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Nadal and Sharapova already done at the running Wimbledon thread

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by TheSportsPredictor, Jun 19, 2009.

  1. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    How the heck did Pioline make it to two Grand Slam finals? Was men's tennis really that much of a wasteland in the 1990s? I do remember the likes of Michael Stich, Petr Korda, Alberto Berasategui, Thomas Johansson, Thomas Muster and Magnus Norman making GS final appearances during those years (Stich, Johansson and Muster actually winning).
     
  2. spnited

    spnited Active Member

    Pioline always was one of those guys who was never going to a consistent contender butcould get hot for two weeks...as he did a couple of times. Strange things soemtimes happen in Grand Slams.
     
  3. Blitz

    Blitz Active Member

    Saw part of a 1996(?) Davis Cup match between Chang and Courier.
    Good tennis.
    I think we are too quick to assign labels such as "wasteland" to the men's game of the mid-90s or, say, the women's game of today.
    We often say "wasteland," when the correct terms would simply be "dull" or "lacking in excitement."

    There's been talent on both circuits the whole time. Some eras have just lacked in star power.
     
  4. goalmouth

    goalmouth Well-Known Member

    Yevgeny Kafelnikov was also in that 90s mix.
     
  5. nafselon

    nafselon Well-Known Member

    How could Chang and Courier face each other in Davis Cup?
     
  6. nafselon

    nafselon Well-Known Member

    No Slam final beats the anonymity of the 1996 Wimbledon final of MaliVai Washington vs. Richard Krajicek
     
  7. sportschick

    sportschick Active Member

    Y'all are forgetting Goran Ivanesivic (sp). Lost several times in the Wimbledon finals before finally beating Rafter in an epic match the year after Pete won his last one (I think).
     
  8. Blitz

    Blitz Active Member

    Come to think of it, it was Pat Rafter that Chang played in the match I watched.
    It was on Tnnis Channel (DircTV) this weekend, later in the day following the Wimby coverage.

    I said Courier earlier.

    Carry on.
     
  9. nafselon

    nafselon Well-Known Member

    Yep, did it as an unseeded Wild Card on a Monday afternoon.

    Shame is Rafter had arguably the two best Wimbledon matches I've seen, a five-setter with Agassi that year and one equally as good the year before.
     
  10. sportschick

    sportschick Active Member

    And at his victory parade, he ran around in his bikini. Best picture ever of a nonswimmer on the wire :D
     
  11. Double J

    Double J Active Member

    I was curious, so I checked too and 11 is indeed a record for men. Roy Emerson won 12 GS finals and only beat six different opponents in those finals (Fred Stolle x 5, Rod Laver x 2, Arthur Ashe x 2, Ken Fletcher, Pierre Darmon, Tony Roche).

    Rod Laver won 11 GS finals over eight different opponents - Roy Emerson x 3, Tony Roche x 2, Neale Fraser, Andres Gimeno, Ken Rosewall, Chuck McKinley, Martin Mulligan, John Newcombe.

    Bjorn Borg also won 11 GS finals but prevailed over nine different challengers - Guillermo Vilas x 2, Jimmy Connors x 2, Manuel Orantes, Ilie Nastase, Victor Pecci, Roscoe Tanner, Vitus Gerulaitis, John McEnroe, Ivan Lendl.

    Among women, Margaret Smith Court beat 12 different opponents in winning her 24 GS finals - Jan Lehane O'Neill x 4, Billie Jean King x 4, Maria Bueno x 3, Evonne Goolagong Cawley x 3, Lesley Turner Bowrey x 2, Nancy Richey Gunter x 2, Kerry Melville Reid, Ann Haydon Jones, Helga Niessen Masthoff, Chris Evert, Darlene Hard, Rosemary Casals.

    Steffi Graf won 22 GS finals over 10 different opponents - Arantxa Sanchez Vicario x 5, Martina Navratilova x 4, Monica Seles x 3, Helena Sukova x 2, Mary Joe Fernandez x 2, Gabriela Sabatini x 2, Chris Evert, Natasha Zvereva, Martina Hingis, Jana Novotna. I found this quite noteworthy, though - in 1988, the year she won everything, Graf beat four different opponents in the four Grand Slam events - Evert in the Australian Open, Zvereva in the French Open, Navratilova at Wimbledon and Sabatini in the U.S. Open. Then she beat Sabatini again in Seoul to cap the only single-year Golden Slam we'll probably ever see.

    Helen Wills Moody (19 GS final wins) also beat 10 different opponents. Chris Evert (18 wins) beat nine different opponents and Martina Navratilova (also 18 wins) only beat seven different opponents.
     
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