Great stories from the Golden Era 1974-1984

[kiki]

Originally Posted by JAY1

Regarding music and teen fans etc - the following statement rings true... "In years gone by, if you were special you became famous, these days if your famous your considered special"!
I would'nt consider myself old (44) but I think Hoad, Laver, Rosewall, Connors, Borg, McEnroe etc would be just as good as Federer, Djokovic, Nadal, Sampras, Agassi, Becker etc if they had today's equipment & balls!
I remember watching Connors aged 34 (nearly 35) in 1987 beat Cash (that year's Wimbledon champion) in the semi-final in straight sets and then next day play Becker in The Queens Club final, I sat in the front row behind the court both times, Connors was a set & break up against the defending Wimbledon champion. He was taking Becker & his game apart only to get a few tough line calls and ended up losing in three very close sets.
IN THEIR PRIME HEAD TO HEADS:
Hoad v Djokovic 6 - 4
Laver v Becker 7 - 3
Rosewall v Nadal 3 - 7
Connors v Sampras 5 - 5
Mcenroe v Agassi 5 - 5
Borg v Federer 4 -6
Looking forward to Kiki's and everyone elses 'Prime head to head's........

I agree with that motto.Very true.

As for H2H, it is almost impossible to tell.Court conditions are completely different so, even with same equipment,balls,strings ( and I´d pick mid 80´s rackets that would be the most neutral), still court conditions change.only CC are reasonably comparable, hard court was rare then and very popular now, just the opposite to indoor fast carpet.Of course, the only common thing between former grass and current grass is the colour remains green - and that may change as well...How do you make, in any case, the split of the ten matches per surface?

if we talk about current clay, maybe Nadal vs Rosewall is 7-3 but, of course, that would be the other way round on old carpet/wood and former grass.

[kiki]

Originally Posted by treblings

LG Huemer is another example. long time tournament director in Vienna.

Bernard Noat at Montecarlo and the Gardini family at Milan Indoor.Few of them were still independnet in the era of the IMG, Donald Dell, J Kramer and so forth

[comeback]

In 1975 my brother and I saw Conners play a local pro Iderjit Singh on the Forest Hills grandstand court..i had only been playing tennis for a couple of years and i was in awe of how Conners completely destroyed Singh
6-0,6-1,6-0
Since that match, whenever we describe a double bagel or a complete crush we say "It was Singe City"

[comeback]

At the same 1975 US OPEN on har tru..Vitas Geruilitus was following a recently retired Pancho Gonzalez around like a puppy dog pestering him to play..Gonzalez relented and beat him in a practice set

[Dean]

After 16 consecutive defeats at the hands of Jimmy Connors Vitas Gerulaitis finally took a victory against Connors.

After the match he was asked what he thought.

VG: "let that be a lesson to you all...Nobody... I mean nobody beat Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a row."

[comeback]

an interesting newspaper article from 1971 mentionong Inderit Singh and others http://news.google.com/newspapers?ni...g=2354,1654170

[Tshooter]

Originally Posted by comeback

In 1975 my brother and I saw Conners play a local pro Iderjit Singh on the Forest Hills grandstand court..i had only been playing tennis for a couple of years and i was in awe of how Conners completely destroyed Singh
6-0,6-1,6-0
Since that match, whenever we describe a double bagel or a complete crush we say "It was Singe City"

You are mixing up the score, the court and the year. As well as the players first name. I was at the match.

Bonus points if you remember what other star player played on a field court at the same time. Victory lap if you recall what match was placed in the stadium at the same time.

[slice bh compliment]

Great ones in this thread. Indeed, the golden era of tennis....with all its idiosyncrasies and conflicts of interest (not that things are any more professional nowadays, haha).

If I may add... a few scattered thoughts/memories growing up as a tennis player during the 'tennis boom' in NY:

85 open, first rd, Mac over Shlomo Glickstein, 7-6 in the 3rd. I've never screamed so loud in my life. I realize this was a year after the OP's definition of the golden era, but these things have gray areas.

So on the early side of the golden era....the 72 Forest Hills final. Wow. Nasty over Ashe in 5 sets. What a match. Lead changes, drama, high quality tennis from all parts of the court. Contrasting styles, and that's just from the guy in the blue shirt. The Bucharest Backfire (history's hippest lob retrieval, later sampled/digitally remastered/covered by Dr. Dre in a might match vs Corretja in the 95 US Open).

Bobby Riggs vs Margaret Court. Riggs vs BJKing. Cheesy but effective way to kick off the golden era.

I saw some World Team Tennis matches in Madison Square Garden. The GARDEN. Weird-color-blocked court. NY Apples vs Boston Lobsters. Bud Collins on channel 13 (PBS affil)

My uncle (a tennis coach) told me about a teenage boy at Port Washington who was routinely winning practice sets off international circuit players.

Mac vs Nastase at the 79 US Open. Frank Hammond in the chair. Chaos. Default. Reinstatement. Vulgarity. Some intense, some sweet tennis. Hammond is relieved of his duties. Mac ends up prevailing.

Must read Rage for Perfection, the Richard Evans book on Mac.

Vitas was a story in and of himself -- just an incredible guy. Hours after ridiculous partying, he leads a kid's clinic the next morning. I was there, once as a kid, once as a feeder a few years later.

Orantes somehow beating Vilas in the 75 Forest Hills semi after being dead to rights, like 5-0 in the 4th. Having enough left in the tank to rout Connors in the final.

Ashe over Connors, 75 Wimbledon final. Rope a dope. Basically the Ali-Foreman fight in Kinshasa, only on grass at a nice club in suburban London.

I saw Rod Laver hit a one-handed topspin backhand swingvolley from no man's land. Tennis changed forever (for me). Not a sissy sport AT ALL.

Vilas over Connors, 77 Forest Hills Final. Mayhem.

Borg getting death threats in NY.

Connors going onto Barrazzutti's side of the court to wipe a mark that was his (out, but the linesman called it good, Connors wanted to keep it that way).

Nastase with an umbrella on the court.

Nastase vs Hans Jorgen Pohmann. Forest Hills. Look it up. Never again in sports will you see this kind of behavior.

Evonne Goolagong has a baby. Then wins Wimbledon. I think that was 1980.

Breakfast at Wimbledon.

Pat Cash went to an Iron Maiden concert during a tournament and smelled pretty bad the next day. Won his match and hit the hot tub at the hotel with random hotel guests.

Yannick Noah, smoking right before a match. Among other things in the locker room.

Noah, basically starting the whole 'find your dad in the stands' thing after winning a slam. 83 Roland. Served and volleyed on clay and won it. Against the defending champion, widely regarded as the greatest passing shot machine of his time. This was pure emotion. Love this game.

Mac playing dubs with Arthur Ashe. So cool. Such opposites.

An aging and undersized Ken Rosewall beats the crap out of most of the tour in 1974.

Newk. Legendary with the ladies.

Billie Jean King. Legendary for the ladies.

Borg. Never been a cooler tennis shirt than the pinstriped FILA.

The Wilson t2000. The single sh!ttiest piece of tennis equipment ever made. (paraphrased from an article by David Foster Wallace)

Vilas with the backwards tweener, later perfected by Sabatini and Noah. And now anyone and everyone.

Laver over Rosewall in 5, WCT finals in Texas. The finest men playing the finest tennis the world had ever seen.

Borg vs Mac. The battle of 18-16. The finest tennis with wood.

Lendl winning the biggest jr tournament in the world at Port Washington. Slazenger Challenge No. 1. Slice Bh for the most part.

Lendl wearing kangaroo leather shoes and switching from wood to a graphite Kneissl white star twin. Winning a million bucks in a year, long before he ever won a slam title. Money ball.

'You Cannot Be Serious! That ball was ON the LoINE. Chalk flew up!'

'You guys are the absolute pits of the world.'

'Answer the question. THE QUESTION, jerk!'

Lendl reads Eat To Win and follows The Haas diet. Mac retorts with a name for his own regimen - 'The Haagen Dazs diet'.

Navratilova getting super fit. The mother of the modern game gives birth to the end of the golden era.

[Frankc]

Beautiful - thanks

[comeback]

Originally Posted by Tshooter

You are mixing up the score, the court and the year. As well as the players first name. I was at the match.

Bonus points if you remember what other star player played on a field court at the same time. Victory lap if you recall what match was placed in the stadium at the same time.

Yes Tshooter, i went everyday for the 3 years it was on Har Tru so i got the years mixed up but the score is pretty close..i could have sworn it was on the grandstand though..What are the other answers??

[comeback]

I saw some World Team Tennis matches in Madison Square Garden. The GARDEN. Weird-color-blocked court. NY Apples vs Boston Lobsters. Bud Collins on channel 13 (PBS affil)

i went to a lot of the WTT NY Apples..I saw Australian lefty Ray Ruffles beat Borg in a set 6-4 and i would often see Ruffles many years later coaching at US OPEN Qualies and remind him..HE LOVED HEARING IT

[comeback]

An aging and undersized Ken Rosewall beats the crap out of most of the tour in 1974.

At the US OPEN Forest Hills on Har Tru grandstand court i saw Rosewall make Phil Dent look silly with a smooth as silk variety in a straight set win

[comeback]

The Wilson t2000. The single sh!ttiest piece of tennis equipment ever made. (paraphrased from an article by David Foster Wallace)

How great was Conners that he could play so well with it

[JAY1]

Originally Posted by slice bh compliment

Great ones in this thread. Indeed, the golden era of tennis....with all its idiosyncrasies and conflicts of interest (not that things are any more professional nowadays, haha).

If I may add... a few scattered thoughts/memories growing up as a tennis player during the 'tennis boom' in NY:

85 open, first rd, Mac over Shlomo Glickstein, 7-6 in the 3rd. I've never screamed so loud in my life. I realize this was a year after the OP's definition of the golden era, but these things have gray areas.

So on the early side of the golden era....the 72 Forest Hills final. Wow. Nasty over Ashe in 5 sets. What a match. Lead changes, drama, high quality tennis from all parts of the court. Contrasting styles, and that's just from the guy in the blue shirt. The Bucharest Backfire (history's hippest lob retrieval, later sampled/digitally remastered/covered by Dr. Dre in a might match vs Corretja in the 95 US Open).

Bobby Riggs vs Margaret Court. Riggs vs BJKing. Cheesy but effective way to kick off the golden era.

I saw some World Team Tennis matches in Madison Square Garden. The GARDEN. Weird-color-blocked court. NY Apples vs Boston Lobsters. Bud Collins on channel 13 (PBS affil)

My uncle (a tennis coach) told me about a teenage boy at Port Washington who was routinely winning practice sets off international circuit players.

Mac vs Nastase at the 79 US Open. Frank Hammond in the chair. Chaos. Default. Reinstatement. Vulgarity. Some intense, some sweet tennis. Hammond is relieved of his duties. Mac ends up prevailing.

Must read Rage for Perfection, the Richard Evans book on Mac.

Vitas was a story in and of himself -- just an incredible guy. Hours after ridiculous partying, he leads a kid's clinic the next morning. I was there, once as a kid, once as a feeder a few years later.

Orantes somehow beating Vilas in the 75 Forest Hills semi after being dead to rights, like 5-0 in the 4th. Having enough left in the tank to rout Connors in the final.

Ashe over Connors, 75 Wimbledon final. Rope a dope. Basically the Ali-Foreman fight in Kinshasa, only on grass at a nice club in suburban London.

I saw Rod Laver hit a one-handed topspin backhand swingvolley from no man's land. Tennis changed forever (for me). Not a sissy sport AT ALL.

Vilas over Connors, 77 Forest Hills Final. Mayhem.

Borg getting death threats in NY.

Connors going onto Barrazzutti's side of the court to wipe a mark that was his (out, but the linesman called it good, Connors wanted to keep it that way).

Nastase with an umbrella on the court.

Nastase vs Hans Jorgen Pohmann. Forest Hills. Look it up. Never again in sports will you see this kind of behavior.

Evonne Goolagong has a baby. Then wins Wimbledon. I think that was 1980.

Breakfast at Wimbledon.

Pat Cash went to an Iron Maiden concert during a tournament and smelled pretty bad the next day. Won his match and hit the hot tub at the hotel with random hotel guests.

Yannick Noah, smoking right before a match. Among other things in the locker room.

Noah, basically starting the whole 'find your dad in the stands' thing after winning a slam. 83 Roland. Served and volleyed on clay and won it. Against the defending champion, widely regarded as the greatest passing shot machine of his time. This was pure emotion. Love this game.

Mac playing dubs with Arthur Ashe. So cool. Such opposites.

An aging and undersized Ken Rosewall beats the crap out of most of the tour in 1974.

Newk. Legendary with the ladies.

Billie Jean King. Legendary for the ladies.

Borg. Never been a cooler tennis shirt than the pinstriped FILA.

The Wilson t2000. The single sh!ttiest piece of tennis equipment ever made. (paraphrased from an article by David Foster Wallace)

Vilas with the backwards tweener, later perfected by Sabatini and Noah. And now anyone and everyone.

Laver over Rosewall in 5, WCT finals in Texas. The finest men playing the finest tennis the world had ever seen.

Borg vs Mac. The battle of 18-16. The finest tennis with wood.

Lendl winning the biggest jr tournament in the world at Port Washington. Slazenger Challenge No. 1. Slice Bh for the most part.

Lendl wearing kangaroo leather shoes and switching from wood to a graphite Kneissl white star twin. Winning a million bucks in a year, long before he ever won a slam title. Money ball.

'You Cannot Be Serious! That ball was ON the LoINE. Chalk flew up!'

'You guys are the absolute pits of the world.'

'Answer the question. THE QUESTION, jerk!'

Lendl reads Eat To Win and follows The Haas diet. Mac retorts with a name for his own regimen - 'The Haagen Dazs diet'.

Navratilova getting super fit. The mother of the modern game gives birth to the end of the golden era.

Thank you! You deserve some kind of award for all of this....

[treblings]

Originally Posted by comeback

The Wilson t2000. The single sh!ttiest piece of tennis equipment ever made. (paraphrased from an article by David Foster Wallace)

How great was Conners that he could play so well with it

Connors was pretty great, but he probably didn´t share slice´s opinion of the t2000. he played with it long after it was outdated

[jrepac]

Originally Posted by slice bh compliment

Great ones in this thread. Indeed, the golden era of tennis....with all its idiosyncrasies and conflicts of interest (not that things are any more professional nowadays, haha).

If I may add... a few scattered thoughts/memories growing up as a tennis player during the 'tennis boom' in NY:

85 open, first rd, Mac over Shlomo Glickstein, 7-6 in the 3rd. I've never screamed so loud in my life. I realize this was a year after the OP's definition of the golden era, but these things have gray areas.

So.

LOL---I was at the first round match too, it was incredibly loud and insane! I was hoarse for days afterwards! the crowd really got behind Glickstein, it was something else.

[jean pierre]

Vilas and Caroline ...

[Tshooter]

Originally Posted by comeback

Yes Tshooter, i went everyday for the 3 years it was on Har Tru so i got the years mixed up but the score is pretty close..i could have sworn it was on the grandstand though..What are the other answers??

1. Borg

2. This one you should be able to come up with. Have they ever had the #1 and #2 men both play their first round matches off center court on the same day (or any day ?). A Thursday by the way (it must have made a huge impression on me as a child). How could that be ? Because the tournament was only 12 days. It started on Wednesday. Does any of this ring a bell ? So what was so big in 1977 that it could push two superstars off the center court ?

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/entertai...,5749506.photo

[kiki]

No decade matches 70 s for diversity and richness of play a top
Baseline flat strokes like Connors,Rosewall,Gerulaitis,Kodes
Artists like Rosewall,Nasty,Santana,Orantes,Panatta and we can fit in here Mayer and Amriteaj
All round genious like Laver,Nastase,Mc Enroe and other secondary guys like Ramirez or Gerulaitis as well as Okker and Lutz
Top spin machines such as Borg,Vilas and other guys like Dibbs,Solomon,Hugueras and Barazutti
High quality serve and volley with Smith,Ashe,Roche,Newcombe
Tanner,Gottfried,Stockton,Pecci, Panatta
And a great supporting cast with Fibak,Cox,Alexander,Dent,Franuliovic,Pilic,Taylor, Lloyd,Kriek,Clerc,Gildem.,
Gimeno,Richey,Riessen,Gorman,Metrevali,Gisbert,Fle ming,Teacher,Scanlo,Edmondson and Bertolucci, and I am leaving aside some names
No other decade was richer except maybe the 50' s and even that with less depth
,

[JAY1]

Originally Posted by jean pierre

Vilas and Caroline ...

Vilas & Caroline, can you please explain, is this Princess Caroline of Monaco?