- 2 days ago
IG: aj_mckenzie416
Twitter: AJMckenzie94847
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:11Welcome to Who's Number One.
00:13I'm Trey Wingo.
00:14In golf, it's the Masters.
00:16In football, Super Bowl.
00:17Cycling, Tour de France.
00:19These are time-tested, time-honored.
00:22Set your calendar for the marquee events of their sports.
00:25And in tennis, the Tiffany of tournaments is Wimbledon.
00:28We all know by heart the ritual of center court.
00:31Face the royal box, bow, curtsy, and then spill your guts all over the scarred and sacred lawn.
00:36For two weeks, or as they call it, a fortnight.
00:39The best players in the world serve and volley, chase and retrieve,
00:42and in the process create some lasting images.
00:44And that's our offering for you now.
00:46We serve it up.
00:47The 20 most memorable Wimbledon matches of all time as voted by ESPN Classic.
00:562020.
00:58He's probably no more for that Billie Jean King match than how great of a tennis player he was.
01:04But he was a sensational tennis player.
01:082020.
01:1034 years before his celebrated match with Billie Jean King,
01:13and a display of put your money where your mouth is self-confidence,
01:17Bobby Riggs bet on himself to win the singles, doubles, and mixed doubles.
01:21In his only Wimbledon appearance, he did, rallying to take the singles in five sets.
01:261939 Wimbledon.
01:27Bobby Riggs, great gamesman, great sportsman, really knew how to work the angles.
01:33That's how he saw the doubles.
01:35And for the heck of it, throws in the mixed doubles.
01:37We got maybe 66 to 1 and bet $2,000.
01:42He won all three.
01:45That's a pretty remarkable record.
01:48Bobby Riggs was a great character.
01:51And he was such a clever, cunning competitor.
01:54He used to bet on himself.
01:55He made it a secret of the fact.
01:57In fact, he wrote a book about it.
01:58I think it was called Tennis is My Wrecked.
02:01He was a hustler, all right.
02:02The tournament that year was the essence of Bobby Riggs.
02:06Before he's ever played there before, he's already betting on himself to win.
02:10That's Bobby.
02:18Strange things were happening at Wimbledon that year.
02:22Very strange things.
02:28But the Goran story was just unbelievable.
02:3119.
02:34Three-time runner-up Goran Ivanecevic and his cannonball serve broke through at last in 2001.
02:40The Croatian Southpaw detonated a tournament record 213 aces.
02:44And with his triumph over Patrick Raptor, became the only wild card to win at Wimbledon.
02:50Goran Ivanecevic.
02:51Southpaw.
02:51This is how you put up.
02:54You represent left-handedness.
02:57So many years was the Buffalo Bills of Wimbledon.
03:00He lost three finals, two of them in five agonizing sets.
03:04He's a guy who's ranked 125 in the world.
03:07He phones up the All-England club, says,
03:09Goran, please can I have a wild card?
03:11And they say, oh, see, is it you?
03:12Yes, of course you can.
03:14A lot of us thought that he was past his prime, but he still had this one last shot, you
03:20know, to do it.
03:26Finally, Goran is delivered.
03:28He wins the Wimbledon that he's tried to win his whole career.
03:34It was great, except I was one of the guys he beat.
03:38I'm glad that Goran will be remembered as a Wimbledon champion because he's definitely a great grass court player.
03:48There was one passive past his prime, only 29 when that happened.
03:58Your play that really encapsulates.
04:05That was the match of the stupendous game, which seemed to go on for about three and a half weeks.
04:11Standing ovation, an incredible game.
04:15A match comes down to this incredible deadlock.
04:19If Arantxa lost her serve, then Steffi was almost inevitably going to serve out the match.
04:27Sanchez Vicario never liked playing on grass all that much, so for her to be in the finals of Wimbledon
04:32was a huge occasion.
04:34Vicario was a clay court player, and so her game was endurance, keep the ball in play.
04:39But I would never bet against Steffi Graf on grass.
04:49You never really thought that Arantxa Sanchez Vicario would ever become a Wimbledon champion.
04:57Steffi Graf proved once and for all that she was the queen of women's tennis,
05:01and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario found a glass ceiling.
05:05And what was that ceiling?
05:0717.
05:10The two things really mattered to Pete Sampras.
05:12That was winning Grand Slams and maintaining the number one ranking.
05:19He expected to win Wimbledon.
05:2117.
05:2498, men's final.
05:26Pete Sampras against laser-serving Goran Ivanecevic.
05:28The Croat fired 32 aces, but also double-faulted 20 times.
05:33Sampras with a dozen aces of his own, won in five sets, 6-2 in the final.
05:39That match, I think, was two backhands.
05:42Poor old Goran went for them.
05:47Ooh, just out.
05:48He missed them.
05:49He didn't go two sets to love up.
05:51That let Sampras back in again.
05:54Sampras had that kind of champion's instinct that came to its fore at Wimbledon,
05:59and to beat him in a Wimbledon final, well, no-one did it.
06:13Wimbledon, at some level, becomes an unbelievably and unbearable mental struggle,
06:18and it's almost like a gunfight where who's going to blink first?
06:22If memory serves me correct, Pete was pretty good at those big situations.
06:25It was just another example of why Sampras is quite possibly the finest Wimbledon player there's ever been.
06:34I don't know if he is.
06:3616.
06:39At the time, female tennis desperately needed something fresh, new, bright.
06:47And like a flash of sunlight, along came Maria Sharapova.
06:5216.
06:55Maria Sharapova learned English in four months.
06:58She learned tennis with equal facility,
06:59and in 2004 became the first Russian to win Wimbledon,
07:03upsetting two-time defending champion Serena Williams in straight sets,
07:07with returns clocked at more than 100 miles per hour.
07:11I was expecting Williams to win absolutely everyone except Maria Sharapova.
07:16I thought I was playing really, really well throughout the whole tournament,
07:19and if I could beat Lindsay Davenport, I thought, you know,
07:22why can't I beat Serena Williams?
07:25Are you sure she's Russian and just learned English, like, four months before this?
07:32Are you sure?
07:34Because she sounds like she's from the U.S.
07:43She unleashed her forehands, she dominated, she shrieked, she didn't look back.
07:50She was so bold in her shot-making, and so certain of herself,
07:54and I think she astounded everyone, not excluding Serena.
07:57It was incredible.
07:58I was in shock because it's my favorite Grand Slam for such a long time.
08:03Just to win it, it meant a lot to me.
08:08She's a champion, and she's going to win Wimbledon again.
08:12Fifteen.
08:13Fifteen.
08:14Fifteen.
08:16Smith versus Nastassi was like good versus evil.
08:19It was like the dark poet from Romania versus the upstanding kid from California.
08:23And it was just wonderful, wonderful tennis.
08:25Fifteen.
08:26Yeah.
08:28He could be like a 40-year-old father of five.
08:331972 final.
08:34Tied at 4-4 in the fifth, Stan Smith was serving down love 30.
08:39Ilya Nastassi blistered a forehand that looked like a sure winner,
08:42but with a desperate lunge, the American got the very top of the wooden racket frame on the ball.
08:47Just enough to notch the point.
08:49Then he went on to win the set 7-5 for the title.
08:53Nastassi was nothing if not a trickster, and he pulled them all.
08:58He talked to his opponents, he talked to the linesmen, he talked to the crowd.
09:02He was a character, and whatever he had to do to win, he would.
09:09On the other side of the court was one of the nice guys and a fantastic champion, Stan Smith.
09:15Stan had the ability not to be disturbed or irritated by Nastassi, and Stan owned Nastassi.
09:23I remember Stan Smith leaping the net, grabbing Nastassi, and hugging him.
09:31In the end, it was Smith that prevailed, because he was the stronger mentally.
09:36Stan was a tremendous competitor, and against Nastassi, he just knew how to play.
09:42He had Nastassi's number.
09:44You're telling me Stan Smith was 25 here?
09:5114.
09:5214.
09:55One of the oldest stories, one of the most continuous narratives in tennis is choking.
10:00It's got to be one of the biggest chokes in Wimbledon history.
10:06Complete meltdown.
10:09Vontage, Miss Graf.
10:12The victory was on her racket, as Jana Novotna was one point from going up 5-1 in the third
10:18set of the 93 final.
10:19But the Czech then lost 21 of the last 28 points, and went from overwhelming lead to overwhelmed
10:26emotionally.
10:28It should have been Jana Novotna's title.
10:31She was doing everything right, and then suddenly, everything started to fall apart.
10:36She was so nervous.
10:38I never saw a person so nervous in my life, and she's way ahead.
10:42The worst thing a tennis player can do is think they've won a match, and Novotna, I
10:47think in her mind, she saw the trophy in her hands, and that's fatal.
10:51And all the things that she was doing naturally, she began to get jerky.
10:54But Graf, the remorseless player that she was, kept going and kept going and kept going,
10:59and bit by bit, Novotna fell apart.
11:02Well, in set, Matt, Miss Graf.
11:04You ended up watching that match, not impressed by Graf, but in awe of how awful Novotna was.
11:15Graf wins.
11:16Poor Novotna's called forward.
11:18And the Duchess of Kent obviously said something that triggered the tears.
11:23And that image that flew around the world of the royal consoling the Czech is something
11:28that you'll never forget.
11:3313, 13, 13.
11:36There are some matches that you see which you remember almost every stroke of, because
11:43the brilliance of the tennis is such that it leaves you gasping.
11:50What a wonderful shot.
11:52Such a match was Bjorn Borg and Vetus Gerolitis, 1977, semi-final.
11:5713, 13.
12:00Sparring partners and friends, Bjorn Borg and Vetus Gerolitis found themselves opponents.
12:05After the fifth game of the fifth set, Gerolitis led for the first time.
12:09Later...
12:10As somebody who doesn't even know that much about tennis, this is not the last time we're
12:14going to see Borg.
12:16He held match point, but stroked a backhand long.
12:19Borg rallied and won the set, 8-6.
12:22Borg had won Wimbledon.
12:24He was the defending champion.
12:25It was ice that flowed through Bjorn Borg's veins.
12:29You're talking about player Borg that was absolutely dominant, and you're talking about player Gerolitis
12:36who had the talent.
12:38Did he have the application?
12:39Probably not.
12:40The Borg-Gerolitis semi-final was probably the greatest sustained display of brilliant
12:46shot-making by two players that you could ever want to see.
12:51Both guys played at maximum level, fifth gear, all the way through, and Borg happened to
12:55win.
12:56That proved to everybody, again, just how outstanding Borg was and how, in order to
13:01beat him on any surface, you had to have more than just great talent.
13:06You had to have superhuman talent.
13:08Vetus didn't have it.
13:12Twelve.
13:13Twelve.
13:14When I first started watching tennis when I was a young girl, my favorite players were
13:19Chris Everett and Yvonne Goulagong.
13:20Twelve.
13:22Tied with Yvonne Goulagong at four-all in the third set of the 76 final, Chris Everett
13:26was encouraged in body language by some of her peers to abandon her customary baseline position
13:31and attack.
13:32She did, but then fell behind 6-5 before rallying to win the last three games for the match.
13:40Goulagong is a much-loved figure, obviously, in Australia, because long before Cathy Freeman
13:45did it in athletics, she really put aboriginal sport and aboriginal achievement on the agenda
13:50in Australia.
13:52You couldn't have asked for a better match-up of opposites.
13:56With Goulagong, she ran like a young deer, hardly ever seemed like any G-forces on the ground,
14:03and Chrissy, who just pounded it out.
14:06Both women were at the top of their games and in their primes, and it was certainly one
14:11of the great grass-port wins of Chris Everett's career.
14:1476 was pretty well my best year, and I'd beaten Chris at most matches that I'd played that
14:20year, except for the main ones, really.
14:27I remember that very vividly.
14:30I'd beaten Yvonne in a real tough three-set match.
14:33I didn't play as well as I had during the whole year against her.
14:37It was one of the really tough matches.
14:4111-11.
14:43You look in the record, Brooks, and Margaret Court's name comes up time and time again.
14:50There's a school of thought that Margaret Court is the finest woman player ever to play
14:54the game.
14:5511-11.
14:58In 1970, Margaret Court and Billie Jean King slugged it out in a two-set marathon that ground
15:04on for 46 games, a record for the women's final.
15:08With her injured foot numbed and taped, the resolute Aussie prevailed 14-12, 11-9, and went
15:14on to win the Grand Slam.
15:16There was an incredible rivalry between Court and King.
15:20There was this big, tall, muscular Australian athlete.
15:24What were the chances of a tennis player being named Court and being like a Wimbledon winner?
15:36And there was this short, bespectacled American fighter.
15:43Billie Jean King and Margaret Court.
15:45They produced an absolute beauty, because they were both at their peak, despite both
15:51being injured.
15:52They were kind of staggering around the Court, as if they were something out of one of these
15:56Rocky movies, where, well, who's going to go down first?
15:59And Court had a little bit more firepower.
16:10When Margaret Court played and Billie Jean King played, no tie breaks, so you had to be that extra bit
16:15mentally tough, because sets could go on forever.
16:18I'm glad that the tie break was brought into the game, because I don't think I could have lasted all
16:22those sets being that long.
16:24Well, the fact that it was so close, it went so long, I think stands the test of time, and
16:30it's a milestone in women's tennis.
16:36When Pat played Pete in the final, it was plagued by disappointing weather.
16:43A lot of pressure on Pete, trying to break his record.
16:47It's one of those nights when you're just so grateful that you were there.
16:52Because history was in the making.
16:54Ten.
16:57Neither rain, nor dark, nor injury could keep Pete Sampras from his appointment with history in 2000.
17:02The hobbling American's 27 aces against Patrick Rafter helped him raise his finals record at Wimbledon to 7-0,
17:09and propelled him to a record 13th Grand Slam singles title.
17:14He was really struggling mentally and really feeling the burden of the pressure to try to break the record.
17:20This was a real tough fortnight for Sampras, probably his toughest in his whole career in a Grand Slam.
17:25He had to get injections in his shin before every match. He wasn't even practicing.
17:31He was playing basically with a wooden leg.
17:32It was a difficult final. There were rain delays, it went on. We were almost cooled off because of darkness.
17:38Here you had Patrick Rafter, great Cerm Volleyer from Australia, trying to win Wimbledon,
17:43and had the greatest game for it, going against the best player ever, especially at Wimbledon.
17:48Australia stayed up all night to watch this. This was a great opportunity for Rafter to win a Wimbledon.
17:55Pete just pulled out something magical when he really had to.
18:00Thanks!
18:04It was pretty emotional, and to see Pete's family, his parents were there,
18:09to come over to watch him break the record was pretty spectacular.
18:13When the winning point goes in, he started to cry, and that was something that nobody had ever seen before.
18:20He had been sharing the record with Roy Emerson of 12 Grand Slam singles titles,
18:25and he had broken it by beating an Australian.
18:28He wasn't the most popular person in Australia at that time.
18:30You couldn't ask for a more impeccable display of great tennis.
18:36And, you know, Rafter was just a foil to Sampras' greatness that day.
18:43Nine, nine, nine.
18:47He was my first rivalry to where we created more than just the game.
18:53His attitude versus my attitude.
18:55His strength versus my strength.
18:58Nine, nine.
19:01Jorn Borg was as cool as ice.
19:03Jimmy Connors wore his heart on his racket, and lava flowed through his veins.
19:07Tied at 4-0 in the fifth set of the 77 final,
19:10the American double-faulted, lost his serve,
19:13and the stoic Swede swept a love game for his second title.
19:18Borg was absolutely imperturbable in adversity.
19:22I could never pick anything up on him.
19:24I never got a feel of any emotion from him.
19:28He always kept the same look on his face.
19:30Continued to play the same level of tennis.
19:32That was my style of play on the court.
19:35You know, never opened my mouth.
19:36Stay calm.
19:37Doesn't matter if something happened on the court.
19:40I've talked to him about that.
19:41I said, one time, just toss your racket down.
19:43You know, he said, no, I won't do it.
19:44No.
19:46Connors is, like, foaming to kill this guy.
19:49But Borg is a great player.
19:58People thought, well, how can a guy playing from the baseline,
20:00you know, win Wimbledon again for a second time?
20:03Well, we all know what ended up happening.
20:12That was a sign that, you know, that the American grip on tennis was broken.
20:16Borg proved that patience and guts outlasted the aggressor.
20:29The 87th Semi between Chris and Martina really was emblematic of their entire rivalry.
20:38It's probably the enduring rivalry in women's tennis for the last 30, 40 years.
20:45They met for the 73rd time, Martina Navratilova's power against Chris Everett's finesse.
20:51Navratilova won the third set 6-4, lifting a record over her rival to 12-3 in Grand Slam tournaments
20:58since 1980.
21:01Navratilova and Everett, I mean, you're talking at the scale of Red Sox, Yankees, USC, UCLA,
21:06and, of course, you meet at Wimbledon, the greatest venue of them all.
21:10It'd be bigger than both of those.
21:14The rivalry with Chris and I, everything was a contrast.
21:18She played feminine tennis, and I played masculine tennis.
21:22Navratilova, she just ruled Wimbledon.
21:27Oh!
21:29There was an edge to the games they played, and this was probably their best match.
21:34It was still largely about how well Chris could pass and how well Martina could serve in volley,
21:40and the counterattacking of Everett versus the attacking skills of Navratilova.
21:44And the contrast in styles between the attacking Navratilova and the counterpunching Everett really made for just some great tennis.
21:57There were times when they both were wondering about should they continue as retirement looming,
22:02and then the other one would put on a spurt.
22:04So hang on, if she's doing it, I'll do it.
22:06Without each other, those two would never have been as great as they were.
22:09They just kept raising the stakes on each other.
22:11And as they kept raising each other's games, they raised the whole sport.
22:20Althea Gibson, a tall, fast-moving player, powerful and always...
22:24African-American to win the Wimbledon.
22:28...is on the attack.
22:29Seven, seven.
22:32Defeating Darlene Hard in straight sets in 1957,
22:35a tearful Althea Gibson became the first African-American Wimbledon champion.
22:41She played with a style her opponent called devastating,
22:43but the impact of her triumph spread far beyond tennis.
22:48Althea really set the pace for serving volley, which I just loved.
22:52I loved to watch Althea play.
22:54She had a huge reach, of course.
22:56Difficult woman to pass because she would leap out and hit her volleys so well.
23:00And in that final against Darlene Hard, she played quite beautifully.
23:04He was his child who'd come from Harlem,
23:07battled against everything you could possibly battle against,
23:10and came through and won the title on Centre Court at Wimbledon,
23:15kind of the bastion of English high class.
23:18And this black girl from America had conquered everything and won it in style.
23:25Althea Gibson winning Wimbledon that year was really a seminal moment in the civil rights movement.
23:29That's the same year as the Montgomery bus boycott.
23:31You're still a few years away from even civil rights legislation being passed in America.
23:35And to see someone coming from the streets of Harlem to win Wimbledon,
23:38quite an amazing development.
23:40You could argue that it inspired a generation of African-Americans to take up tennis to play tennis.
23:45We almost reap the rewards of that later on, 20, 30 years later,
23:50with Zena Garrison, and then going beyond that with the Williams sisters.
23:53And so it's a hugely significant moment in the history of African-American sport.
23:59Yep.
24:01Six.
24:02Six.
24:02Six.
24:03Chrissie Everett, the ice maiden, so disciplined on a tennis court,
24:07coming up against Martina Navratilova.
24:10Six.
24:11Probably the greatest rivalry in women's tennis.
24:16Six.
24:17One of sport's most riveting rivalries was joined in the 78 final.
24:22Martina Navratilova and Chris Everett.
24:24Navratilova, trailing 5-4 in the third set,
24:27won 12 of the next 13 points
24:29to take the first of her record nine Wimbledon singles titles.
24:35My first time I saw Martina was in a tournament on the USDA tour in Florida.
24:40First of all, she's about 50 pounds overweight.
24:42She came over really chunky, you know, this fat, little Czechoslovakian girl.
24:45And she had all this jewelry draped around her neck and her bracelets and rings.
24:49I chuckled.
24:50I just thought, oh, my God, we're a lot different.
24:53It was Chris, very feminine, girl next door,
24:57dainty, dainty fingernails, playing pretty tennis.
25:01At this stage, Navratilova was relatively unknown, relatively young, only 21,
25:06still playing under the Czechoslovakian nationality.
25:10This was the ultimate matchup.
25:12And the serve volleyer from the communist country against a stoic American.
25:17It was remarkable the way they just pushed each other.
25:23There's Martina down 4-2 in the third set,
25:25and people are thinking, well, that's a nice effort she made.
25:28Chris is probably going to win.
25:29And then like that.
25:31Look at that.
25:33Navratilova ends up winning the match.
25:34Game, set, and match to Miss Navratilova.
25:38Some think she's the greatest player of all time, period,
25:40but certainly must be considered the greatest woman grass court player of all time.
25:44And this was the beginning of that run.
25:49Five, five, five.
25:51You cannot be serious.
25:53That ball was on.
25:56He was totally out of control the entire time.
25:59He was going to do everything he could to win a tennis match,
26:01and he didn't care what he said or what he did.
26:03By all odds, he probably should have been thrown out of the tournament three different days.
26:08After 41 straight Wimbledon wins and five straight Wimbledon titles,
26:13Bjorn Borg met his match in 1981.
26:16In a rematch of the previous year's thrilling final,
26:19John McEnroe defeated Borg.
26:21Borg retired at the end of that season,
26:23and McEnroe assumed his place on the throne.
26:26This was the Superbrat year,
26:28and he was an incredibly larger-than-life character.
26:34He is a guy that I think doesn't hold much respect,
26:37but he held total respect for Borg.
26:41He kept himself on so-called normal level on the court,
26:45and I think that's because of the respect we have of each other.
26:48This is the rematch.
26:49It went with his game as Borg was his.
26:54Game, set, and match.
26:55Borg was my favorite player,
26:57and I wanted him to do it one more time.
26:59It was tough to watch.
27:00Game, set, and match.
27:05Revenge is sweet,
27:06and it was very, very sweet for McEnroe.
27:11That Wimbledon final in 81
27:12was sort of the beginning of the end of Borg.
27:16He could tell that there was someone now
27:18that wasn't intimidated by him
27:20and that maybe had the type of game
27:22that was going to bother him a lot.
27:24It was the beginning of a new generation with McEnroe.
27:32Poncho, at about 2-1 in the second set,
27:36started complaining to the referee
27:38that it was getting dark.
27:40But why can't we wait?
27:41Why should we wait when I can't see the ball?
27:43Gonzalez tried to get the match called because of darkness,
27:46and it really wasn't dark.
27:48Match goes on.
27:49Four.
27:511969.
27:53First round.
27:54Instant history.
27:55Poncho Gonzalez, 41,
27:57played Charlie Passerelle, 25,
27:59and played,
28:00and played,
28:01and played.
28:02Passerelle finally won the first set, 24-22.
28:06After he also took the second,
28:08darkness forced their match into a second day.
28:11Suddenly, people saw this epic confrontation
28:15on center court.
28:18Parcher Gonzalez had this great desire.
28:19He would kill anyone who stood in his way
28:21of winning a tennis match.
28:23And here was Charlie Passerelle,
28:25one of the world's really nice guys,
28:27but with really serious games.
28:29I had the younger legs,
28:31and he had the older legs,
28:32so I figured I'll tire him.
28:36At one point in the match,
28:37Gonzalez yelled at Passerelle.
28:39He says,
28:39Charlie, I know what you're doing.
28:40I know you're trying to get me tired
28:41with those chip returns and those lobs,
28:43but I'm going to tell you,
28:43it's not working.
28:45It was quite remarkable to see the skill still there
28:48in those 40-year-old legs.
28:50He just refused to lose.
28:53And finally, the old guy won,
28:55which was quite incredible.
28:57Gonzalez won the last three sets,
28:59including 11-9 in the fifth.
29:01All told, 112 games in five hours and 12 minutes.
29:06Longest Wimbledon match ever.
29:08At the time, I had no idea
29:10that it would be a match
29:11that people would remember.
29:13In fact, I wish they wouldn't have remembered
29:15because I lost it.
29:23With McEnroe and Connors,
29:24you pretty much knew
29:25that you weren't going to be disappointed
29:27from the time the first ball was struck.
29:29Three.
29:31Jimmy Connors' old lion
29:33against John McEnroe, young Brad.
29:36Eight years after his first Wimbledon title,
29:38Connors summoned that old magic
29:39to win a five-set throw.
29:417-6, 6-4 the last two sets
29:43in a match that took more than four hours.
29:47The great thing about tennis is,
29:48even though they're not throwing punches,
29:49the best sports are me against you.
29:52One-on-one sports.
29:53You know, my best against your best.
29:55Let's see who wins.
29:57A lot of people had more or less written me off
30:00that I would never win Wimbledon again.
30:02Self-doubt was also creeping
30:04into my own mind at the time.
30:07Connors was the street fighter,
30:09was the guy that just refused to give up.
30:12He was like a dog with a bone.
30:14He wouldn't let go.
30:15And he wanted to beat the upstart
30:16down the other end more than anything.
30:18Neither one of them
30:19was at the best that day.
30:22Connors, though,
30:23was just the ultimate in guts and courage
30:25and would not let himself get beat.
30:29Game 5 in mind.
30:33Let's talk about how old he was.
30:35He was only 29.
30:37You know, in 82,
30:38Connors did what people thought
30:40would be no longer possible in men's tennis.
30:42He made a big comeback
30:43after he had been clearly lapped
30:45by the top level of competition.
30:48Nobody thought he could ever be number one again.
30:50Connors had the second act of his career
30:53that neither Borg nor McEnroe ever had.
30:59Two, two, two.
31:03In the 1975 final,
31:05Jimmy Connors ran into Arthur Ashe,
31:07the same man he just sued for libel.
31:09The two were feuding about Connors' refusal
31:11to join the ATP
31:12and play for the U.S. Davis Cup team.
31:15Ashe, a 10-to-1 underdog,
31:17won 12 of the first 14 games
31:19and became the first male
31:21African-American Wimbledon champion.
31:23There was a real antipathy there.
31:26Very hard for Arthur to dislike anybody,
31:28but he really didn't like Jimmy Connors.
31:31Arthur Ashe had been the most magnificent
31:34hitter of a tennis ball,
31:35but this day, it all changed.
31:38Connors fed off pace.
31:40He loved it when he gave him pace.
31:42Ashe gave him none.
31:43A lot of lobs, a lot of chips.
31:46Mixing it up,
31:47Connors was as shocked as everyone else.
31:51He figured out he could slice his serve
31:55at a nice angle to Connors' two-handed backhand.
31:58Jimmy had trouble returning that ball,
32:01and Arthur was right there at the net,
32:03just batting the...
32:15being the volatile character that he is.
32:18It just drove him nuts and helped Arthur win.
32:21Connors was getting more and more frustrated.
32:24Somebody in the crowd, I remember, yelled,
32:26Come on, Connors!
32:27And he turned in frustration to them and yelled,
32:30I'm trying, for Christ's sake!
32:31Two championship points for Arthur Ashe.
32:38A black man had out-thunk a brilliant young white player
32:44in the biggest event in tennis.
32:48He won with his intelligence.
32:50He played a perfect game.
32:52His strategy was perfect,
32:53and there was nothing that Connors could do.
32:57Well, we've shown 19 memorable matches,
32:59and I've done the math,
33:01which means that all that's left is the most memorable
33:03of the most memorable.
33:05Why?
33:06What?
33:08It was a terribly wet Wimbledon.
33:10And so it was sort of almost a surprise.
33:13And then this absolutely brilliant flower
33:16just opened before your eyes.
33:19It was tennis from the gods.
33:23Bjorn Borg, four-time champion against John McEnroe
33:27in his first Wimbledon final.
33:30They'd have all the trappings of a great heavyweight prize fight.
33:35The contrasting styles, Sweden versus New York,
33:38left-hander versus right-hander.
33:41Borg is the champion.
33:43McEnroe is the guy on the make.
33:46I start off great.
33:47I won the first set easily.
33:48I was in control,
33:49and I think I was almost like,
33:51this is too easy.
33:52It's happening too easy.
33:53And once I thought that,
33:54he sort of snuck in mentally
33:56and started to play better and better.
33:59You know, the thing's almost over,
34:01and I'm able to regroup
34:02and get it into a tiebreaker.
34:04This tiebreaker has taken on iconic significance.
34:08It's worthy of it.
34:09Time stood still.
34:11This tiebreaker started.
34:14Six-all, seven-all, eight-all,
34:16and I have match points.
34:17And John is coming up with these unbelievable shots
34:20all the time.
34:21Back down!
34:23That fourth set tiebreaker
34:24took 34 points to resolve.
34:27McEnroe saved five match points,
34:29winning 18-16,
34:31but at great physical cost.
34:33I felt that I had more pressure
34:35than he had in the tiebreaker, though.
34:38Because, you know,
34:38here I'm not panicking,
34:40but still, this is my match.
34:42It cannot slip away my match.
34:44It wasn't just the fact
34:46that they were saving match points
34:48and set points, you know,
34:49in that famous tiebreaker.
34:50It was the way they were doing it.
34:53Every shot was a winner.
34:55And the efficiency fails!
34:57This pass is dead!
35:00When I lost the tiebreaker,
35:02I was very disappointed in myself
35:04to have won this set,
35:05to have won this match.
35:06And here I'm still sitting,
35:08changing sides.
35:09But now it's a matter of heart.
35:11I was tired.
35:12I played some tough matches,
35:13but I thought he was going to, like,
35:14pack it in.
35:15But instead,
35:16he seemed to sort of
35:17pick it up physically a notch.
35:19After this extraordinary,
35:23excruciating tiebreaker,
35:25it was perfect tennis.
35:26I mean, it was just perfect.
35:28I mean,
35:28it should have broken Borg's heart.
35:31And he just came out
35:32and he just played
35:33like a machine.
35:39Borg won 28 of the last
35:4129 points on his serve,
35:43taking the riveting
35:44fifth set, 8-6.
35:46That concluded
35:47the 55-game epic.
35:49Borg the winner,
35:50as were all who saw it.
35:53After the match,
35:54it was just like a relief.
35:56I was too scared
35:57to think what I would do
35:59if I lost that match.
36:03My brother knew
36:04that he really,
36:05he arrived,
36:06even in a losing effort.
36:07And it proved once again
36:09that Borg winning
36:09his fifth straight Wimbledon
36:10was the once and future
36:11king of Wimbledon.
36:13But it also let him know
36:14that this guy McEnroe
36:15wasn't too far from him.
36:17The legacy of the Borg-McEnroe
36:181980 Wimbledon match
36:20is very simple.
36:21It was the single,
36:24most important,
36:25most popular moment
36:26the sport had
36:28in the 20th century.
36:33Strawberries and cream,
36:34gathering storms,
36:36and Noah's Ark rain delays,
36:37and grass courts that,
36:38by the end,
36:39are worn down to their roots.
36:40These are all images
36:42of Wimbledon.
36:43And of course,
36:43bare-knuckle,
36:44bloody-nosed tennis
36:45as you've seen.
36:46We think we've got it right,
36:47but just to make sure,
36:48we're inviting a critique
36:49of ESPN Classics List
36:50by our resident second game.
Comments