Martina was so strong in 83 and up till 84 AO that Martina expected to win, losing just one match in 83, Martina would hit a great volley then stop as if the point was won. Chris and Hana improved their mobility to get to balls and improve their fitness to give Martina a better match. What was Martina’s response “ get set of glasses” as if that was the answer. Then when she lost 86-89 later said Martina was in a funk from too much playing. Truth is graf came on strong and Chris and Hana improved their game. Martina still dominated Chris Hana and Graf until 87FRENCH AND all of 88 onward.

Martina making a point at the end that is now largely forgotten. Until 1986, the tennis year ran from March to March, with the tour finals being held in March each year. In 1986 they moved to the January - December year. The Australian Open moved from December to January and as a result wasn't held at all in 1986, but there were two tour finals: one in March 1986 to end the old March 1985 - March 1986 season, and another one in November 1986 to end the new January to December season.

Hana, Chris, and Tracy clinging to the wood in late 1982 is a bit of a choice.

I still think evert would’ve beaten graf on red clay in 86 due to her experience on red clay. Red clay requires a patience that graf didn’t quite have . Now not much separated Hana and Graf in that second set. It could’ve gone either way. Evert made short work of Hana playing one of the best matches of Everts life. I believe Evert saw the 86 French as her last real chance with Graf improving by the week . 86 French was the 13 consecutive year Evert won at lest one slam title . By 87 Chris was coming off having 4-5 months off due to a bad knee from 86 open loss till March of 87. She was then having off and on days brought about from layoff. Winning is a habit and she wasn’t match tough in 87 plus Martina played an excellent match. Cheers to Hana for hanging in there and grinding this win out something new to Hana , she was mentally tough , tough as a champion from winning the Open in 85.

It took Graf more experience on red clay before she could claim her titles. Even evert beat court at age 15 on clay but on green clay which plays differently than red clay ( crushed up bricks) the ball has a harder bounce and absorbs power and you really have to strike the ball for it to go anywhere when compared to green clay. It is not as slippery as green clay. Evert at 18 lost to Court at 73 French final to court. Just barely though with a lead of 5-3 serving for the match in the third. She had a chance in second set to win too but Courts experience with the heavy balls everts lobs came up short. It’s harder without topspin witha wood racket on red clay to hit lobs and Margaret smashed them away to win . Evert lobbed to much but perhaps she dint because it took more strength to pass on red clay. At W 73 evert beat court on grass lobbing with uncanny ability, much easier to lob on grass. The ball is much lighter to lob.

1985 seems to have been when Hana and Chris's rivalry started to even out. After winning only 2 of 16 matches 1980-1984, Hana then won 5 of their remaining 10 matches.

From Tracy’s body language on court I can tell she hasn’t or wasn’t able to practice enough ( due to injury healing for past 4 months, Hana here is also coming back from an injury but is much stronger. ) Tracy is trying to play partially from memory. . Very brave .. I admire her dedication and willing to give it her best try.

Hana is dictating the pace. I’m surprised Tracy’s ball isn’t heavy hit as in her typical form. I swear Tracy grew an inch from the 81 open win 9 months before this match. Hana seems much stronger, but I admire Tracy’s effort . She prepares to win each point, her concentration is intense.

1988 being the year of Switch to Flinders Park, i assume it’s because of limited space and accommodations in Kooyong

Czech vs Czech. Check.

Both look like Bjørn Borg 😅

Just like Evonne, Hana was so unpredictable that it was difficult to get any rhythm against her.

Say whatever you want about some parts of Shriver's game. She had textbook volleys.

"She'll be able to write in her diary about breaking Martina's serve" - Novotna did more than that when she knocked navratilova out of wimbedon a few years later

Martina was always fair. If she thought her opponent received a bad call, she'd be honest about it. 1:26

Sorry but why do you put the result in the title of the video? makes it that no one's really going to watch it

Where is championship point?!?!?

Hana pushed Martina hard in the finals, for the first set. She was playing glorious tennis here.

Martina was hot back in the day. Always loved Hana though.

Thanks!

Beautiful groundstrokes and volleys from both players. Hana was just exquisite!

Beautiful groundstrokes and volleys from both players. Hana was just exquisite!

It’s amazing how much faster they played back then. The Sabatini-Lindqvist match was 6-2, 6-3 in 59 minutes. Today (Day 1 of 2024 Wimbledon), there were a handful of Women’s matches featuring about the same number of games, and they lasted between 1h 10m to 1h 20m. Some might think it’s because there’s fewer serve/volleyers, or more baseline play, but I would blame the time they take between points.

Sukova absolutely collapsed at the end of the match with Chris. Wow.

Mandlikova had the most graceful backhand of all time. Her backswing is just as beautiful as the follow-through.

When Steffi's first serve goes in, she plays the point with the second ball in her hand! That is unbelievable....I've never seen that before or since, of course most players female and male are 2 handed backhanded so this would be impossible....but even the few one handed back handers today don't do this!🤤

I have a blank sheets of white copy paper that have more variety than Chris Evert's game

I wonder if there's any footage of the QF against Turnbull?

現在のパワーテニスの時代には見ることが出来ない、美しくバランスの取れたフォーム。魅了されます😍

Absolutely no one could compete with Martina during this period like Hana could.

マンドリコワ、ウィンブルドンはタイトル獲得出来なかったが、全豪がまだ芝🌱✨のコートだった時に優勝🏆️✨✨出来た事は、ウィンブルドン優勝と同じ価値がある😊⤴️✨ しかも、ラケット🎾フレームは対戦相手の方がYONEXの次世代型のを使っているように見えるのにも関わらず。😊(マンドリコワのWilsonのラケットフレームの色がベージュで木製に見えるだけ？)

ThankU 4 SharinG!!...such elegant Tennis

Watching Pam Shriver lose is always a pleasure.

The AO was the step child of the majors to at least the early 90's. For years many top players skipped the event all together. This is why Margaret Court's haul is looked at with a side eye.

Looking forward to when AI can clean up these old low resolution videos …

Evert vs Austin in the final would have been epic! Evonne was the crowd favorite- rightly so!

Two of the most beautiful playing styles ever. Skill, variety, strategy, grace...

ahhh , as a geezer, my two fave ' back then ' players. when maybe Ya'd get to see half of the championship match on tape delay but for sure not round 3 on TV...... to me there is a direct ( short ) line from Hana to K. Muchova who also has great talent, but was too often injured.... kinda sad.

So many chances for Hana to serve for the match!

Chris had re-entered the tour having had a break at beginning of the year in February , she was burned out ,afraid to compete after Tracy thrashed her 5 times while not fully noticing that she was feeding the perfectly hit deep ball right into Tracy’s wheelhouse. All Tracy had to do was move left and right. Once Chris realized that if she moved Austin up and back and became less predictable ,Tracy’s footwork was not as good as Chris’s. If Tracy was in position she was deadly but out of position her ball was very easy to dictate the point. Moving Tracy around without getting strong and stretching Tracy tensed up due to pressure , you can see her tensing when walking back to receive serve or getting the balls to serve. Today we know so much more about conditioning and I wish Tracy could’ve gotten stronger in order to compete , there could’ve been a three way competition for the top spot from 83-88. Mandlikovas game as wade has said took time for Hana to know how to play Evert. It took Martina until she was 24 . When you have an all court game with serve and volley it takes more time to develop. It took Evert until she was almost 30 to have a good volley and 32 before she had a great overhead where she could put the ball away as in 88 AO Sf vs Martina. Martina pushed Evert to become better athlete and evert forced Martina to have nerves of steel. Both helped the other to become whole players.Hana put her game together in 85 Open and played an excellent match against Evert in 86 W Sf and played a close match vs Martina in the final. She also beat Martina in 87 AO . Even wade was able to put her finest like Goolagong later in life ( 77W, 80W ).

I hated the way some of the American commentators pronounce the name as Mand-Leek-ova.

This 2R match finished on Saturday around 7pm. Remember, these were the days of no play on Wimbledon’s middle Sunday. The first time they broke that rule was 1991, but they must have been close to doing it in ‘85, had any of these 2R matches dragged on. Have to admit, I was never a huge fan of JoAnne Russell as a commentator, but the worst was how NBC ditched her for Evert once she retired; Russell says they never even told her, she read in the paper that they weren’t renewing her contract. Cold.

The point at 2:22 shows why Gabby won only 1 major.

I had a crush on Hana., she was smoking.

Tracy is so quick with excuses as if Hana didn’t have an injury.

thanks for this view.

Hana only beat Chris 3 x in slam events - Sf never a final. Only Martina, Tracy, court,, king, Goolagong, Graf, have beaten Chris 3x or more. That’s 19 yr career of Chris to have lost only lost to 7 players in 3 matches or more. Hana belongs to a very select few of great players.

Thanks for posting. Why does the commentator consistently call her Wendy? Miss White was, and is so attractive. And a fine player. This match doesn't do her justice.

Thanks for posting 🙏

to view the SERVE/VOLLEY of Sukova vs Navratilova 1986, best of tennis skills.....