Lendl had an excellent chance in the 1989 semifinal, where he lead Becker two sets to one, only to lose in five sets. Photo: usopen/TwitterSampras won this match in 4 sets, all tie-breaks, with neither player being able to break the serve of the other. The two of them combined to ensure Bjorn Borg woud never win a US Open title in his career.Who would have thought that McEnroe could lose in the Wimbledon final, a year after beating the peerless Borg. Though this rivalry did get over-shadowed by the rivalries at No.1 to 3 in this list, Djokovic-Murray was every bit as intense and in any other era would be the marquee rivalry.2012 US Open Final between Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray. FIND OUT MORE. Borg failed to make it 6-in-a-row as he would lose the next years’ Men’s Final to McEnroe in 4 sets. The flamboyant baseliner from Las Vegas baseliner, with blonde shoulder length hair, denim shorts, neon t-shirts, twinkling trinkets, a baseball cap and ‘devil-may-care-‘ attitude, was unlike any other tennis player ever, at least sartorially.

(This is the level of effort needed to beat Federer and Nadal)The Messi v Ronaldo equivalent of Tennis. This match had so many excruciating rallies, that my joints ached merely at watching that match. Unlike the amateurs of the pre-Open era, players were serious products of a professional sport, elevating the skills and contests to a hitherto unseen level. The late 1970s and 1980s promised what could have been the greatest rivalry in tennis had Borg not walked away from the game at the age of 26.1980 Wimbledon Final between Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe. The only contemporary who could match the German Becker on the grass courts of SW19 (till a certain lanky American called Pete Sampras came calling!) Love blossomed between the last French Open champions of the millennium.

The crowd hated both of them at the start of their careers. For Lendl, this was the first of his three wins on Parisian clay. The match ended in near darkness, at 2115 BST and, at four hours and 48 minutes, it was the longest Wimbledon men's singles final. It would have surely broken a lesser man. his digestive system was extremely hostile to wheat, bread, pasta and even tomatoes, extremely ironical since Novak’s parents owned a Pizza Restaurant, where these food items are a staple! Photos: TwitterThe duo had split the previous two Wimbledon Finals. His tennis was like natural, effortless painting on a canvas, unlike Lendl’s which seemed like an industrial product of precision.1984 French Open Final between Ivan Lendl and John McEnroe. To get a measure of the astounding season McEnroe had in 1984, he had an incredible and still un-matched 84-2 Win-Loss ATP record that year. Lendl did indeed win Wimbledon. After all, what is tennis without its gladiatorial contests between rival players across the net? If not at their peak, both the players were very near it. That is precisely what Jimmy Connors did, a testament to his indomitable pugnacity. And that year had its own very novel flu which assumed pandemic proportions – the H3N2 influenza virus subtype, originating from Hong Kong (not very far from Wuhan, though not half as widespread and devastating as the Wuhan one).Tennis too was witnessing its most significant event. The final of the 134th Wimbledon men’s singles would’ve been held on Sunday evening, had COVID-19 not intervened and scrapped the event for the first time since World War II. This match was an inflection point in Novak’s career. Their rivalry is famous for its eye-watering, back-breaking riveting rallies. When he broke into the world scene, he had to contend with Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors at their prime. Thirty years after his retirement, Connors still holds the record for the most number of titles won (109) most matches played (1,557) and most matches won (1,274) in the Open Era.Connors once famously sledged Lendl as “faggot” during one of their riveting matches. Not as a player but as a Coach when Andy Murray beat Djokovic in the 2013 Wimbledon Final.This was the defining rivalry of the mid-1980s and had McEnroe’s form and commitment not dipped after a spectacular 1984, we would have many more memorable matches between the duo.