Which was the best Masters Cup field?

[Moose Malloy]

1973:
Ilie Nastase, John Newcombe, Jan Kodes, Tom Gorman
Tom Okker, Jimmy Connors, Stan Smith, Manuel Orantes

1980:
John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg, Gene Mayer, Jose-Luis Clerc
Ivan Lendl, Jimmy Connors, Harold Solomon, Guillermo Vilas

1986:
Ivan Lendl, Stefan Edberg, Yannick Noah, Andres Gomez
Boris Becker, Mats Wilander, Henri Leconte, Joakim Nystrom

1992:
Jim Courier, Goran Ivanisevic, Michael Chang, Richard Krajicek, Stefan Edberg, Pete Sampras, Petr Korda, Boris Becker.

1996:
Michael Chang, Goran Ivanisevic, Thomas Muster, Richard Krajicek
Pete Sampras, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Boris Becker, Andre Agassi, Thomas Enqvist (alt)

2000:
Pete Sampras, Marat Safin, Lleyton Hewitt, Alex Corretja, Andre Agassi, Gustavo Kuerten, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Magnus Norman

2004:
Roger Federer, Lleyton Hewitt, Carlos Moya, Gaston Gaudio, Andy Roddick, Marat Safin, Guillermo Coria, Tim Henman.

http://www.masters-cup.com/3/history/

 

[jamumafa]

2000 or '73. Kuerten and nastase kick ass

 

[Zuras]

'80 or '92.

 

[tennisfreak]

1996 owned.

 

[The tennis guy]

It's difficult to pick. You can't pick based on the achievement of the players later in their career.

Based on the players who had won slams at the time of the tournament, 1996 and 2004 are the strongest.

 

[sypl]

1992 and 1996

 

[vive le beau jeu !]

good choices... i like 1996, but there are also other years with impressive fields !
1987 and 1989 are good too :

1987/New York, New York, USA -- 2–7 December 1987 -- Surface: Carpet
Rod Laver Group: Ivan Lendl, Boris Becker, Jimmy Connors, Brad Gilbert.
Pancho Segura Group: Stefan Edberg, Mats Wilander, Miloslav Mecir, Pat Cash.

1989/New York, New York, USA -- 28 November–3 December 1989 -- Surface: Carpet
Rod Laver Group: Ivan Lendl, John McEnroe, Michael Chang, Aaron Krickstein.
Ilie Nastase Group: Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg, Andre Agassi, Brad Gilbert.

and look at these groups :
- White Group in 1994 = Boris Becker, Pete Sampras, Stefan Edberg, Goran Ivanisevic.
- John Newcombe Group in 1991 = Boris Becker, Michael Stich, Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi.

that's frightening !!!

 

[Moose Malloy]

John Newcombe Group in 1991 = Boris Becker, Michael Stich, Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi.

Becker, Sampras, & Agassi all finished the RR 2-1, so they used the sets tiebreaker.

White Group in 1994 = Boris Becker, Pete Sampras, Stefan Edberg, Goran Ivanisevic.

And look at the other group that year:Berasategui, Bruguera, Chang, Agassi. Talk about an uneven draw.

 

[psamp14]

i cant say for sure because i didnt see the older ones, but 1996 stood out, especially the sampras-becker final

 

[Zuras]

Er, 1996(I don't see a dud in the last). 1992, about the same. 1980 just for sheer historic butt kickness. Would need your definition of "best".

 

[vive le beau jeu !]

Becker, Sampras, & Agassi all finished the RR 2-1, so they used the sets tiebreaker.

yes i remember that... it happened in 1995 too with sampras, ferreira and becker.
but did they ever need to use the % of games ?

And look at the other group that year:Berasategui, Bruguera, Chang, Agassi. Talk about an uneven draw.

clearly uneven, indeed ! do you think it was a consipiration ?

funny to see what hazard can do...
becker and sampras played simultaneously the masters 6 years : from 1990 to 1996, excepted 1993 when becker didn't qualify. they were in different groups in 1990, and in the same group the 5 other times !

 

[armand]

Good thread. So who were the winners? Notable matches?

 

[The Grand Slam]

'92 for the win.

 

[sarpmas]

Becker, Sampras, & Agassi all finished the RR 2-1, so they used the sets tiebreaker.

Wow! Talk about group of death!!
Moose, do you have a breakdown of the scores in each round for this group? I can't seemed to find the results at the masters website. Thanks.

 

[ericsson]

1996 for sure, sampras - becker, what a match!

 

[justineheninhoogenbandfan]

I would say the 1973 group. You have Ilie Nastase who was at his maddeningly talented peak around then, Newcombe and Smith who were the top 2 players in the World in the early 70s arguably, Kodes who won multiple French Opens and went through tough draws to reach 2 U.S Open finals, Orantes who would beat Connors in the final to win a U.S Open in only a couple years, Okker who always gave the big guns fits even though he never quite won a singles slam, and Gorman who beat Laver at Wimbledon a couple years prior to that I believe, and Connors who would start dominating mens tennis with a historicaly great year the next year. I thought seriously about picking 1980 or 1986 as well.

Interestingly looking at the order they are put in, of those selected 7 I find they probably go from best to least best for me in chronological order. As the years go by of those selected 7 years it gets a little less strong with each one right up until the most recent-2004. Sure in 2004 you have 7 Grand Slam Champions, and a guy having his best year ever(Henman)with 2 semis at slams and a dissapointing quarter of his best slam(Wimbledon). However you also have 2 true clay courters who can do well on some non-clay surfaces but are hopeless on such a fast court(Gaudio and Coria), only 2 multi slam winners at the time(Federer and Hewitt)although Safin would become one only a couple months later, and only 1 true all time great of any degree-Federer.

 

[urban]

Good choices, Moose. I think the 73 Masters was the real breakthrough of the event, with most of the best WCT players competing against the ITF players.I think Newcombe got injured against Okker in the sf on match point (for Newcombe) and retired. Otherwise, Nastase and Newcombe would have battled out the Nr. 1 spot for the year. In Clericis 500 years of Tennis is a ranking list of the 1973 season, made by Rino Tommasi, which included Nastase, Newcombe, Connors, Laver, Rosewall, Okker, Kodes, Smith, Ashe, and Borg. Quite high standard, i would say.

 

[federmann]

the best masters cup field out of the ones you stated was in 1992!

 

[Moose Malloy]

Wow! Talk about group of death!!
Moose, do you have a breakdown of the scores in each round for this group? I can't seemed to find the results at the masters website. Thanks.

1991/Frankfurt, Germany -- 12–17 November 1991 -- Surface: Carpet

John Newcombe Group: Boris Becker, Michael Stich, Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi.

Agassi d. Becker 63 75
Sampras d. Stich 62 76(3)
Sampras d. Agassi 63 16 63
Becker d. Stich 76(1) 63(this was memorable because the crowd was 99% behind Boris. Stich was unhappy that a German player who was the reigning Wimbledon champ could be treated that way)
Becker d. Sampras 64 67(3) 61(Sampras winning the 2nd set clinched his spot in the semis. You can see that he lost a bit of interest the rest of the match)
Agassi d. Stich 75 63

 

[The Puppeteer]

ninety two for sure

 

[jukka1970]

1973:
Ilie Nastase, John Newcombe, Jan Kodes, Tom Gorman
Tom Okker, Jimmy Connors, Stan Smith, Manuel Orantes

1980:
John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg, Gene Mayer, Jose-Luis Clerc
Ivan Lendl, Jimmy Connors, Harold Solomon, Guillermo Vilas

1986:
Ivan Lendl, Stefan Edberg, Yannick Noah, Andres Gomez
Boris Becker, Mats Wilander, Henri Leconte, Joakim Nystrom

1992:
Jim Courier, Goran Ivanisevic, Michael Chang, Richard Krajicek, Stefan Edberg, Pete Sampras, Petr Korda, Boris Becker.

1996:
Michael Chang, Goran Ivanisevic, Thomas Muster, Richard Krajicek
Pete Sampras, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Boris Becker, Andre Agassi, Thomas Enqvist (alt)

2000:
Pete Sampras, Marat Safin, Lleyton Hewitt, Alex Corretja, Andre Agassi, Gustavo Kuerten, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Magnus Norman

2004:
Roger Federer, Lleyton Hewitt, Carlos Moya, Gaston Gaudio, Andy Roddick, Marat Safin, Guillermo Coria, Tim Henman.

http://www.masters-cup.com/3/history/

I'd vote for 1992. Such a huge contrast between players techniques. And I imagine was a well balanced field, and taking a glance at the way it was split up, looks like each side was balanced well.

Jukka

 

[Dark Victory]

It's 1996 for me. Incredible field.

2004 isn't very good imo. For crying out loud, it's got Gaudio, Moya, Coria and Henman!

 

[snapple]

I'll take the 1980 cast in a second. Borg, Mac, and Connors at or near their peaks with a rapidly ascending Lendl close on their tails. WOW!

 

[Rabbit]

I'm definitely with snapple. The 1980 group just stands out to me. I can only add the Jose Luis Clerc, while not a historic player, was certainly one of the best of the era on clay and medium paced surfaces. Add to that the no love lost between Clerc and Vilas along with the no love lost between McEnroe, Connors, and Lendl, and you've got some great tennis theater there.

 

[LttlElvis]

I like the field of 1980. However, I think that's the year Lendl tanked vs. Connors. (Winner of Lendl vs. Connors had to play Borg in the semis. Loser had to play Gene Mayer.) Borg beat Connors in the semis, then Borg kicked Lendl's a$s in the finals.

I like round robin tourneys, but this was were there is a big flaw in the format.

 

[Moose Malloy]

1980:
John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg, Gene Mayer, Jose-Luis Clerc
Ivan Lendl, Jimmy Connors, Harold Solomon, Guillermo Vilas

was just looking at the draw, how were Borg & Mac in the same group? They were ranked 1 & 2 at the time!

Shockingly, Mac went 0-3 that year:

Mayer d. McEnroe 36 76 62
Borg d. McEnroe 64 67 76
Clerc d. McEnroe 63 60 (guess this was a meaningless match)

 

[vive le beau jeu !]

I like the field of 1980. However, I think that's the year Lendl tanked vs. Connors. (Winner of Lendl vs. Connors had to play Borg in the semis. Loser had to play Gene Mayer.) Borg beat Connors in the semis, then Borg kicked Lendl's a$s in the finals.

I like round robin tourneys, but this was were there is a big flaw in the format.

wow... you mean he intentionnaly lost vs connors in RR for avoiding borg in the SF ? :shock:
then i guess he was asked about it in the press conference... i'm curious to know what he answered ! lendl was young in that time... did he already have this kinda sarcastic self-assurance in the interviews ?

 

[LttlElvis]

Lendl could have beaten Connors easily. He pretty much was in control of the first set, but made it look close and tanked the tiebreaker. The second set was an obvious tank. 7-6, 6-1.

Everyone knew he wasn't trying. Connors knew it, the MSG crowd knew it. Connors played hard against Borg in the semis, but Borg by this time had Connors number. Borg had beaten him multiple times in a row by this time.

And yes, Lendl did give sarcastic answers in the interview. For the sake of sports competition this was terrible. But, if you were him, could you blame him? He was young, up and coming. His chances to make more money and get to the finals were better by losing. He was alone from a then Communist country, and now he was in the limelight in front of the whole world. Years later, he did admit to the tank.

 

[vive le beau jeu !]

Lendl could have beaten Connors easily. He pretty much was in control of the first set, but made it look close and tanked the tiebreaker. The second set was an obvious tank. 7-6, 6-1.

Everyone knew he wasn't trying. Connors knew it, the MSG crowd knew it. Connors played hard against Borg in the semis, but Borg by this time had Connors number. Borg had beaten him multiple times in a row by this time.

And yes, Lendl did give sarcastic answers in the interview. For the sake of sports competition this was terrible. But, if you were him, could you blame him? He was young, up and coming. His chances to make more money and get to the finals were better by losing. He was alone from a then Communist country, and now he was in the limelight in front of the whole world. Years later, he did admit to the tank.

thx for the info... i love to read these old tennis stories !
at least, good from him that he admitted it later.
it doesn't keep me from still being impressed by his 9 straight masters finals...