Flashback US Open: Ivan Lendl destroys Miloslav Mecir in historic US Open final

The title he claimed at Roland Garros 1984 had completely turned Ivan Lendl's career, becoming a Grand Slam champion for the first time and breaking the spell running over him after losing multiple Major finals up to that point. In 1985, the Czech became the dominant figure in men's tennis, winning 28 ATP titles between 1985-1987 and 103 out of 109 matches between Indianapolis 1985 and Stratton Mountain 1986, playing 20 tournaments in that period and winning 14 titles from 18 finals! Ivan was the favorite at the US Open 1986 after winning his first crown there 12 months earlier, delivering a superb performance to lose one set during the entire fortnight and leave the rivals far behind. In the week before the US Open, Lendl won the Hamlet Challenge Cup, defeating John McEnroe in the final and setting the potential quarter-final clash in New York with a great rival.

That encounter never happened, though, with McEnroe losing in the opening round to Paul Annacone, leaving the young guns Stefan Edberg and Boris Becker as Lendl's biggest rivals en route to the title. Ivan made the perfect start, toppling Glenn Layendecker 6-3, 6-2, 6-0 before another commanding 6-3, 6-1, 6-2 triumph over the top-30 player Robert Seguso, taking ten straight games at one point and sealing the deal in no time at all to advance into the last 32. Jonas Svensson fought well in the third round but fell 6-3, 6-3, 6-4, sending Lendl into the last 16 where he ousted world no. 14 Brad Gilbert 7-5, 6-1, 6-2. The American gave his best in the opening set, pulling a break back at 2-4 before getting broken again at 5-6 to hand the opener to the defending champio. Everything was more comfortable for Lendl after that, claiming two breaks in each of the following two sets to book his place in the quarters.

In 1986, Ivan Lendl secured the second US Open title over Miloslav Mecir.

There, world no. 8 Henri Leconte managed to take a set out from him in Lendl's 7-6, 6-1, 1-6, 6-1 triumph that sent him into the fifth consecutive US Open semi-final, coming back from a 5-4 40-0 down in the opener. Interestingly, three Czechoslovakian players reached the quarter-final, followed by two Swedes and Leconte and Becker, leaving the Americans without a competitor in the semi-final for the first time since 1966! The set he lost against Leconte was the first US Open's failure for Lendl after 26 straight he won, and only one of three dropped during his prime 1985-1987 years and 66 sets played in New York! In the battle for the final, Lendl took down the young Swede Stefan Edberg 7-6, 6-2, 6-3 to advance into his fifth straight US Open final as the first player to achieve that since Jimmy Connors. Stefan was there to challenge Ivan in the opening set that lasted 70 minutes, fading from the court after that and not being able to deal with deep and powerful strokes from the other side of the net.

The Swede came back from a 4-1 down in the tie break but fell short in the end, in what had been the turning point of the encounter. Lendl broke at the beginning of the second set and sailed through the rest of the encounter to set the final meeting with his compatriot Miloslav Mecir, who took down Boris Becker 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in what had been the most important day of the Czechoslovakian tennis. In the first US Open final with two players from a foreign country since 1970 (Ken Rosewall and Lendl's coach Tony Roche for Australia), Lendl outplayed Mecir 6-4, 6-2, 6-0 on September 7 to defend the US Open crown and lift his fourth Major title. The match lasted for an hour and 53 minutes and it was the third most one-sided US Open men's final since 1912 and the abolishment of the Challenge round.

A grueling baseline battle failed to bring aggressive and attacking tennis. It had 44% less TV share than the final from 12 months ago when Lendl defeated McEnroe, with only one player on the court who never put a foot wrong or allow Mecir to make the battle more exciting. They traded breaks in the early stages of the clash, and it was Lendl who scored another one in game seven to move 4-3 up. He closed the opener with a hold at 5-4, and Mecir had nothing more left in the tank after that marathon semi-final with Becker just a day earlier, unable to stay on the same level with Ivan in the rest of the encounter. Lendl grabbed breaks in games three and seven of the second set for a 6-2 and rattled off nine straight games from a 3-2 to cross the finish line in style and secure the title in straight sets with an ace in the sixth game of the third set. Thus, he became the first player since Frank Sedgman in 1951-52 to win back-to-back US Open finals without losing a set.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/3jVo4kT