross court at Scanlon's navel.

It got him a point but it made none. Scanlon, who had earlier wagged a finger at McEnroe when he aimed another shot at Scanlon's head, started to hit one back at him and refrained. "We're not best of friends," McEnroe said.

Scanlon soon was tested again. Serving at 1-2, he fell behind, 0-40, giving McEnroe his best chance to get into a match he had never been in. He saved the first when a forehand lob went long, the second with a well-timed backhand volley off McEnroe's backhand approach and the third with a big serve to McEnroe's forehand that gave him an easy volley.

He broke McEnroe in the next game, amid the oohs and ahs that disturbed McEnroe so.

"I played a disappointing match," McEnroe said. "It's too bad it had to happen here, but the people seemed to be happy about it."

Did he really think they were happy to see him lose? "Absolutely," he said.

And that may have been the most disappointing thing of all.


By Jane Leavy
Washington Post Archives
September 6, 1983

 

[Vince Evert]

1983 was Forty Years Ago !!

And one of the new arrivals on the circuit was Jimmy Arias and his epic five setter vs French open champion, Yannick Noah...



Jimmy had the perfect offensive baseline game ideal for hard courts and clay, good to find and see these highlights.

 

[Vince Evert]

probably the best mens U S Open final of the eighties.

 

[Vince Evert]

McEnroe and Borg Stage Another Phenomenal Final...​

For over four hours, John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg traded blast for blast as they staged an encore of that year's Wimbledon final. That meeting was considered to be one of the greatest men's matches in history. After falling to Borg in England, McEnroe was able to deny the Swede his first U.S. Open title.

What an encore! John McEnroe beat Bjorn Borg in five sets yesterday for his second consecutive singles title at the United States Open tennis championships.

Two months after their five-set Wimbledon classic, which might have been the best men's final ever, the sport's top two pros traded firepower for 4 hours 13 minutes at the National Tennis Center. This time McEnroe won, 7-6, 6-1, 6-7, 5-7, 6-4, frustrating Borg's bid for his first Open crown and a Grand Slam sweep of the four major championships.


The match may have lacked Wimbledon's fourth-set tiebreaker intensity and fifth-set drama in the minds of the players. But it had the same number of total games, 55; two tense tiebreakers and was especially noteworthy for McEnroe's amazing stamina. He had struggled to a five-set semifinal victory over Jimmy Connors on Saturday night that lasted 4 hours 16 minutes and went to a decisive tiebreaker.


Few athletes have been subjected to such stress under championship conditions. That McEnroe survived, after admitting that "I thought my body was going to fall off" after the fourth set, was the strongest tribute to credentials often lost in his courtside conduct.

McEnroe won $46,000. But the top prize seemed almost secondary to a situation that saw the top-seeded Borg beaten in the fifth set for the first time in 14 matches, a span that had covered four years. It capped a tournament that, like Wimbledon, began slowly with the early emphasis on weather, but wound up in a blaze of glorious matches.


Borg had fought back from deficits earlier in the tournament and won five-set matches against Roscoe Tanner in the quarterfinals and Johan Kriek in the semifinals. But he did not serve with the consistency or force that had helped him
win 19 points in a row on serve against McEnroe in the fifth set of their Wimbledon final, which Borg won, 1-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-7, 8-6.


Borg twice served for the first set, at 5-4 and 6-5, but was broken each time, the second time at love. After he had lost the first-set tiebreaker, 7 points to 4, with McEnroe attacking his serve and putting away forehand volleys, Borg's mind, spirit and first serves drifted.


"I don't know what happened in the second set," he said of the span in which McEnroe ran off 13 points between the first and fourth games. "I didn't have any feel for the ball."



Ahead, two sets to love, McEnroe was aware of his good fortune. But as Borg struggled and held serve from 0-30 to 1-all in the third set and from 15-30 to 2-all, the Douglaston, Queens, left-hander knew that Borg was down, but not out.


"He gets you in that lull," McEnroe said of Borg's ability to rebound when it appeared that he had given up. "Then you start going around slower and he wins a set. You don't think he's trying, but he's trying to find a way to get his game back together."


Borg found a way with backhand winners down the line that opened and closed the third-set tiebreaker, which he won, 7-5. When McEnroe, serving at 5-6 in the fourth set, started guessing that Borg would try to hit down the line, Borg instead went crosscourt with the backhand, broke for the only time in the set and evened the match.

"I thought I had a good chance, especially when it came to the fifth set," Borg said. The fifth set has been Borg's sanctuary, in which he has had some of his most majestic moments as a five-time Wimbledon and French open champion. The last time he lost a match in the fifth set, after having dropped the opening two sets, was six years ago. Ironically, that defeat came against Vijay Amritraj in the second round of the 1974 Open, a tournament that has frustrated Borg since 1972.




"That's going to be my biggest ambition in the future," Borg said of his pursuit of the Open title, after his third runner-up showing.


It may have been only coincidence that the decisive set was contested under the lights, a situation in which Borg has never felt comfortable, particularly on service returns. McEnroe's first-serve percentage in the fifth set was 70, which allowed him to move in for decisive first volleys. By contrast, Borg faulted 14 of his 29 first serves and double-faulted twice in the seventh game, which he lost from deuce on McEnroe's backhand lob and his own netted forehand volley.


"I think I lost the match because I wasn't serving well," Borg said, unable to determine whether his problem came from the toss or a lack of rhythm. The thought of McEnroe ready and eager to rush the net could not have helped Borg's concentration.




Both carved the lines like surgeons, creating several controversial points for the five linesmen, half the number utilized at Wimbledon. In the final few games, however, McEnroe's wide-sweeping southpaw serve was the dominant weapon, extending the reign of left-handed men's champions in the world's richest tournament to seven consecutive years.




Serving at 4-3, McEnroe held at 15. Three of the points were won on serves, the fourth on a backhand volley placement.


Borg held at love, thus forcing McEnroe to serve out the match, in the tradition of a champion. On Saturday night, Connors had broken McEnroe's serve at 5-4 in the fifth set to send the match into the decisive tiebreaker, which McEnroe won, 7 points to 3.


At 5-4, McEnroe won the first point when Borg's short cross-court backhand dropped inches wide. McEnroe drove a high forehand volley long, but reached 30-15 with a service winner deep to the backhand that Borg could only lift straight in the air. Two forehand volleys clinched the match.


"The intensity was higher at Wimbledon," McEnroe said afterward, calling the title he had won the most satisfying of his career. "There was consistency today, but I don't think Bjorn played that well through the whole match."

"The Wimbledon match was much better," Borg said. "John can play better, I can play better."




Perhaps. But McEnroe's achievement reflected his ability to sustain an extraordinary level of excellence over a demanding stretch. On Thursday night, he ousted Ivan Lendl of Czechoslovakia, one of the tour's hottest players, in a long four-set battle. On Friday, he was back on the court in the men's doubles final and lost in five sets. Then came Connors and Borg.


"I felt better here than at Wimbledon in the fifth set," he said.

By NEIL AMDUR​

The New York Times Archives
September 8 1980

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[Vince Evert]

McEnroe Takes U.S. Open, Defeating Borg in Five Sets​

Bjorn Borg's dream of a first U.S. Open tennis championship and a possible Grand Slam ended tonight for the third straight year in the asphalt jungle of the National Tennis Center when he was beaten by John McEnroe, 7-6,6-1,6-7,5-7,6-4 in a bizarre 4 hour 11 minute struggle that tennis fans will talk about for years to come.


No, make that sports fans, who will discuss the strange and ultimately wonderful fight that took place on the rubberized asphalt hard court of the Louis Armstrong Stadium. The Borg-McEnroe rivalry -- elevated to greatness by the majestic Wimbleton final that Borg won in july, when he took the fifth set, 8-6, after McEnroe fought off two match points; when he won the fourth set in the all-time great grand-daddy of tie breakers -- has transcended tennis and become a sportingoccasion of epic proportions.


McEnroe, 21, the New Yorker who was virtually alone in his home town as the crowd 20,172 vocally backed Borg, became the first man to win America's premier title in two years in a row since Australian Neale Fraser in 1959-60.

But he did so only after the remarkable 24-year-old Swede -- who this year won his fifth French Open and fifth successive Wimbleton, but now has lost a shot at the Grand Slam and will not play the Australian Open -- fought back from a two-set deficit by sheer force ofwill on a day that he played some terribly un-Borglike tennis.


Borg served dreadfully. He made errors, both on ground strokes and volleys, that he never makes in a major final. He returned serve well only fitfully. He looked in the second set as if he had given up, or was about to. fBut somehow, in his magical, almost mystical way, he hung in, turned the match around and seemed ready to defeat an opponent who understandably was becoming exhausted and exasperated.


At 3-3 in the final set, after Borg had held serve comfortable three times and had taken McEnroe to deuce twice on his serve, few people thought the glacially cool Swede would lose.

But then he lost his serve once more, in the crucial seventh game with the aide of a horrendous line call on the first point and two totally uncharacteristic double faults.


Borg had not lost a match that went to a fifth set since 1976, winning 13 in a row. But this was the time Houdini failed to escape. With that one break to renew his sagging energy and spirit, McEnroe handcuffed Borg with some great serves in the last two service games and sent him to the bottom of the river.


Borg's legions of admirers will never believe it could happened if he hadn't gotten a bad call on the first point of the pivital seventh game. Borg served, McEnroe hit a forehand that appeared to go about an inch beyond the baseline and Borg, poised to hit a backhand, let the ball go, waiting for the "out" call.


It never came. Linesman Art Italo, who sells "Good Humor" ice cream for a living, saw the ball good. Umpire Ken Slye, intoned: "Love-15." The usually impassive Borg -- who had directed an atypical persecuted look heaveward when an apparent McEnroe fault was not called on a key point in the first set tie breaker -- turned and questioned the call with an expression that was at once startled and loathing. He muttered something at the linesman as the crowd booed the call raucously.

McEnroe hit a backhand wide but then Borg double faulted to 15-30, the second serve clipping along. He put his next serves into the net for 30-40 and murmurs shot through the hushed stadium like shock waves.


mcEnroe came in behind a forehand return of a second serve on a break point, a tactic he used throughout the match but Borg looped a topspin forehand passing shot by him. Then McEnroe chipped a backhand return of another second serve and went in, and Borg was inches wide with a backhand pass. Break point again.


Borg paused, dried his right hand on his shorts and put in a first serve, but McEnroe lashed a deep return. Borg thumped a forehand approach shot but McEnroe -- the one man whose fighting instincts aren't eventually sapped by Borg's enervating intensity -- ripped a backhand cross court that forced a leaning forehand volley error.

People will remember the line call that started his downfall, but Borg -- obviously disappointed but as gracious as always after his rare defeat -- downplayed it.


"I think the ball was out, but the umpire had a different opinion," he said.


"It was a pretty important point, but I'm not going to say that's why I lost the match.I think I lost because I was not serving well."


One of the most peculiar things about this twilight zone of a match, which began at 4:12 p.m. in brilliant sunshine, ran through twilight and supper and finished at 8:23 with McEnroe drillingaway a forehand volley under jet-black skies and floodlights, was that Borg should have won the first set, and all but gave away the second.


Borg became a little tenative in the first set, serving without his usual power and moving far slower than his customary swiftness, but he seemed to get into it and picked up the tempo to break McEnroe at love for 5-4. Serving for the set, he missed three of six first serves and was broken to 30.

When the temperamental left-hander's backhand down-the-line first volley was called wide, he turned furiously and screamed "What?" He stormed around the net, pointed to the spot where he thought the ball had landed and argued futiley with the umpire.


McEnroe still jawing sourly with the linesman as Borg went out to serve for the set again and had to wait for McEnroe to shut up. McEnroe won the first point with a forehand volley, then Borg startlingly double failed, pushed a forehand appraoch long and sailed another forehand off a back court rally to lose his serve at love.


Into the best-of-12 point tie breaker they went, and Borg forged ahead in that, too, 2-2. Then McEnroe served two balls that both appeared to be wide of the line to Borg's forehand, but thesecond wasn't called. Borg, the undemonstrative one, arched his head back and sent a disgusted look heavenward, as to tell the linesman: "You've got to be kidding." The second serve ace stood, in lieu of a double fault.

After that, Borg went downhill faster than his countryman Ingemar Stenmark until he was two sets behind. He butchered a little forehand off a short return to fall 3-4 down in the tie breaker, got back to 4-5, then lost it, 7-4, dropping the last two points on his serve.


On the set point, McEnroe was in behind a chipped return of serve again and slashed a forehand volley down the line. Borg chased it, but couldn't get there. He looked frustrated, dispirited, angry.


Borg played that way in the second set, losing his serve to 30 in the first game with two double faults, to 30 in the fifth game with another double fault. gIn one stretch he lost 13 points in a row and dropped his serve six straight times. He was missing first serves by a yard or more, muffing easy ground strokes. He even hit an easty overhand smash wide.

But come back he did. Gradually at first, just hanging on by his fingernails, then, splendidly, he started climbing on McEnroe's second serve, dashing the return winners and passing shots that are expected of him.


Borg started putting pressure on McEnroe -- who had played 4 hours 17 minutes Saturday night before subduing Connors in a draining final set tie breaker -- and got the break for 4-3 as McEnroe doubled faulted. Borg got to a 5-4 and served for the set.But, as in the first set, he missed three of five serves, played an awful game and was broken to 15.


McEnroe held for 6-5, and it seemed there was no way Borg could do what was required to stay alive -- hold his serve, then win the tie breaker. So what did he do? He held with an ace and won the tie breaker 7-5, McEnroe mis-hitting a high backhand volley off a floating return on the final point.

Now Borg was in the match, running like a deer, hammering the return and passing shots on the dead run that few other players can even imagine, and only he can make.


He continued to serve poorly, but backed up the vulnerability with a solid ground game and a renewed assurance on his volleys. He won 20 of 25 points on his serve up to 5-4, saved a break point and held after two deuces for 6-5, then broke McEnroe for the set after four deuces.


Finally, it was McEnroe who got the break in the seventh game -- the one everyone will focus on when they recall the oddities of one of the oddest of Open finals.


He still had to serve out, but he played well, with steely nerve and bold ambition, in his last two service games,missing only easy service in the final game. At 40-15, match point, Borg wobbled a forehand return short off a second serve and McEnroe -- in like the wind and on top of the wind -- gobbled it up with a forehand volley. The match won, he leaned back, threw up his arms in ecstacy and unspeakable relief.


By Barry Lorge, The Washington Post archives
September 8, 1980

 

[Vince Evert]

1980 and 1981 was Borg vs McEnroe Open finals while 1982/1983 was Jimmy Connors vs Ivan Lendl in back to back 4 setters. Interesting sequence.

What follows is the '82 final as it was beemed live on BBC television.