WHAT ACTUALLY WENT ON THAT DAY?
The longest-ever tennis match in history was played on this day, July 11, 1982, between John McEnroe and Mats Wilander. The two winners squared off in the decisive match on Sunday in a Davis Cup quarterfinal staged in St. Louis, Missouri. The match lasted six hours and twenty-two minutes, with John McEnroe winning 9–7, 6-2, 15–17, 3-6, 8–6, setting a new record for the longest tennis match—one he had held since losing to Jose-Luis Clerc in 1980. A six-hour, 33-minute competition between Arnaud Clement and Fabrice Santoro at the 2004 French Open would be the last time this record was broken.
PARTICIPANTS: MATS WILANDER AND JOHN MCENROE John McEnroe: the temperamental Grand Slam champion
Born in 1959, John McEnroe has held the top spot in the world rankings since August 1981. This came about when he won his first Wimbledon championship, overcoming the Swedish great Bjorn Borg in the championship match (4-6, 7-6, 7-6, 6-4). Ever since he made his tennis debut in 1977 as an amateur at Wimbledon, the 17-year-old left-hander from New York has dazzled the tennis world. He advanced through the qualifying round and reached the semifinals.
Mats Wilander: the teenaged Roland-Garros champion
Mats Wilander, born in 1964, had been very successful at a particularly young age. In 1982, at Roland-Garros, aged only 17 years and 10 months, he had become the youngest player ever to lift a Grand Slam trophy, edging clay-court legend Guillermo Vilas in the final (1-6, 7-6, 6-0, 6-4). He had also made himself famous for a memorable act of sportsmanship earlier in the tournament. In the semi-final against Jose-Luis Clerc, on his first match point, the Swede reversed a call that would have sealed his victory after the umpire had already announced “game, set and match”. Wilander was extremely consistent, and his physical conditioning was among the best.
Mac” possessed exceptional talent; his style of play revolved around dexterity and dexterity combined with a deadly serve that he enjoyed sending to the net. With his 7-5, 6-3, 6-3 victory over Vitas Gerulaitis in 1979, he became the youngest-ever US Open Champion. In addition, he made a lot of noise when he defeated Bjorn Borg in the WTC Finals (7-5, 4-6, 6-2, 7-6).
After defeating Borg in five sets in the Wimbledon final in 1980, McEnroe’s most memorable match came in the fourth set in a thrilling tie-break (18-16). He prevailed over Borg in the US Open championship match in September, securing the victory 7-6, 6-1, 6-7, 5-7, 6-4. After winning the All England Club for the first time in 1981, McEnroe won the US Open a third time, this time defeating Borg in what would turn out to be the Swede’s final match in a Grand Slam event (4-6, 6-4, 6-2, 6-3).
He was defeated by a rejuvenated Jimmy Connors in the Wimbledon final in 1982 (3-6 6-3 6-7 7-6 6-4). In the polite tennis world, John McEnroe was well-known for his stunning on-court behavior. His incessant altercations with the referees brought him notoriety in a sport meant for gentlemen.
THE LOCATION: Washington, Missouri’s Checkerdome
The United States and Sweden played in the Davis Cup quarterfinal in 1982 at the Checkerdome in St. Louis, Missouri. When it was constructed in 1929, this stadium was used mostly for team sports including basketball, football, and hockey. At maximum capacity, it could accommodate 18,000 spectators. In 1994, the Checkerdome would close to the public, and in 1999, it would be destroyed.
THE FACTS: IT WOULD BE A WIRE MATCH
The American team, captained by John McEnroe, and the Swedish team, led by youthful Mats Wilander, were tied at 2-2 in the Davis Cup quarterfinal following the first four games. Mats Wilander defeated Elliot Teltscher in five sets, 6-4, 7-5, 3-6, 6-0, after McEnroe had defeated Anders Jarryd 10-8, 6-3, 6-3 in the opening set. The Swedish duo of Anders Jarryd and Hans Simonsson was defeated by McEnroe and Peter Fleming on Saturday, 6-4, 6-3, 6-0. Jarryd defeated Brian Gottfried 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 on Sunday to finally gain a point for his team.
Now, a fifth match would decide the tiebreaker and it was up to the leaders.When it came to the ultimate match between the Roland-Garros victor and the Wimbledon runner-up, McEnroe had the better start. Everyone believed McEnroe would easily defeat the Swedish teenager after he won the first two sets, 9-7 and 6-2, then broke Wilander’s serve at 1-1 in the third.
Wilander, though, was no typical adolescent. He survived two break points when he was 4-2 down and then broke McEnroe’s serve to tie the match at 4-4. Observing that victory was eluding him, McEnroe began to lose his composure and began to argue on nearly every line call. The players then shared the serve for the next twenty-three games, until McEnroe finally gave it up and the set was lost 17–15 to Wilander. The match had begun. In contrast, the Swede’s 6-3 victory in the fourth set seemed to go by extremely quickly. McEnroe used his serve, which totaled 21 aces, to exert pressure on his opponent in the fifth set. The American left-hander eventually succeeded in breaking Wilander’s serve.
Wilander said, “I think I played well,” according to The New York Times. “McEnroe is entitled to go out and get drunk tonight,” said the more upbeat American captain Arthur Ashe. “I did what I could, I’m disappointed.” McEnroe expressed both relief and frustration in his post-match remarks, saying, “At one point I thought it was going to go on forever and that’s frustrating.” It’s difficult to face a 17-year-old and be unsure of what to do next.
The amazing duration subsequently sparked several thought-provoking remarks. Thirty years later, McEnroe was commenting for ESPN on the match and said, “I remember thinking near the end, ‘If this match is so great, why are most of the people gone?'” “People went out for dinner and when they came back they couldn’t believe the match was still going on,” said ESPN pundit Cliff Drysdale in response to a question.
Next? Eventually, the McNeill-Wilander record would break.
In the end, the US defeated France 4-1 to win their 28th Davis Cup championship—the fourth in the previous five years. The American team would not win this competition again until a victory against Australia in 1990, making it their final championship from the 1980s.
It would be especially difficult to surpass the record set that day by John McEnroe and Mats Wilander, as the Davis Cup tie-break was instituted in 1989. Before Fabrice Santoro and Arnaud Clément’s six hours and thirty-three-minute match at the 2004 French Open, it would last over 22 years. That record would eventually be obliterated in 2010 by the epic first-round match at Wimbledon that lasted eleven hours and five minutes between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut.