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Wimbledon Review 1985
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The 1985 Championships will be long remembered for Boris Becker's astonishing victory when he won the Gentlemen's Singles as an unseeded seventeen-year-old.
At the start of 1985 the German was a quarter-finalist at the Australian Open, won the Young Masters in January, and at the age of 17 was clearly promising much. His powerful game, based on a colossal serve, a shuddering overhead and formidable ground strokes was obviously going to pay rich dividends on grass. Yet in the French Open in 1985 he defeated the American Vitas Gerulaitis in the first round, a victory which showed he deserved respect wherever he chose to play.
Despite winning the title at Queen's Club prior to the 1985 Championships, Becker went into the draw unseeded because he was ranked just 20th in the world at the time. This did not reflect his abilities that summer and there was no question that he deserved a seeded place above quite a number of those who were afforded that ranking. The only solution was for Becker to go out and prove it himself in a field headed by John McEnroe as top seed and the Czech Ivan Lendl in second place.
The quarter-final saw Becker beat the French left hander Henri Leconte in four sets and in the Semi-Final he needed another four sets to beat another Swede, Anders Jarryd. In the other half of the draw, McEnroe was dismissed in the quarter finals by Kevin Curren of the USA, the eighth seed. It would be the the first time since 1978 McEnroe did not appear anywhere on the roll of champions and did not play in a final. Curren kept up the pressure to beat another former champion Jimmy Connors for the loss of only five games in the semi-final and so the final was produced--Curren, 27, against the 17-year-old Becker.
Boris Becker defeated the South-African born Curren in the same way he beat other players on the way to the Final. His powerful serve, his mid-air volleys, and his tireless chasing all underlined the ambition of the German teenager. He was too quick, too strong for Curren and won 6-3 6-7 7-6 6-4. His victory meant that a catalogue of records had been established.
First, Becker was the youngest champion at 17 years, 227 days. Secondly, he was the first German winner, and thirdly he was the first unseeded player to win. Becker had played 292 games in his seven matches and four times had played four set matches and twice had five set contests.
Wimbledon had gone to an amazing finale--indeed two days before the finish there was a memorable thunderstorm in which one and a half inches of rain fell in 20 minutes. But the total attendance was the highest ever at 397,983.
The Becker of 1985, standing 6 ft 1 ½ inches and weighing 173lbs, was to go on to retain the Wimbledon title in 1986 and win again in 1989. He was runner-up on four other occasions and played for the 15th and final time in 1999 to complete a career record at the All England Club of 71 matches won and 12 lost.
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