The greatest tennis match you ever saw?

[Bushmiller]

With the australian tennis in full swing I was wondering if there might be a few tennis fans out there and my question is what was the greatest tennis match you ever saw?

I don't really follow tennis closely nowadays and I hardly know the players names, but there was a time when I did.

For me the stand out match was the Pancho Gonzales vs Charlie Paserell epic of 1969 at Wimbledon.

To set the scene, the merging of professional and amateur status had only just occured the year before and some of the greats had returned such as Laver and Rosewell; Also Gonzales who had never played in the grand slam events as an amateur. Arguably Gonzales at 41 years of age was well past his tennis use by date.

However the match between him and Pasarell captured the world of tennis for two days. Both men were natural atheletes, but Pasarell was 10 years younger and in fact Gonzales had been Pasarell's coach.

It was in the days before the tie break which was introduced to prevent these protracted matches. Gonzales won after five gruelling sets 22-24,1-6,16-14,6-3,11-9. He "threw" the second set in disgust when the umpires would not suspend play for bad light, but play was eventually suspended and resumed on the second day. Gonzales went from bad boy on the first day to crowd pleaser on the second. He saved 7 match points against him during the marathon of over 5 hours.

Do any of you have some other epics? Vids/links would be good if available. There was nothing unfortunately for this contest.

Regards
Paul

[artme]

I don't remember the year but the Wimbledon match betwee Stan Smith and Ken Roswell stands out for me.

Rosewell was down 2 sets to nil and was about to lose in three straight sets as it was match point in the third.

How he Rosewell pulled himself together to go on and win I will never know, but win he did!!

Surely Ken Rosewell was the greatest player never to win Wimbledon!!

[Bushmiller]

Surely Ken Rosewell was the greatest player never to win Wimbledon!!

I have heard that said before.

I remember Stan Smith too. 2 metres tall and an ex US army sergeant. Half the people playing today seem to be 2 metres tall!

Regards
Paul

[andrewr79]

For me, Rafter vs Agasi in the semi-final of the US open sometime in the 90s