Boris Becker will be long remembered for his astonishing victory in 1985 when he won the Gentlemen's Singles Championship as an unseeded seventeen-year-old. However, his first Championships began with the most painful of starts. In 1984, during the fourth set of his third round match with Bill Scanlon, he had to be carried from the court with a severe ankle injury that kept him off court for three months. When he recovered, Becker quickly re-established himself. The German was a quarter-finalist in his next Grand Slam event at the Australian Open, won the Young Masters in January 1985, and at the age of 17 was clearly promising much. His powerful game, based on a colossal serve, a shuddering overhead and formidable ground strokes was obviously going to pay rich dividends on grass. Yet in the French Open in 1985 he defeated the American Vitas Gerulaitis in the first round, a victory which showed he deserved respect wherever he chose to play. Despite winning the title at Queen's Club prior to the 1985 Championships, Becker went into the draw unseeded because he was ranked just 20th in the world at the time. This did not reflect his abilities that summer and there was no question that he deserved a seeded place above quite a number of those who were afforded that ranking. The only solution was for Becker to go out and prove it himself in a field headed by John McEnroe as top seed and the Czech Ivan Lendl in second place. Bad weather affected the first week to such an extent that only one match - won by Lendl - was completed on the first day and by the sixth day just five men and four women had advanced to the last 16. When Becker came to that stage, he played a seed for the second time in the shape of sixteenth seed, Tim Mayotte of the USA. The German had already beaten the seventh placed Swede Joakim Nystrom in the second round but it had been an immense struggle and Becker came through 9-7 in the fifth set after Nystrom had served for the match. Mayotte, equally, gave him a demanding contest, leading by two sets to one and holding two match points in the fourth set tie break. In the third set, Becker had twisted an ankle and contemplated retiring but, after treatment, was able to play on and he won in five sets. Becker did not have to go the full distance again. The quarter-final saw Becker beat the French left hander Henri Leconte in four sets and in the Semi-Final he needed another four sets to beat another Swede, Anders Jarryd. In the other half of the draw, McEnroe was dismissed in the quarter finals by Kevin Curren of the USA, the eighth seed. It would be the the first time since 1978 McEnroe did not appear anywhere on the roll of champions and did not play in a final. Curren kept up the pressure to beat another former champion Jimmy Connors for the loss of only five games in the semi-final and so the final was produced--Curren, 27, against the 17-year-old Becker. Boris Becker defeated the South-African born Curren in the same way he beat other players on the way to the Final. His powerful serve, his mid-air volleys, and his tireless chasing all underlined the ambition of the German teenager. He was too quick, too strong for Curren and won 6-3 6-7 7-6 6-4. His victory meant that a catalogue of records had been established. First, Becker was the youngest champion at 17 years, 227 days. Secondly, he was the first German winner, and thirdly he was the first unseeded player to win. Becker had played 292 games in his seven matches and four times had played four set matches and twice had five set contests. The fact that Becker had dropped eight sets on the way had been equalled only once before by Ted Schroeder in 1949. Wimbledon had gone to an amazing finale--indeed two days before the finish there was a memorable thunderstorm in which one and a half inches of rain fell in 20 minutes. But the total attendance was the highest ever at 397,983. The Becker of 1985, standing 6 ft 1 ½ inches and weighing 173lbs, was to go on to retain the Wimbledon title in 1986 and win again in 1989. He was runner-up on four other occasions and played for the 15th and final time in 1999 to complete a career record at the All England Club of 71 matches won and 12 lost. Written by Barry Newcombe |
