Lendl vs McEnroe 1984

Eurosport are running a pretty cool slot called “you say, we play” where they re-run old matches in request.

Today I watched highlights of the Last 3 sets of this amazing French Open final.

Boy, did McEnroe bottle this one!

Great to be reminded what World class on-court grumbling really looks like!

Yes that was a very good match. McEnroe and Lendl were always a difficult choice for me. I really was a fan of both. But though I preferred mc's tennis over all, I preferred Lendl's personality.

Nowadays I am reinforced in my then choice. I find McEnroe annoying and so glad he lost that match. I remember it was Lendl's first grand slam vistory and was so happy for him.

It is true that Mc bottled it.....but only because Lendl had bottled all his slams finals until that day. And when he started to open his wings in that 3rd set he was the better player on clay.

I was also delighted at the result. I had started off really disliking McEnroe, not as much for the rants (which were always hilarious back then) as for depriving Borg of #6 etc. as with other things it took time to side with him, but never against Lendl.

Lendl formed my love of the one-handed topspin backhand, so thanks for that. I used to try his forehand but it took so much time to prepare for.

I saw this match on my first visit to Roland Garros back in 2013. It rained all day, so they played this one on the big screen...and all I remember from that match was McEnroe's grumpy miserable face as the trophies were given out in the middle of stands...was so different back then...the actual play started at 3 pm and I had my Eurostar back to London at 9 pm

I ended up seeing Bartoli beat Makarova in three tie-break sets, buying an umbrella, sitting through another hour rain break and seeing a set and a half of Nole-Goffin...

I saw this match on my first visit to Roland Garros back in 2013. It rained all day, so they played it on the big screen...and all I remember from it now is McEnroe's grumpy miserable face as the trophies were given in the middle of stands...was so different back then...

The actual play started at 3 pm and I had my Eurostar back to London at 9 pm

I ended up seeing Bartoli beat Makarova in three tie-break sets, buying an umbrella, sitting through another hour rain break and seeing a set and a half of Nole-Goffin...during which I had a fan stand-off with this really big, loud, hooligan looking guy cheering for Goffin...it was even picked up by commentators on Serbian TV...

Those were (not) the days