Rarely are tennis matches, or sporting events of any kind, so closely tied up with world political events as they were over the course of the 1989 French Open. The tournament occurred just as Beijing’s Tiananmen Square protests were winding to their horrifying conclusion. One of the billions watching all of it unfold was Michael Chang. He and his mother were “glued to the TV in Paris,” he told me recently. “It made winning a tennis match seem like peanuts.” The moment inspired Chang, he said, “to try to put a few smiles on Chinese faces around the world.” It inspired him so much that the 17-year-old overcame two of the game’s all-time greats, Ivan Lendl and Stefan Edberg, in fifth sets on his way to winning the only Grand Slam of his career.
But it wasn’t just the victory that people remember, it was the way Chang won. More than any other player in history, he did whatever it took. For the June issue of TENNIS Magazine, I wrote an article about his 1989 Roland Garros run, with special attention to his anarchic fourth-round win over Lendl (who at first told me he "couldn't remember" anything about the match, then proceeded to give me a detailed list of everything that had gone wrong that day). The title of the piece, which you can find here on TENNIS.com, is “The June 5th Incident.” It’s a reference to the term the Chinese government would use to describe what had happened at Tiananmen: They called it, in good, bland, Orwellian tradition, “The June 4th Incident.” The next day, that incident would be given its most lasting image, when a lone civilian, forever to be called “The Unknown Rebel,” faced down a line of four government tanks and brought them to a halt. That same day, Chang took the court against Lendl In Paris. Below are clips from both of those two interrelated events, each epochal in its own way.
While Chang took inspiration from what was going on in his parents’ ancestral homeland, another 17-year-old was taking her inspiration from Chang during Roland Garros that year. Arantxa Sanchez (not yet Vicario), wearing the same ugly-but-now-iconic striped Reebok shirt as the American, pulled off what may have been an even more improbable upset when she came back to beat world No. 1 Steffi Graf 7-5 in the third set to win her own first major. At this point, Graf was coming off her Golden Slam of 1988, she’d already won the Australian Open in ’89, and she would go on to win Wimbledon and the U.S. Open again. But on this day the domineering German met her match in stubborn grit in the form of Sanchez. Above are the final three games of their final. You can find pretty much the entire match on YouTube if you so desire.
—First, let me apologize for the commentary of NBC’s Joanne Russell. Amateurish at best. On the one hand I’m glad Bud Collins—“Fräulein Forehand!” “Barcelona Bumblebee!” “eyeball to eyeball!” “net cord!” Shut up!—had gone down to the court by this point. On the other hand, it meant more Russell.
—Sanchez’s shots were very makeshift at this point. Little backswing or snap through contact. I was never a fan of hers when she played—always rooted for Graf, except when she played Sabatini in major finals—but I knew even then that Sanchez was one of the most intelligent competitors I'd ever see. She was intelligent because, like a good pool player, she never forced herself to hit a difficult shot. She kept the ball far from any line and well over the net. But she wasn’t a pusher; like Andy Murray, she could control a point from a seemingly defensive and reactive position.
—Graf at her peak here, but as always she struggled with the topspin backhand. Amazing how Sanchez had her on the run.
—Graf takes a bathroom break just before Sanchez serves for the match. I guess gamesmanship is eternal, though apparently Graf had food poisoning earlier in the tournament. So, 20 years later, I’ll let it slide.
—It seems from this clip that Graf served for the match. How many people would have believed that a 17-year-old relative unknown would break her in that spot? If Sanchez hadn’t come back, Steffi would have won double calendar-year Slams. Talk about unbreakable records; that would go right up there with Johnny van der Meer’s two straight no-hitters.
—Ah, the famous ball-holder on Arantxa's back. Looks like you could wind up her and watch her run all day.
—Watch the Sanchez moves around when she sets up to return serve. She looks like she has light feet, like Andre Agassi always did.
—Sanchez must have been frustrating to play because of her counter-punching ability. Go hard into her forehand and you better make it a clean winner, or it’s coming back fast and deep.
—1989, like 1968, was a year when revolution was in the air, from Berlin to Moscow to Prague to Bucharest all the way to Beijing. In ’68, it reached the streets of Paris; in ’89, it reached its tennis courts, where a new generation of champions was born.
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I'm back tomorrow to preview this year’s French. All this talk of ’89 has me wishing for some fresh-faced kids to come from out of nowhere and upend the men’s and women’s draws. If they’re out there, I can’t see them yet.