Remembering - 1987 Wimbledon

1987 WIMBLEDON 

Defending singles champions coming into Wimbledon 1987 were Boris Becker and Martina Navratilova.

Becker in 1986 had won his second title (both in succession) by defeating Ivan Lendl in straight sets. In attempting a three peat, he was still only 19.

Navratilova in 1986 won her seventh title, and fifth in a row, with victory over Hana Mandlikova in two sets.

Navratilova was top seed in 1987, and was hoping for better luck after losing in finals of both the Australian Open (to Mandlikova) and Roland Garros (to Steffi Graf).

Three Maleeva sisters from Bulgaria reached the top ten in their careers, and two were in the main draw of Wimbledon 1987. 

Katerina, seeded 14, lost in the first round to Gigi Fernandez, and Manuela, seeded 7, lost in the second round to Diane Balestrat.

Other seeded players to fall in the second round included Barbara Potter (13), ousted by 15 year old Mary Joe Fernandez. Fernandez made the round of sixteen, and later in her career would be a two time major finalist.

Apart from Balestrat, the quarter finals were populated by those seeded to reach that point:

Martina Navratilova (1) (USA) v Diane Balestrat (Australia)

Chris Evert (3) (USA) v Claudia Kohde-Kilsch (8) (Germany)

Pam Shriver (5) (USA) v Helena Sukova (4) (Czechoslovakia)

Gabriela Sabatini (6) (Argentina) v Steffi Graf (2) (Germany)

In perhaps the women’s match of the tournament, Pam Shriver rallied from a set down to defeat Helena Sukova in an epic 4-6 7-6 10-8.

Graf also dropped her first set before destroying Sabatini in the second and third to set up a semi final with Shriver.

Navratilova and Evert had easy wins and their semi final would be the 52nd clash between the pair.

Navratilova scored her 33rd win over Evert in the semi final, though it took three sets to achieve it. Graf took Shriver to the cleaners, surrendering just two games in reaching her second straight Grand Slam final, and first at Wimbledon.

The Wimbledon queen had too much experience and class on grass for Graf in the final, winning for the eighth time, and sixth straight year 7-5 6-3.

Stefan Edberg had won the Australian Open, defeating Pat Cash, and Ivan Lendl defeated Mats Wilander to win Roland Garros.

No seeds exited from the men’s singles main draw in the first round, but there were a couple of names that would in later years come to the fore. Thomas Muster and Andre Agassi were unseeded and both lost. It was Agassi’s third main draw showing at a major, but he would proceed to win his first Grand Slam title at Wimbledon five years on. Muster would win Roland Garros eight years later, but would only play Wimbledon three more times, losing in the opening round on each occasion. He loved the clay but hated the grass.

Becker’s hopes for a third successive Wimbledon were dashed in round two, when Australian Peter Doohan crashed the top seeds party in four sets. In that section, American 15th seed David Pate also left.

Guy Forget knocked out 6th seed and fellow Frenchman Yannick Noah, while 16th seed Kevin Curren lost to Johan Kriek, both players born in South Africa but naturalised Americans.

The third round saw the departure of Tim Mayotte (10), Miloslav Mecir (5), Brad Gilbert (12) and Joakim Nystrom (13)

No surprises in the round of sixteen, leaving the quarter finals:

Slobodan Zivojinovic (Yugoslavia) v Jimmy Connors (7) (USA)

Mats Wilander (3) (Sweden) v Pat Cash (11) (Australia)

Anders Järryd (Sweden) v Stefan Edberg (4) (Sweden)

Henri Leconte (9) (France) v Ivan Lendl (2) (Czechoslovakia)

Veteran Connors set up a semi final against Cash, 12 years his junior, both players winning their quarter finals in three sets.

The all Swedish clash resulted in Edberg coming from a set down to oust Järryd, and Lendl progressed after his victory over Leconte, two tie breaks included.

The serve volley game worked perfectly for Cash in his semi, with Connors powerless to prevent the Australian from speeding into his second major final of the year 6-4 6-4 6-1.

Edberg’s serve volley approach wasn’t as effective, and he lost out to Lendl, the French Open champ prevailing in four tight sets.

In his thirteenth Grand Slam final, Ivan Lendl missed out for the eighth time, losing to Pat Cash. The 11th seed, in his first Wimbledon final, triumphed 7-6(5) 6-2 7-5.