Epic Wins

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Caesar said:
Marc Rosset. He and Hingis were up 5-4 in the deciding set of the 1996 Hopman Cup final, and they missed 4 championship points on Goran Ivanisevic's serve, so Meathead Marc decides to take his frustrations out on the backboard. They had to forfeit without even forcing Ivanisevic to hold.

Total moron, I was so pissed off. Goran and Iva Majoli were barely hanging on at the time.
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Roflmao.. i had no idea it was a final. Just recall the incident. ****ing hilarious. McEnroe would be king dummy spitter tho obviously. How good would it have been to see him disqualified...

JuddyBuddy said:
Was lucky enough to be at this match, will never forget it! There was something surreal about arriving home at 7am (live a couple hours out of Melbourne) from the tennis, bought back memories of my clubbing days, haha.
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Very jealous, absoutely would have been awesome to be there for that one!

The latest I've been at a match was Muster v Courier.. iirc it was only a 4 set match, but it still went past 1am because there was a power failure. So there was a break in play. Was quite bizzare...
 
The two Wimbledon Semi finals Rafter played against Agassi was some of the best tennis I have seen. Such contrasting styles.
 

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smoovy said:
The two Wimbledon Semi finals Rafter played against Agassi was some of the best tennis I have seen. Such contrasting styles.
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How good was patty rafter?, As time passes you realise just how great a player he became. He was a player who played an 80s style of tennis (serve and volley) in the new millenium. As good a volleyer as you will ever see. Back in the 80s the ball wasnt going anywhere near as fast as it was when rafter was playing, i remember those matches with agassi at wimbledon, agassi was pounding the returns and groundstrokes at rafter all match but the sheer athletiscm and reflexes of rafter kept agassi at bay enough to win both matches. Would love to see rafter playing today, still think he would be a challenge for anyone including federer.
 
iluvparis said:
Epic Womens - Justine Henin d Jennifer Capriati - US Open Semi-Final
A 3 set epic in arguably the finest women's match I have ever seen played. The raw power of Capraiti, with the entire stadium behind her, against the beauty, guile and creativity of one of the best all-court players the game has seen. Fighting cramp in the last set, Henin dug deep to win. She would go on and take the title.
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Favourite women's match of all time there, such an absolute thriller right to the end, plus after all the rain that tourney they were playing the semis at night in a great atmosphere
 
Pat Rafter, Davis Cup 1997, first round at White City. He was down two sets to nothing against Cedric Pioline, came back to win it in an epic five setter. We went on to win the tie.

At the time, Pat was ranked 60-something and had just been bundled out of the Australian Open in the first round. Pioline was one of the top players in the world (he lost the Wimbledon final to Sampras a few months later). It was the start of Rafter's rise to the top - he went on that year to make the semis of the French, and then win the US Open.

Maybe not the most epic win out there, but the best one I've seen in person. And because it was Pat, it was special.
 
Just remembered one of the most epic wins of all time. Chang v Lendl in the 1989 French Open, when he was 17 and the 15th seed and Lendl was the #1 and had just won the Australian open.

Chang lost the first two sets pretty quickly, but came back to take the third by a single break. Early in the fourth set he started to massively cramp up, and actually started walking towards the chair umpire to retire before changing his mind.

He played some of the craziest tennis I've ever seen in that set to try and give himself a chance to recover. Hitting big loopy balls to take all the speed out of rallies, and going for crazy winners in order to shorten points. At one point he even served underarm. Then when he got a match point, he took a suicidal position right up inside the baseline in an attempt to throw Lendl off - it worked, he doublefaulted to give Chang the match.

Chang went on to win the tournament. Probably the craziest match I have ever seen, definitely recommend getting your hands on a tape of it if you haven't. I still reckon that Lendl was the most ice-cold robotic player I've ever seen, but he went absolutely nuts that game - throwing the kitchen sink at this little Asian kid and still getting beaten.
 
Wow, thanks for that write up Caesar. :thumbsu:

That was a bit before my time (started watching tennis about 1993/94), so yeah that was a good read that!!!

Really respected Chang for this game.. liked his speed.

As for Lendl, didnt see much if at all of him.. wasnt he known for choking in matches??? (And Novotna???)... LOL i remember a reference to him in The Simpsons with Krusty the Klown at Wimbledon... "Hey Lendl!!!! CHOKE CHOKE!!!" :D I remember my mum really liking him tho... dunno what was his appeal. From that era I more liked Stefan Edberg and his game. (i saw some of his matches really late in his career)
 
Lendl was notorious for trying to break the flow of the game when things weren't going his way - wasting time, making trivial complaints about spectators to the chair umpire, etc - so it was all the sweeter to see him get some of his own medicine.

Lendl sucked at Wimbledon for some reason, but he'd already won the French a couple of times by 1989. I remember nobody gave Chang a chance before that game.

The final where he beat Edberg in 5 was a pretty good match too, IIRC.
 

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Caesar said:
Lendl was notorious for trying to break the flow of the game when things weren't going his way - wasting time, making trivial complaints about spectators to the chair umpire, etc - so it was all the sweeter to see him get some of his own medicine.
.
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Lol, sounds a bit like Safin.. maybe I would have liked him then!!! :D

I was thinking about this recently.. as good as Hawkeye is for the game, it has taken out alot of (not all tho) the sooking/outbursts/ players getting into the shits and the interactions with the umpires. Sometimes its a bit of a shame cause it was very funny to watch..
 
Caesar said:
Pat Rafter, Davis Cup 1997, first round at White City. He was down two sets to nothing against Cedric Pioline, came back to win it in an epic five setter. We went on to win the tie.

At the time, Pat was ranked 60-something and had just been bundled out of the Australian Open in the first round. Pioline was one of the top players in the world (he lost the Wimbledon final to Sampras a few months later). It was the start of Rafter's rise to the top - he went on that year to make the semis of the French, and then win the US Open.

Maybe not the most epic win out there, but the best one I've seen in person. And because it was Pat, it was special.
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I know its not exactly part of the topic but the Doubles rubber when wen won the Davis Cup agaisnt the Froggies in Neice - we were a set a break and tripple break point down at one stage and got up and won in 4

Does it have to go 5 sets to be epic though or a unbelievaly long 4 setter can be epic?
 
Courier / Agassi ( 1990 ?? ) French open final
McEnroe / Chang ( 91 ? ) US open
Connors / Agassi ( 89 ? ) US open
Connors / Krickstein 1990 US open
Scud / Schalken 03 ( ?? ) Wimbeldon
ANY time EDBERG was beaten !!! :D
 
I always enjoyed Edberg's playing style, even if I did always kind of resent him for beating Cash in '87. That was a classic match, though.

I wish they'd take the Australian Open back to grasscourts. Not that it will ever happen.
 
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