Truth & Rumors > Tennis

I still Michael Chang's upset of Ivan Lendl was bigger.

QUOTE(#2):

Originally posted 11:37 AM ET  06.01 by Nehal

I still Michael Chang's upset of Ivan Lendl was bigger.

At the time, Michael Chang's upset was huge, especially given his style of play (no big weapons other than speed). In retrospect, we see that Chang was actually a darn good player reaching #2 in the world. We'll see if Soderling ever achieves that kind of success.

By they way, if Fed wins French, would love to see Nadal win the U.S. Open so we can see 2 career grand slam winners this year.

This is definitely in the Top 10 of upsets... but it's hard to rank them in any order. Here are a few that stand out in my mind:

- Arthur Ashe over Jimmy Connors in 1975 Wimbledon final. Yes, Ashe was a good player in his own right. But he had no power/weapons to overcome Connors. He had to win by a strategy that totally took Connors out of his game (lobbing, chipping, and overall "junkballing), to everyone's amazement. Kind of like how Soderling executed his plan perfectly to take Nadal way out of his game, to everyone's amazement!

- George Bastl over Pete Sampras, in 2nd round of 2002 Wimbledon. Seeing this result, all you could say was WTF?! A loss to Richard Krajicek in 1996 was understandable, and Krajicek went on to win the thing. A loss to Federer in 2001 in 5 great sets was also understandable; Federer was a future multi-Wimbledon champ. But ... George Bastl?!?!

- Chang over Lendl (down two sets to none, and cramping his guts out) in 1989 French. Probably the greatest ever comeback, and a shocker against someone as iron-willed and mentally tough as Lendl.

- Alexander Volkov over Stefan Edberg, in 1st round of 1990 U.S. Open. I include this one because I was always a hard-core Edberg fan, and I couldn't believe what I was watching. Edberg was No. 1 at the time, had just won 1990 Wimbledon, and had absolutely blistered the tour in the summer hard-court season, winning three straight tournaments leading up to the U.S. Open. Volkov was a no-name to me at that point, but he shocked Edberg in straight sets.

- Andres Gomez over Andre Agassi, 1990 French Open final. Anyone who picked this result, hats off to you. Gomez was totally over-the-hill in tennis years, and I believe that was his first time in any Slam final. Agassi was the new, young face of tennis, and played awesome on his way to the final. Who could have guessed this one?

- Marat Safin over Pete Sampras, 2000 U.S. Open final. This was Marat's first ever Slam final, and he didn't just beat Pete Sampras, the reigning No. 1. He absolutely bludgeoned him in straight sets. Wow. This was right on par with what Sampras did to absolutely stun Agassi just 10 years previously, in the 1990 U.S. Open final. No one could have expected a result like this against Pistol Pete.

Even though it's on the women's side of tennis, I still think Jelena Dokic's victory over Martina Hingis at the 1999 Wimbledon is the biggest upset. Jelena was only a qualifier (ranked #129 at the time), Martina was #1 in the world, and Dokic creamed Hingis in the FIRST round 6-2, 6-0. She bagelled Hingis!

Yeah Bastl's win over Sampras was a bigger uspet. Also Kathy Horvath's win over Martina Navratilova in the first round at the French Open and Peter Doohan's second round win over Becker at the '87 Wimbledon.

QUOTE(#4):

Originally posted 01:19 PM ET  06.01 by po_ali

This is definitely in the Top 10 of upsets... but it's hard to rank them in any order. Here are a few that stand out in my mind:- Arthur Ashe over Jimmy Connors in 1975 Wimbledon final. Yes, Ashe was a good player in his own right. But he had no power/weapons to overcome Connors. He had to win by a strategy that totally took Connors out of his game (lobbing, chipping, and overall "junkballing), to everyone's amazement. Kind of like how Soderling executed his plan perfectly to take Nadal way out of his game, to everyone's amazement!- George Bastl over Pete Sampras, in 2nd round of 2002 Wimbledon. Seeing this result, all you could say was WTF?! A loss to Richard Krajicek in 1996 was understandable, and Krajicek went on to win the thing. A loss to Federer in 2001 in 5 great sets was also understandable; Federer was a future multi-Wimbledon champ. But ... George Bastl?!?!- Chang over Lendl (down two sets to none, and cramping his guts out) in 1989 French. Probably the greatest ever comeback, and a shocker against someone as iron-willed and mentally tough as Lendl.- Alexander Volkov over Stefan Edberg, in 1st round of 1990 U.S. Open. I include this one because I was always a hard-core Edberg fan, and I couldn't believe what I was watching. Edberg was No. 1 at the time, had just won 1990 Wimbledon, and had absolutely blistered the tour in the summer hard-court season, winning three straight tournaments leading up to the U.S. Open. Volkov was a no-name to me at that point, but he shocked Edberg in straight sets.- Andres Gomez over Andre Agassi, 1990 French Open final. Anyone who picked this result, hats off to you. Gomez was totally over-the-hill in tennis years, and I believe that was his first time in any Slam final. Agassi was the new, young face of tennis, and played awesome on his way to the final. Who could have guessed this one?- Marat Safin over Pete Sampras, 2000 U.S. Open final. This was Marat's first ever Slam final, and he didn't just beat Pete Sampras, the reigning No. 1. He absolutely bludgeoned him in straight sets. Wow. This was right on par with what Sampras did to absolutely stun Agassi just 10 years previously, in the 1990 U.S. Open final. No one could have expected a result like this against Pistol Pete.

The Gomez and Safin wins should not be on the list. These happened in the finals. Therefore Gomez and Safin were riding at least 6 consecutive win streaks and were playing great tennis.
Otherwise veyr good list.

What about defending Wimbledon champion Steffi Graf losing in the first round in 1994 ro Lori McNeil, 7-5, 7-6? That seems like a pretty big upset.

QUOTE(#8):

Originally posted 04:27 PM ET  06.01 by MattBoston

What about defending Wimbledon champion Steffi Graf losing in the first round in 1994 ro Lori McNeil, 7-5, 7-6? That seems like a pretty big upset.

Well Lori was pretty highly ranked and always played well on grass. So while it's an upset for the #1 to lose in the first round, the difference in their rankings wasn't that great. Back then they only seeded 16 players and I think McNeil was ranked around #20. It was a really tough first round draw for the #1 seed.

As for the Gomez and Safin wins, I agree that they weren't such huge upsets. Both were seeded. Gomez was a beast on clay and Safin, up til then, was considered the best player who hadn't yet won a Slam.

After seeing (and hearing) the post match interview with Nadal, I've since lost a measure of respect for him, given that he didn't mention Soderling, and didn't give Soderling any praise for playing well against him. It's very easy to be magnanimous when you are the winner, but it's another to give credit when you lose. Nadal didn't give any credit to Soderling, and that, in my opinion, smacks of ME, ME, ME.... It's all about Nadal. I think he's actually taking to heart all of the hype surrounding him.

With the Safin over Sampras upset, you've got to keep in mind that was in the day when one men's semifinal (Sampras' in this case) was Saturday night. Twice Sampras got spanked in the US Open final, once by Safin (after Hewitt worked him hard Saturday night) and once by (I think) Hewitt after Safin worked him hard Saturday night.

What about Goran's Wimbledon wild card win in 2001, or Nestor's defat of Edberg in 1992 Davis cup play?

My vote is for Nadal Soderling considering how dominant Nadal has been on clay and other surfaces. However, I still remember vividly the shock when Peter Doohan beat Becker in Wimbledon second round, as Doohan had never been heard of before and never was heard from again after, either! Doohan just blocked back everything Becker threw at him and looked as shocked as everyone else.

I see the "GOAT" has reared it's ugly head again. Who cares, any time an upset is rendered this goat crap starts flying. Just enjoy the game/match and get on with your life.

Huge upset, but for sake of fanhood I have to go with Goran in Wimbledon being the greatest upset. Awesome run.

In this particular case I'm 100% sure Soderling won't win the French.

Well, this is a major upset. The greatest clay court player of all time, losing early.

whatever, roddick is a big loser that cries when he`s down by 4 in the third set. That`s a better story.

Nadal took his defeat like a pro. I was never a big Nadal fan, but his humility really really impressed me.

Biggest upset IMHO after 30 years of watching tennis. The power of Soderling was paralyzing. Nadal fell like Mike Tyson after being blugeoned by Buster Douglas. Beautiful, powerful tennis. No comparisons.

To my mind, this is without question the greatest upset in the Open Era. Let's recap some of the contenders. First, there's Georg Bastl beating Pete Sampras in the 2002 Wimbledon 2nd Rd. Next, there's Chang besting Lendl in the 1989 rd of 16 at Roland Garros. Finally, there's Peter Doohan besting Becker at Wimbly in the 2nd round. First, a few ground rules. It seems that some posters rank the upsets in terms of how unexpected they were. While I agree that's part of the calculus here, I believe we have to go under the hood of the concept of "expectation" in order to fully appreciate how big the upset was. Of all of the upsets that have been offered, I feel that only these four (including Soderling/Nadal) can compete for greatest upset of the Open Era (of course, who knows really what happened in 1968, so we're probably talking here about the greatest upset since the mid 70's). Pete was 29 y/o when he lost to an up and coming Safin almost 10 yrs his junior. Without belaboring the point, I feel that two of the other three contenders fail for pretty much the same reason. Other than Pete Sampras at Wimbledon, the other two defeated champions did not have anywhere near the reputation either at the event at which they lost (four consecutive years without a loss at a major, that doubles the prior record in terms of consecutive matches won from one's maiden appearance at a major). Lendl, though clearly a fantastic clay court player, didn't have anywhere near the reputation on clay as Nadal has. In fact, Lendl won 5 majors on hard courts and 3 on clay. Nadal will end up being considered the greatest clay court player of all time. Additionally, Chang was ranked somewhat higher than Soderling when he bested the Czech player. The same is true for Doohan besting Becker. Becker was a great grass court player. One of the best of the modern men's game. But he was no Nadal. Sampras was the King of Grass of his generation and Becker lives in his shadow.

To my mind, this is without question the greatest upset in the Open Era. Let's recap some of the contenders. First, there's Georg Bastl beating Pete Sampras in the 2002 Wimbledon 2nd Rd. Next, there's Chang besting Lendl in the 1989 rd of 16 at Roland Garros. Finally, there's Peter Doohan besting Becker at Wimbly in the 2nd round. First, a few ground rules. It seems that some posters rank the upsets in terms of how unexpected they were. While I agree that's part of the calculus here, I believe we have to go under the hood of the concept of "expectation" in order to fully appreciate how big the upset was. Of all of the upsets that have been offered, I feel that only these four (including Soderling/Nadal) can compete for greatest upset of the Open Era (of course, who knows really what happened in 1968, so we're probably talking here about the greatest upset since the mid 70's). Pete was 29 y/o when he lost to an up and coming Safin almost 10 yrs his junior. Without belaboring the point, I feel that two of the other three contenders fail for pretty much the same reason. Other than Pete Sampras at Wimbledon, the other two defeated champions did not have anywhere near the reputation either at the event at which they lost (four consecutive years without a loss at a major, that doubles the prior record in terms of consecutive matches won from one's maiden appearance at a major). Lendl, though clearly a fantastic clay court player, didn't have anywhere near the reputation on clay as Nadal has. In fact, Lendl won 5 majors on hard courts and 3 on clay. Nadal will end up being considered the greatest clay court player of all time. Additionally, Chang was ranked somewhat higher than Soderling when he bested the Czech player. The same is true for Doohan besting Becker. Becker was a great grass court player. One of the best of the modern men's game. But he was no Nadal. Sampras was the King of Grass of his generation and Becker lives in his shadow.