Flashback to 1991 US Open semifinal

We’ve come to that time of year again which I consider to be one of the most interesting periods on the tennis calendar. The hardcourt season is well underway with big tournaments taking place in Canada this week with Cincinnati and the US Open to come.  A perfect opportunity to flashback to some matches that have taken place in the North America summer over the decades.

The first match I will look at is the 1991 US Open semifinal between Ivan Lendl and Stefan Edberg. A highly anticipated matchup in a very interesting US Open, where a 39 year old Jimmy Connors made it all the way to the semifinal to play Jim Courier.  Despite the six year age difference, Edberg and Lendl had already played each other on twenty three occasions previously with Lendl taking a 13 to 10 lead into the semifinal.  At that stage, many of the matches took place at grand slam level, including the 1990 Australian Open final, 1985 & 1991 Australian Open semifinals, 1990 Wimbledon semifinal and a previous meeting at the 1986 US Open which Lendl won in straight sets. Lendl won the Australian Open final in 1990 after Edberg defaulted in the third set with a stomach injury.

The match was billed as having the classic contrast in style, something that has completely gone out of the window in modern tennis which is bizarre but that is the way it currently is. Lendl was the ultimate baseline player and Edberg the ultimate serve and volleyer. Ivan Lendl more or less made the inside out forehand the most important shot in tennis at the time, camping on his backhand corner and hitting forehand after forehand to his opponents backhand until he got a mistake out of it.  Edberg on the other hand had probably the best one hand backhand in the game during this period. Edberg rarely served over 180kph (110mph consistently). In fact, I would say Edberg barely served over 170kph); very occasionally he would hit a “screamer” around 185kph (115mph).  However, this is what made Edberg the best serve volleyer in the business, his slower kick serve allowed him to get to net a lot quicker and he had by far the best technique on the volley and probably the best reflexes as well, especially against a player like Lendl who could potentially rip a hole through his opponent’s racquet when they were at net. Both players were always willing to use the full width of the court.

Lendl, wearing the most incredible hat, started the match quite slowly, saving two break points in the very first service game. An interesting dynamic here because the match started at 11am. This was during the crazy period of US Open history where two mens semifinals and the womens final all took place on the same day which was called “Super Saturday”. The second mens semifinal would often finish anytime around midnight, with the finalist having to come out the next day at 4pm to play the final. This practice ended in the year 2000 when the womens final was switched to a night match on Saturday. The two mens semifinals on a Saturday with the final on Sunday only ended in 2008 after the consistently bad stormy weather over New York was occurring year after year, forcing the finals into Monday afternoons from 2008 to 2014. 

Naturally, over the thirty plus years where the semifinals took place on the Saturday with the final on Sunday, it was virtually impossible for a player over 30 years of age to win the US Open. Now we are used to seeing players over 30 winning grand slam tournaments. However, whilst the experts will tell us it is down to conditioning, diet and increased professionalism, it cannot be underestimated the difference it makes to have a day off at the US Open on a surface as brutal as hardcourts in often humid weather. Not just in New York though, the Australian Open final took place every year in the hot baking sun and only switched to a night time match in 2005. These are huge advantages to prolong the careers of top players which previous generations didn’t get.

Lendl got broken, rather easily in the third game, in fact and barely looking like he was making an effort, which left the commentators baffled. It also left me baffled as he was just shuffling along the baseline, allowing Edberg to attack him at will, whenever he wanted. It could be the 11am start was too early for a 31 year old to warm up properly. Despite that, Lendl broke back immediately with good passing shots but was then broken again to allow Edberg to take a 5-3 lead, Edberg duly taking the first set 6-3 in double quick time.

Whilst watching the match I just couldn’t understand what Lendl was doing or trying to accomplish; he seemed to have no game plan whatsoever.  Commentators John Barrett and Frew McMillan started speculating as to what could be going on, especially as they both predicted Lendl would win the match so probably started worrying they would look foolish.  What they both agreed on was that Lendl was not playing aggressively enough; he was not going to net at all. On his own service games he needed to get the big serve in and then hit the big approach shot and attack the net, which is classic hard court tennis. Instead Lendl was content to hit a lot of slice backhands and as soon the ball dropped remotely short, Edberg sliced the ball and attacked the net, or adopted the John McEnroe approach of “bunting” the ball on the half volley and approaching the net, especially on the forehand where his old fashioned continental grip worked well for that type of play, just like it did for McEnroe who also used a continental grip on the forehand. In fact, during this era they were probably the only two players who still used a continental grip on the forehand. Today, Richard Gasquet is the player that plays his forehand the closest to a continental grip, although some can’t accept anyone today would use that type of grip and try to call it a “western” grip.

The second set started better for Lendl, he seemed to come out with more purpose, holding his serve well and hitting better approach shots and coming in to put the pressure on Edberg. Edberg responded in kind but before long it was back to the same pattern with Lendl completely going back into his shell, allowing Edberg to do what he wanted. The camera man by this stage was zooming into the Lendl box to see their reaction. Coach Tony Roche had his head buried in his cap, wearing shades not knowing where to look, and Lendl’s wife Samantha was also looking thoroughly fed up and annoyed at her husband’s lack of vitality.  Edberg ran away with the second set with consummate ease taking a 5:1 lead before Lendl broke back to love when Edberg served for the second set. Edberg had a second opportunity and took it, there was to be no repeat of the 1991 Australian Open semifinal when Edberg screamed “chicken!” to himself when he wasn’t taking his opportunities against Lendl that day.

By this stage the commentators and studio panel were at a loss to explain Lendl’s tactics or lack of it. By the end of the second set Lendl had only been to net eight times. Again, the consensus was that Lendl must get to net, either off the occasional serve volley play or off a big serve then approach off a short reply. In the third set, Lendl was decisively broken in the seventh game and it looked all set to end rather quickly. However, there was one moment of magic from Lendl earlier on, when he hit the most audacious behind his back shot and won the point with it, much to Edberg’s dismay, this got sustained applause from the crowd but wasn’t enough to get Lendl out of his funk. To top it off, the New Yorkers were shouting at Lendl to “wake up!” Perhaps it really was the early morning start that was too much for him. 

Lendl served to stay in the match at 4:5, only to see Edberg rub it in by pulling off the exact same shot Lendl did earlier on in the set, and win the point as well!  This prompted Lendl to shot out “I guess anybody can hit that shot” much to the amusement of everyone in the stadium and those watching on television.

However, there was to be no mercy for Lendl as Edberg served out the match with a lovely ace down the middle to win 6:3 6:3 6:4 in two hours and eight minutes.  The length of this match should not be underestimated because as in today’s era, those top guys were accustomed to playing each other in matches north of four hours in length; an indication of how easy it was for Edberg to win this match. Frew McMillan summed it up best when he said he would be intrigued by the post mortem between Lendl and his camp on how the match played out.

By winning this match and getting to the final, Edberg regained the position as the number 1 player in the world. Jim Courier went on to beat Jimmy Connors in the second semifinal and in the final, Edberg produced the best match of his career to beat Jim Courier and win the US Open for the first time.  Edberg would win the head to head with Ivan lendl 14-13 overall.

For the record, the middle match of “Super Saturday” saw Monica Seles defeat Martina Navratilova in straight sets to win the US Open for the first time.