As fans of sports, we all love to watch/read about come-from-behind victories. However, in the professional sports arena, come-from-behind wins are not as common as literature and movies would like us to believe.
In professional sports, especially in the late stages of a tournament, the front-runners are the overwhelming favourites – and they often go on to win. The old adage of “it is more difficult to stay ahead than to get ahead” often proves to be a myth, as the team or the player who jumps in the lead often crosses the finish line ahead of their opponents.
Tennis is no exception. Since opening their gates to professionals in 1969, the four Grand Slam events of the tennis calendar (Australian/French/Wimbledon and US Open) have invariably seen the players who led early ending up as the winners.
So much so that in the Open Era, Wimbledon, the Australian Open and the US Open have never seen a single player win the men’s singles final after being down two sets to love.
The sole exception to this, to a certain extent at least, is the French Open. As many as four players in the Open Era have won the final after being down two sets to love. Two more have overturned two-sets-to-one deficits in the finals to lift the crown.
With the tournament starting next Monday, we take a walk down memory lane and review these matches. (The list is arranged in chronological order, starting from the earliest).
1. 1974 – Bjorn Borg (Sweden) defeated Manuel Orantes (Spain) 2-6 6-7 6-0 6-1 6-1
Both finalists had their share of scrappy wins on their way to the finals. Borg had to fight through five sets in the third and fourth rounds while Orantes had to come from two sets to love down in the third round against Guillermo Vilas.
In the final, Orantes came flying out of the gates fast and won the first two sets. Then the crowd at Roland Garros saw the Borg they would come to love. Confident and resolute in the face of adversity, he worked on Orantes’s game first, and then his mind, as he raced to a victory – dropping just two games in the last three sets.
Borg went on to win five more titles at the same venue. Orantes had his moment of Grand Slam glory in New York a year later when he won the US Open title by defeating Jimmy Connors.
2. 1984 – Ivan Lendl (Czechoslovakia) defeated John McEnroe (USA) 3-6 2-6 6-4 7-5 7-5
Lendl came into the final having lost all four of his previous Grand Slam finals. McEnroe came in as a two-time Wimbledon and three-time US Open winner. Lendl was the ultimate choker, a workhorse who never seemed to have enough when it mattered.
McEnroe had his eyes set on winning at more Grand Slam venues than both Borg and Connors. And yet, when the chips were down, first in the third set having lost the first two sets, and then again in the fourth down 2-4 and game point on McEnroe’s serve, somehow it was the Czech man that kept his calm.
Maybe it was the squeaking of a headset near the court, maybe it was the crowd that wanted to see a longer match – we will never know. McEnroe allowed Lendl back in the match and ultimately folded in the fifth to hand Lendl his first Grand Slam crown.
This is what McEnroe had to say about this loss in his autobiography: “It was the worst loss of my life: sometimes it still keeps me up nights. It is even tough for me to do commentary at the French.”
Taking over the choker tag from another player will do that to you, Mac.
3. 1989 – Michael Chang (USA) defeated Stefan Edberg (Sweden) 6-1 3-6 4-6 6-4 6-2
In a fairy-tale year the 17-year-old Chang, who was seeded 15th that year, took out the future World No. 1 Pete Sampras in straight sets, before running into Ivan Lendl in the quarterfinals. Lendl, a three-time champion at the venue, was the overwhelming favourite.
The match started along expected lines with Lendl jumping to a two sets to love lead. Chang fought back to take the third and then suffered from debilitating cramps in the fourth sets.
The American teenager refused to give in, and used unusual tactics that included serving underhand and standing near the T line to receive serve, to fight his more experienced opponent. He succeeded in unsettling the usually calm Lendl and hung on to win 6-3 in the 5th.
His opponent in the final, Swede Stefan Edberg, had his toughest match in the semi-finals against German Boris Becker, who stretched him to five sets. Edberg was perhaps a little slow off the blocks in the finals, losing the first set 6-1. But he rallied back to win the next two sets to go up two sets to one.
Chang refused to give up though; he levelled the match in the fourth and then won the final set running away 6-2. Edberg had his revenge of sorts two years later at the US Open when he defeated Chang in the 1992 semis in an epic 5 hour, 26 minute dog-fight.
4. 1991 – Jim Courier (USA) defeated Andre Agassi (USA) 3-6 6-4 2-6 6-1 6-4
Having lost his previous two finals, Andre Agassi was praying to be third time lucky in Grand Slam finals. Courier was enjoying his breakthrough year with a road to the final that saw him taking out Edberg and Stich. In the final, Agassi got tight when he was ahead, and Courier saw his opportunity.
Agassi’s fragile psyche that year could not withstand Courier’s aggression in the last two sets, and he handed the win to his compatriot.
In his autobiography Agassi talks about the strange attraction losing big matches had for him. Fortunately for him, redemption was around the corner when he battled Ivanisevic for his first Wimbledon crown a year later.
5. 1999 – Andre Agassi (USA) defeated Andriy Medvedev (Ukraine) 1-6 2-6 6-4 6-3 6-4
1999 was a comeback year for Agassi, who had fallen below 100 in the ATP rankings less than a year earlier. His French Open campaign got off to a shaky start with close wins over Squillari and Clement in the first two rounds.
Agassi hit his stride soon after that and took out the defending champion Moya in the round of 16, before defeating Fillipini and Hrbaty in the next two rounds. The final got off to a disastrous start for Agassi, with Medvedev taking the first set 6-1 in 19 minutes, and then taking the next set in similar time.
A timely rain break that allowed coach Gilbert to give Agassi a much-needed pep talk and some nerves on the part of the Ukrainian allowed the American to claw his way back into the match.
Medvedev fought till the end, but in the fifth set his opponent’s big match experience proved the separating factor. With this victory, Agassi became only the second man after Rod Lever to win all four Majors in the Open Era.
6. 2004 – Gaston Gaudio (Argentina) defeated Guillermo Coria (Argentina) 0-6 3-6 6-4 6-1 8-6
Gaudio had to fight hard early in the tournament, with his first two matches going the distance. But after that his campaign gathered momentum, and he rolled through former runner-up Enqvist, defending Wimbledon champion Hewitt and defending Wimbledon runner-up Nalbandian to make it to his first Major final.
He faced World No. 3, overwhelming favourite and compatriot Coria in the finals. Gaudio was nervous enough to drop the first set without winning a game. The crowd gave him an ironic cheer when he won the first game in the second set.
Gaudio lost the second set too and was 4-4, 0-40 on his opponent’s serve before fighting back to win the third. In the fourth, Coria was barely able to move with severe leg cramps, and Gaudio won the set easily.
The fifth set again turned into a dogfight. Coria led by a break of serve on four occasions and served twice for the championship. Gaudio saved two match points in the 12th game, and finally prevailed 8-6 in the fifth.
With this win, he became the first Argentinian since Guillermo Vilas in 1979 to win a Grand Slam singles title, the first player to win a Grand Slam final after losing the first set 6-0, and the first man in the Open Era to win a Grand Slam final after saving match points.
Oh, and to date, he is also the only Grand Slam champion to have never made it to another quarterfinal in his career.
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