In what was surely the finest final in the history of the Merrill Lynch Tour of Champions, Goran Ivanisevic defeated John McEnroe 7-6(12), 7-6(1).
Neither player broke serve in a match that lasted more than two hours, and frequently left a packed crowd at the Kia Champions Trophy in Frankfurt gasping at its quality.
“I think that was the best match that there has ever been on the Merrill Lynch Tour of Champions,” said Ivanisevic afterwards.
“He was serving great and I had to bring some huge shots to win. I played 120 per cent – if I had played 100 per cent I would not have won.”
The match began with McEnroe in sublime form, winning many of the early baseline exchanges, and seemingly coping well with any Ivanisevic serve that was within his reach.
When the score reached 3-all, Ivanisevic started to find the serving range that had brought him 44 aces in his previous two matches against Anders Jarryd and Marcelo Rios.
But, it wasn’t until the first set tie-break that the match really took off. It was a tie-break that had McEnroe reminiscing back to his famous shoot-out with Bjorn Borg in the 1980 Wimbledon final.
Ivanisevic forced a 5-3 lead, but then double-faulted to let McEnroe back in.
The American then appeared to hit a double-fault himself, but the line-judge kept quiet, as did the chair umpire. A furious Ivanisevic launched into a tirade of abuse at the umpire, believing the official to be siding with McEnroe.
“You are just scared of him, man, that’s why you don’t make the call,” he told the umpire.
“The ball skidded off the line,” McEnroe shouted across the net.
The tie-break stayed on serve and McEnroe levelled it at 9-all with a patient rally that he finished with a beautiful backhand volley after sneaking into the net.
Ivanisevic earned a first set-point on his own serve at 10-9 when McEnroe mishit a backhand, but the American saved it with a stunning return low at the Croatian’s feet off a full-blooded Ivanisevic first serve.
McEnroe earned a set-point of his own at 12-11, and only missed out on snatching the set when his forehand return drifted an inch long.
And then Ivanisevic struck, hitting an ace for 13-12, and then a flashing backhand passing shot down the line to seal the tie-break 14-12.
In his efforts to reach the ball, McEnroe went tumbling to the ground near the net, and ended up face down.
So disillusioned with losing a set that he had come so close to winning, he remained prostrate throughout the three-minute end-of-set break, until Ivanisevic went over to him, joined him on the ground, and talked him into returning to his courtside seat.
The second set was equally competitive, with McEnroe forcing numerous break point opportunities on the Ivanisevic serve, but the Croatian held firm, and blazed through the second set tie-break 7-1 to win his first title of the year.
“It’s always great to play John,” said Ivanisevic.
“He was my idol, and it is special to beat him. He’s 47 and it’s unbelievable how he plays. Whenever anyone asks me who is the fittest person on the Tour I always say ‘John’. It’s unbelievable the way he takes care of himself. He is serving faster now than in his professional career – it really does come down very fast, and even when you read it, it’s tough to return. And the way he was returning serves from me when I was hitting them more than 200kph (124mph) was incredible. I’m happy that I won the tournament, that someone beat Rios, and it’s now going to be a very interesting (BlackRock) Masters.”
McEnroe was understandably disappointed to lose, but felt he had sent a message to his rivals ahead of the BlackRock Masters in London.
“Now I feel like I’m ready,” said McEnroe.
“It’s one of the best matches I’ve ever played on the Champions Tour for sure. I had some chances – the first set tie-break seemed to go on forever.
“I was getting flashbacks to the Borg tie-break at Wimbledon in 1980! I thought it was never going to end. I had a great chance to break him in the second set, hit an almost perfect return, but it clipped the net and gave him an easy shot. We both played great and I think he was surprised at my level.
“It’s the best I’ve served all year and it would be nice to end the year in style. Winning the BlackRock Masters would be beautiful.”
The players now have two weeks to prepare for the culminating event on the Merrill Lynch Tour of Champions – the BlackRock Masters (5th-10th December) .
The BlackRock Masters sees the top ten players in the South African Airways Champions Tour Rankings compete for a $100,000 winners’ prize. The field at the Royal Albert Hall in London will increase to 12 with the addition of two wild card invitations.
