Watching Evert play can teach you about how to play efficient tennis. She didn't over power people but she knew how to work the ball around the court with patience to create opportunities. Her shot selection and court sense/strategy was top notch.
@@nikolaip5834 The previous era had far more moonballs than this. Plus, Chris knew she couldnt just feed Monica pace. She wasn't concerned with looking powerful. She wanted to win.
@@mikeg8375 this is the trasition era when classics tennis clashed with new generation hard hitter... and it's more fun to watch, because you still can see all "textbook" tennis shot here: top spin, slice, lob, dropshot.. nowadays, all you can see just groundstrokes, which end up to be winner or unforced error..
@@haroldsmyth6685 : She did we she had to get the job done. Just enough pace, just enough of a serve, just enough to win 18 grand slams even against in her own words much more athletic players (Martina). Consistency and almost never giving up free points. Tennis a match of winning points; she knew how to win them well.
My two favourite players of all time! I listened to this match on the radio and cried when Chrissie won. She'd been written off, but she turned the clock back that day. And incredible to think that Monica won the whole darn thing just two years later! Another fantastic champion!
@@carrerau7138 Graf ...Hilarious, she was as cold as they come on the tennis court !! Sabatini was completely BORING. Evert was only cool while playing the match, she had everyone wrapped around her finger when talking to the press. The world press, presented her with a special award at the Fed Cup in 1989, where she played her last matches as a professional.
@@bobjacubas6818 Steffi kept her cool during play most of the time. At victory ceremonies, press conferences and interviews she was usually very charming and sometimes even funny. Ball persons and tournament staffs loved her. But what truly sets her apart is her behavior towards the common fan - never arrogant, always friendly, down-to-earth and humble. No wonder that she is - by far - the most popular female player of all time.
@@bobjacubas6818 You can find interviews with Evert as a 15/16-year-old. Back then she seemed to be intelligent and well spoken. But chillingly calculating. Compare that to the sweet 15/16-year-old Steffi, a bit naive and almost still a kid. But simply lovely. And has kept this character trait until today, at age 54!
OMG!!!! Awesome!!! I’m a (semi-) pro and I thought I had good moon balls! Wow! There’s a TON of room behind the baseline at the US Open stadium court and Chris wasn’t even close to reaching it! I’m a big Evert fan (I ballboyed for her and trained/stiles her brother) and I have the ultimate respect for Seles and what she did for tennis. What a match. Two of the All-Time 8 Greatest Players Ever.
Steve Flink, who closely covered Chris Evert's 18 years on tour and knew all of her stats and saw a countless number of her matches, wrote that this match was one of the 10 best of the 1309 she won. She turned back the clock that afternoon.
@@kosta88816 I’d say this match is number four although I have the highest respect for Steve flint who saw more matches in person than I did . I saw 18
I ballboyed a couple of hers in Seattle 1980 and saw her at Tampa 1989. And I saw her at World Team Tennis In Seattle 1977. Oh, and I strung the USTA Futures event at her academy and saw her there in 1999. Where did you see her? I bet you live in Florida, or New York.
I can feel the love for tennis in this match! Chris Evert announced that this would be his last season at the US Open! I want them to play in the WTA Legend League!! ️
To anyone wondering why Monica was playing so many moonballs - it was a deliberate tactic on her part. Chris had said many months earlier that she no longer had the patience to "trade moonballs with kids half her age". Monica had seen this first hand in the match they played in Houston earlier in 1989 - Monica started the match playing her normal game and Chris loved the pace. So Monica started moonballing and wore Chris down. Monica came away with a three set win.
That, you must remember this Evert on video wasn't the same old Evert from mid 70s to mid 80s who can trade blow with any players all day long. By this point, she was more bold and playing more all round game
Arantxa and a couple players used this tactics to some good effect against Evert. This Evert wasn't the dominant Evert who willing to duel from baseline all day long, but someone who grew impatient, but with more variety
It was a definite tactic from Monica. Chris had said many months before that she "no longer had the patience to trade moonballs with kids half her age". Monica had seen that first hand in their match earlier in 1989 in Houston. Monica started that match playing her more normal power baseline game. Chris loved the pace and won the first set. Monica then changed things up and started moonballing relentlessly. Chris slowly started to break down and Monica came away with a three set win. Also worth noting that Chris had something of a technical flaws in her game when dealing with high, heavy topspin balls. Being brought up in an era of wood when nobody hit with such topspin, she'd learned to move back, let the ball drop and plant her feet. That's suicide against heavy topspin. You can see on one particular point in this match how powerless it left Chris. She moved so far back that she ended up against the stands and the ball bounced over her head.
This was once widespread in women's tennis (1970s), endless moon balling until one or the other missed or made a bad short ball...it was very bad for the game (meaning, the watchability-->less TV viewers-->less advertising $$$-->less money for the women players, they realized that and had an unwritten agreement to stop playing that way)_, so by the mid-1980s it had mostly disappeared.
I missed this match live on tv in 1989. I still recall wondering, trying to figure out when it would be on tv, and being in PST time and having school starting for fall. OMG I missed it live. Definitely these two are in the top FIVE for greatest singles players ever. Along with Serena Williams, Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova.
As it stands, Serena and Evert are virtually neck and neck in record after record at this event. They share those 6 wins , but Evert has 31 consecutive wins over Serena's 24 consecutive wins. Chris ended her career at the US Open with an astounding 101 wins and 13 losses in 19 appearances for 88.6% win/loss ratio, reaching the quarterfinals every year and reaching the semifinals every year but twice. She finished her career with 9 finals in 19 attempts. Serena has so far acquired 106 wins ( the most in tennis history male or female) and 14 losses and 10 finals in 20 years for 88.3 % ratio. She threw in a few more losses before the Quarters, and that 1998 early round loss still haunts. Great champions both! How many early losses will Serena accrue to reach #7(if she does) in the next few years? Time will tell us.
Chris entered 56 grand slams in her 19 year career. 52 times to the semis or better. 54 times to the quarters or better. Only 2 third round losses in her entire career. Zero 4th, 2nd, or 1st round losses. No one has that record. No one. You'll never see anything like that again in your entire lifetime.
Chris had something of a technical flaw in her game when dealing with high, heavy topspin balls. Being brought up in an era of wood when nobody hit with such topspin, she'd learned to move back, let the ball drop and plant her feet. That's suicide against heavy topspin. The other players were definitely aware of it.
Its interesting looking at where they prefer to stand and how they hit the ball. Evert was raised the wood racket queen. With that smaller racket face and even smaller sweet spot, it just did not pay to try to hit that ball on the rise over and over and belt it. Unless everything timed just perfectly, you'd make too many errors. So you stand back further, wait for the ball to begin to descend to give yourself plenty of time for the perfect consistent impact. So that is how Evert built her game. Monica was raised with that large racket face, large sweet spot, so early agression paid dividends. The better racket could do the work even if the ball was not hitting the exact center of the strings. It simply was not as risky to hit the ball early on the rise, standing on the baseline, and blast away, you got better angles to hit and robbed your opponent of recovery time. In this match, Evert stands 4 feet behind, as though its 1980, and still wins. That's how well she was moving, and concentrating in this match. The tactic works and Seles errors bloom.
You certainly put your finger on it. Chris just didn't have the technique to step in and take the ball early - as you say, she grew up in an era when nobody hit with heavy topspin. If you watch some of evert's later matches with Sabatini, the weakness really becomes apparent. Because evert won't step in, Sabatini's topspin drags her allover the court and way behind it. Steffi Graf also on occasion used to play high topspin shots off her backhand to Evert coz she knew evert would back off way behind the baseline. There's some special relevance in this match - Chris had said months earlier that she no longer had the patience "to trade moonballs with kids half her age". Monica had played Chris in Houston earlier that year and started off playing her usual attacking game. Chris loved the pace and won the first set. Monica then started moonballing and slowly but surely it ground Chris down. Monica was trying for the same thing here but she didn't play a good match.
@@zeddeka This was vintage Chris. The weaponry and power of her modern game with the mental strength of her 70's game. She said she concentrated like she was 17 again. What was even more amazing was her movement / anticipation to get to so many of this bullets and respond with such depth and purpose, time and again. Monica had extremely deceptive strokes, very hard to read direction, yet Chris was there... That is what eventually did Monica in here.
You have to remember Monica was only 15 here! She definitely learned from this match and other losses in 89 and 90 before she began to absolutely dominate the tour
You can definitely see how young Seles' forehand hadn't developed to be as consistently lethal as her backhand yet. Hence all the moon balls from that wing.
Chris is so fun to watch here! Even as her game clearly stands out as being from an earlier era, she demonstrates why she’s such a great champion. She makes the most of all of her strengths and exploits all of Monica’s weaknesses. Her shot selection and placement are superb. It’s like Chrissy knows exactly which shot her opponent doesn’t want to hit next, and executes it perfectly. Masterful performance, especially against the younger much more powerful Seles.
And yet the players of the 1990s were so much better than those of the 2010s! Remember how Kimiko Date ended her career in 1996, came back in 2009 and - being in her early 40s - beat up slam winners of the 2010s left and right? 😂 Imagine what young peak Steffi would have done to clowns like Sharapova or Osaka! Naomi most probably would have started to cry and called Steffi “racist“!
Racket technology...the rackets today will sends shots zinging at a much faster pace using the exact same stroke...if you gave today's players the rackets Monica and Chris Evert are using here, it would look almost the same, just a little bit faster... (Monica hit the ball hard even by regular top players of today's standards)...and the rackets they're using are already a noticeable difference in power from the old wood rackets people used before the mid-1970s.
I know, it’s annoying. The tech was older with the racquets and other equipment, the training was different, heck even the cameras paint a different image for us watching this on a screen since they’re not nearly as sophisticated as what we have today! Why are people so surprised that Seles and Evert are playing a different game than the Williams sisters?
I really loved that right before winning point when the whole crowd started cheering for Chris, and Monica had to delay her serve, you could tell by the look on her face that Chris didn't like the whole crowd being behind her, and a 15 year old kid being across from her. I think she wanted the crowd behind Monica too. She was already showing signs of how great she was going to be, and it wasn't a close match that needed the whole crowd behind the person winning.
@@joeyconvery2055 Stupid reply because Monica wasn't ever a moon-baller. She is using the tactic here to try and put off Evert's rhythm and patience. It work earlier in the year on clay in the Houston final.
@@joeyconvery2055 it was nothing to do with that. Monica already had the powerful strokes (just look at her match 4 months earlier in the 1989 french open semi against Graf), but chose to play a moonball strategy in this match. The reason behind it was because Chris had said some months earlier that she "no longer had patience to trade moon balls with kids half her age". Monica had played Chris earlier that year in Houston and started with her normal attacking game. Chris loved the pace and won the first set. Monica then starting moonballing and it ground Chris down. Monica won the match, and that's what she was trying for here. Chris also had something of a technical weakness when dealing with high balls. She wouldn't step in like a modern player would and instead backed way off.
Love the upward chin position as chriS walked to her chair after serving ankh winning that first game after double faulting to lov 30. To start a match serving when your opponent is someone you absolutely don’t want to lose to from love b30:*gives one third sense that the match is in your hands , the ouptcome has more t do with how you lay. A confidence booster for sure because Chris saw this ad a green light to give herself the full right to win. This is Vintage ChriS Evert . . The Uber Evert , the Evert pushed by Maertina from 82-84 to become an all court player ( at this point evert could hit any ball any where on the court . She still preferred the baseline and playing steady but here every ball was an effective penetrating shot. Monica got a taste of othe real Evert after having beaten her 6-4 in the third set . They played a match before that in which chis won by a similar score . ChriS lost to BJK in semis in her first open in 1971 and was beaten soundly . In Evert last open in 1989 sshe beat an upcoming great champion Seles in a quarterfinal 6-0, 6-2 . After everts thrashing of Austin in 80 open stand her two last french open wins over Martina I place this match as her third most important match in regards to her legacy( with her win in 76 Wimbledon over Goolagong a close 5 th. She would lose to Zina in next round n the quarters that was ok because she played one more great great match ( her last professional win ) just one last time to remind us what a tremendous champion she is.
The biggest thing we remember about this match is obviously the emotion around Chris Evert's retirement. We laud her play, as we should. Monica Seles also came to this match with a terrible strategy, and we never saw her play a match like this again--perhaps she was overwhelmed by the moment. She foolishly tried to engage in hypnotic baseline (moonball???) rallies with Chris Evert, on a day when Chris was not going to miss.
Monica was not playing in a Houston final as a surprise finalist with zero pressure anymore. She had never played in a stadium of this stature, with crowds this large and under monumental circumstances. She's 15. This is one of her playing idols and the crowd do not want her to win. Monica starts to play her power game, and she is losing, so she went to her 'plan B' which was that moonball. Problem is that Evert had her teeth in the match by then, her strokes grooved and somehow brought a degree of concentration out of mothballs buried in the back of her closet. None of this would have worked for Chris had her footwork, anticipation and lateral movement been any less than sublime. She literally shrank the size of her court with her feet. Monica's bullets were bound to spray eventually. Chris was the best problem solver on the tour and she definitely picked her tactics here. Notice for example how often she 'centered' her ball down the middle without any pace to work off of, depriving Monica of both pace and angle to work with.
@@normadesmond6017 exactly, golden years for tennis, i would love if i could watch old matches in high def i would die for that, i still watch without high def but with oh my word would loveeee to rewatch seles, graf, borgs etc
@@nickhaswell6011 o, that would be wonderful. And the Monica Seles vs Jennifer Capriati match US Open 1991 in the semifinal.! I still watch these epic matches also, bad quality or not. Love it!
@@normadesmond6017 yeah fantastic matches with or without high definition, but with high def or cleaned up remastered like they do with old films on bluray would be awesome I would be watching, navaratilova, graf, evert, seles, borg, mcenroe, lendl, edberg, becker i watch them still but in high def would be the absolute icing on the cake literally
Patient wise athletic long career funny great commentator businesswoman..love her since u was a teenager and i played tennis bc of her and jimmy connors .i used ro play un fort kauderdale at the lical him every courts at holiday oark once in while and i saw xhris at an event where sge played john the funny lovets play in delray beach charity match .thanks for all ur tough matches Chris and i still love the sport and watch your old matches..ty good luck with tour treatments and i hope ur ok
Can someone take a moonball off the bounce? Please?? Or maybe a swinging volley to end the fricken point? I had forgotten how much of a moonballer Seles was early on. Kudos to Evert for not losing her mind with that crap.
Am I right in writing that tennis is very different now, with less full court battles and a lot more tricky moves e.g drop shots and other strategies. There is probably better training now.
Women’s tennis SUCKS right now...no rivalries, all clones of themselves, yes Seles played juvenile moon balls here but check out her match against Graf the same year French semis, way more entertaining than the shit being produced these days with much better raquet technology...
@@viksinha5410 not sarcasm. I’m not talking about the entertainment value. I’m talking about the speed of the ball, tactics, serves. The quality of play among women’s tennis today is comparable to the men in this era.
@@randallarmstrong1840 Ok thanks for clarifying. Yes I agree; it isn’t as good as the men’s tennis, but definitely I am entertained so much more than I was before
Monica's moonballs were a deliberate strategy. Chris had said some months earlier that she "no longer had patience to trade moon balls with kids half her age". Monica had played Chris earlier that year in Houston and started with her normal attacking game. Chris loved the pace and won the first set. Monica then starting moonballing and it ground Chris down. Monica won the match, and that's what she was trying for here. Chris also had something of a technical weakness when dealing with high balls. She wouldn't step in like a modern player would and instead backed way off. You can see how far behind the baseline she is on some points, and Chris moved so far back at one point that she's almost in the stands and the ball bounced over her head.
@@SyncopateTheShot nice! I'm so glad we can go back and watch her matches. Wish I could have seen her in person in her prime. Definitely a good game to model after.
You can thank the 15 year old playing here for changing that style of play...this match certainly wasn’t a typical Seles match even at 15, check out her match at the French semis against Graf way more entertaining than Bianca and Serena, who get “injured” all the time. Weight loss would help that immensely.
I’m tired of reading criticisms unless you have seen these matches live as I did you have no idea how hard Monica Seles or Steffi Graf or Chris said it could’ve hit that ball but also they played tactically very well as did Martina.
If I am not mistaken, Monica Seles was the one who started the whole thing about screaming while playing tennis. I was a kid when she became a top player and I remember watching this young lady screaming while playing tennis.
@@lenwelch2195 Women played excellent tennis in the 80s and early 90s with midsized racquets... this just isn't the best example of it. The moonball rallies were a little bit embarrassing to watch, but sure winning pretty isn't always necessary
weird match by Seles, unvelieveble patient and accuracy from Chriss! For me, Monica's playing style on this match is kind of suspicious, looks like she respected so much Chriss that she didnt want to win... With Graff she played so much different and more agrressive... if you look at the end of the match, Monica went to the net so happy to shook Chriss hands and looked into her face with such admiration... never saw that before from Seles ;)
This wasn't Monica's usual game, even back then. It was a deliberate strategy she had for this match. Chris had said about a year earlier that she "no longer had the patience to trade moonballs with kids half her age". Monica had played Chris in Houston earlier that year and played her normal game in the first set. Chris loved the pace and won it. Then Monica started moonballing and it gradually wore Chris down. Monica won that match. So that's what Monica was trying to do in this match - she abandoned her normal attacking game and it didn't work.
@@zeddeka I believe that. But I saw a match recently that I hadn’t seen back in the day with Seles vs the eldest Maleeva sister at the 90 French Open. I had never seen her having so much trouble stepping into the ball.
2:06 see how Monica not going to the net to end the point quickly? Sele would develop into an amazing player punishing her opponent with powerful ground strokes. But in this match, she's completely school by a finesse veteran. 54:57. Looks familiar.
@@jamespeyton7312 Most rich and famous were anti-Trump, no surprise there. I guess those rich people love communism. Why don't they give all their money away first?
Quite intersting and unexpected what happened here. It seemed to me that Seles felt much more pressure here than Chris. Maybe she wanted to prove so badly that her win in Houston wasn't a one timer. She didn't beet Evert with moon balling there. Seles was always good in taking balls early in the rise. Here out of the sudden she did not do that at all, not only engaging into moon ball ralleys, but also starting them. Handing the experienced Chris the win on silver tablet with that.
The reason behind Monica's moonballs was because Chris had said some months earlier that she "no longer had patience to trade moon balls with kids half her age". Monica had played Chris earlier that year in Houston and started with her normal attacking game. Chris loved the pace and won the first set. Monica then starting moonballing and it ground Chris down. Monica won the match, and that's what she was trying for here. Chris also had something of a technical weakness when dealing with high balls. She wouldn't step in like a modern player would and instead backed way off. You can see it in several points here. In one point, Chris moved so far back that she ends up against the stands and the ball bounced over her head.
I think these moonballs work pretty well. I play them constantly against my more talented friend and it gives him headaches and me some wins (else I'd just lose 10 out of 10 games). I think it would even work today in men's tennis as long as you time those moonballs to land pretty deep (which you can train).
Chris spanked her here. But Monica owned Steffi until stabbed. Chris & Martina> Monica & Serena >>Steffi. Justine could’ve been up there if she stayed longer
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
Ok, what's weird is that people used to complain about Monica's grunting. Compared to what we have now, this is just really quaint.
I was so annoyed by her grunting back then....Now, I'd welcome it. Can't believe how much quieter it is compared to today's players.
Her grunting got ten times worse as the years went on to be honest.
@@darrenbrown9126 yeah she certainly turned it up a notch
Allowing the noise has ruined the game for me. I’d think the broadcast could block it.
Seles opened the door for grunting.
Watching Evert play can teach you about how to play efficient tennis. She didn't over power people but she knew how to work the ball around the court with patience to create opportunities. Her shot selection and court sense/strategy was top notch.
!!!!
The amount of moon balls made this hard to watch, however
@@nikolaip5834 The previous era had far more moonballs than this. Plus, Chris knew she couldnt just feed Monica pace. She wasn't concerned with looking powerful. She wanted to win.
@@mikeg8375 this is the trasition era when classics tennis clashed with new generation hard hitter... and it's more fun to watch, because you still can see all "textbook" tennis shot here: top spin, slice, lob, dropshot.. nowadays, all you can see just groundstrokes, which end up to be winner or unforced error..
But the game was slower then because of the equipment. Tennis was far more interesting.
Two tennis queens at opposite ends of their careers. Both magnificent examples of talent, professionalism and dignity.
Yep and everet looked like a angry old bag even then
@@Emolga6274 yup. How did she win all those tournaments?no serve. No pace no return of serve. Strictly patience andplacement
@@haroldsmyth6685 : She did we she had to get the job done. Just enough pace, just enough of a serve, just enough to win 18 grand slams even against in her own words much more athletic players (Martina). Consistency and almost never giving up free points. Tennis a match of winning points; she knew how to win them well.
I agree.
Yep. Unfortunately, Monica's career, which would have been probably the greatest of all female tennis players careers, was destroyed by a madman.
One of the most compelling matches in grand slam history. A classic. Chris shows why she is Chris Evert one more time before it's time to say goodbye.
My two favourite players of all time! I listened to this match on the radio and cried when Chrissie won. She'd been written off, but she turned the clock back that day. And incredible to think that Monica won the whole darn thing just two years later! Another fantastic champion!
Monica would've been the G.O.A.T. if not for that stabbing.
And twice in a row including a win with no set loss and only 27 games lost in 1992.
no one cares
Turned back the clock? 34 isnt old
Chrissie? No, Christopher. All female tennis pros on TV are dudes, Steffi being the most obvious.
Chris Evert the most charming player ever on a tenniscourt.
Most people would say that is Steffi, Sabatini or Clijsters.
Evert always came across as a cold and calculation person.
@@carrerau7138 Graf ...Hilarious, she was as cold as they come on the tennis court !! Sabatini was completely BORING. Evert was only cool while playing the match, she had everyone wrapped around her finger when talking to the press. The world press, presented her with a special award at the Fed Cup in 1989, where she played her last matches as a professional.
@@bobjacubas6818 Steffi kept her cool during play most of the time. At victory ceremonies, press conferences and interviews she was usually very charming and sometimes even funny. Ball persons and tournament staffs loved her. But what truly sets her apart is her behavior towards the common fan - never arrogant, always friendly, down-to-earth and humble.
No wonder that she is - by far - the most popular female player of all time.
@@bobjacubas6818 You can find interviews with Evert as a 15/16-year-old.
Back then she seemed to be intelligent and well spoken. But chillingly calculating.
Compare that to the sweet 15/16-year-old Steffi, a bit naive and almost still a kid. But simply lovely. And has kept this character trait until today, at age 54!
@@carrerau7138👍👍
56:28 Moonball winner !
Chris looked angry.
OMG!!!! Awesome!!! I’m a (semi-) pro and I thought I had good moon balls! Wow! There’s a TON of room behind the baseline at the US Open stadium court and Chris wasn’t even close to reaching it! I’m a big Evert fan (I ballboyed for her and trained/stiles her brother) and I have the ultimate respect for Seles and what she did for tennis. What a match. Two of the All-Time 8 Greatest Players Ever.
And coincidentally Evert was known for her Moon-ball lobs. Lol Monica def. has skill as well, great match.
Never saw this before. Thanks for the heads up. Evert did NOT look happy.
Well, remember, Monica had beaten Evert the year b4 in Finals of Houston
Steve Flink, who closely covered Chris Evert's 18 years on tour and knew all of her stats and saw a countless number of her matches, wrote that this match was one of the 10 best of the 1309 she won. She turned back the clock that afternoon.
Steve Flink knows his stuff 😀🙏
@@kosta88816 I’d say this match is number four although I have the highest respect for Steve flint who saw more matches in person than I did . I saw 18
按月ㄩ
I ballboyed a couple of hers in Seattle 1980 and saw her at Tampa 1989. And I saw her at World Team Tennis In Seattle 1977. Oh, and I strung the USTA Futures event at her academy and saw her there in 1999. Where did you see her? I bet you live in Florida, or New York.
Flunk actually said that this match was in her top five best matches played on a 2001 Evert podcast / you tube video
I can feel the love for tennis in this match! Chris Evert announced that this would be his last season at the US Open! I want them to play in the WTA Legend League!! ️
Chris Evert announced that it would be her last season, in January 1989. This was September her last professional tournament.
Chris Evert. Pure class. A true legend.
To anyone wondering why Monica was playing so many moonballs - it was a deliberate tactic on her part. Chris had said many months earlier that she no longer had the patience to "trade moonballs with kids half her age". Monica had seen this first hand in the match they played in Houston earlier in 1989 - Monica started the match playing her normal game and Chris loved the pace. So Monica started moonballing and wore Chris down. Monica came away with a three set win.
Thanks for explaining! I was so confused by it cause I'd never seen Seles hit moonballs as more than a defensive shot.
That, you must remember this Evert on video wasn't the same old Evert from mid 70s to mid 80s who can trade blow with any players all day long. By this point, she was more bold and playing more all round game
The moon ball overload was very odd to watch now. Absolutely love both these players, two legends.
Arantxa and a couple players used this tactics to some good effect against Evert. This Evert wasn't the dominant Evert who willing to duel from baseline all day long, but someone who grew impatient, but with more variety
It was a definite tactic from Monica. Chris had said many months before that she "no longer had the patience to trade moonballs with kids half her age". Monica had seen that first hand in their match earlier in 1989 in Houston. Monica started that match playing her more normal power baseline game. Chris loved the pace and won the first set. Monica then changed things up and started moonballing relentlessly. Chris slowly started to break down and Monica came away with a three set win. Also worth noting that Chris had something of a technical flaws in her game when dealing with high, heavy topspin balls. Being brought up in an era of wood when nobody hit with such topspin, she'd learned to move back, let the ball drop and plant her feet. That's suicide against heavy topspin. You can see on one particular point in this match how powerless it left Chris. She moved so far back that she ended up against the stands and the ball bounced over her head.
@th8257 55:50 I was reading this comment just as the ball flew over her head😂
This was once widespread in women's tennis (1970s), endless moon balling until one or the other missed or made a bad short ball...it was very bad for the game (meaning, the watchability-->less TV viewers-->less advertising $$$-->less money for the women players, they realized that and had an unwritten agreement to stop playing that way)_, so by the mid-1980s it had mostly disappeared.
8:39 -- Monica starts a long-ass moonball party 🎾🤦
Tracy, Andrea, Manuela, Arantxa also played moonballs against Chris.
Chris is like, "here we go again with these loopers, I'll be here all day...."
I missed this match live on tv in 1989. I still recall wondering, trying to figure out when it would be on tv, and being in PST time and having school starting for fall. OMG I missed it live. Definitely these two are in the top FIVE for greatest singles players ever. Along with Serena Williams, Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova.
Steffi vs. Monica would have gone on forever. If
As it stands, Serena and Evert are virtually neck and neck in record after record at this event. They share those 6 wins , but Evert has 31 consecutive wins over Serena's 24 consecutive wins. Chris ended her career at the US Open with an astounding 101 wins and 13 losses in 19 appearances for 88.6% win/loss ratio, reaching the quarterfinals every year and reaching the semifinals every year but twice. She finished her career with 9 finals in 19 attempts. Serena has so far acquired 106 wins ( the most in tennis history male or female) and 14 losses and 10 finals in 20 years for 88.3 % ratio. She threw in a few more losses before the Quarters, and that 1998 early round loss still haunts. Great champions both! How many early losses will Serena accrue to reach #7(if she does) in the next few years? Time will tell us.
Chris entered 56 grand slams in her 19 year career. 52 times to the semis or better. 54 times to the quarters or better. Only 2 third round losses in her entire career. Zero 4th, 2nd, or 1st round losses. No one has that record. No one. You'll never see anything like that again in your entire lifetime.
Serena Williams refusal to get into elite shape has hindered her since after 2005. She should have won 35 majors
This comment didn’t age well.
Winner Moonball at 56:30 from Monica ! Love it.
Chris had something of a technical flaw in her game when dealing with high, heavy topspin balls. Being brought up in an era of wood when nobody hit with such topspin, she'd learned to move back, let the ball drop and plant her feet. That's suicide against heavy topspin. The other players were definitely aware of it.
Every was America's sweetheart back then. ❤ ☝ 🇺🇸
Its interesting looking at where they prefer to stand and how they hit the ball. Evert was raised the wood racket queen. With that smaller racket face and even smaller sweet spot, it just did not pay to try to hit that ball on the rise over and over and belt it. Unless everything timed just perfectly, you'd make too many errors. So you stand back further, wait for the ball to begin to descend to give yourself plenty of time for the perfect consistent impact. So that is how Evert built her game. Monica was raised with that large racket face, large sweet spot, so early agression paid dividends. The better racket could do the work even if the ball was not hitting the exact center of the strings. It simply was not as risky to hit the ball early on the rise, standing on the baseline, and blast away, you got better angles to hit and robbed your opponent of recovery time. In this match, Evert stands 4 feet behind, as though its 1980, and still wins. That's how well she was moving, and concentrating in this match. The tactic works and Seles errors bloom.
Perfectly stated, Brian. I was thinking along the same lines.
You certainly put your finger on it. Chris just didn't have the technique to step in and take the ball early - as you say, she grew up in an era when nobody hit with heavy topspin. If you watch some of evert's later matches with Sabatini, the weakness really becomes apparent. Because evert won't step in, Sabatini's topspin drags her allover the court and way behind it. Steffi Graf also on occasion used to play high topspin shots off her backhand to Evert coz she knew evert would back off way behind the baseline. There's some special relevance in this match - Chris had said months earlier that she no longer had the patience "to trade moonballs with kids half her age". Monica had played Chris in Houston earlier that year and started off playing her usual attacking game. Chris loved the pace and won the first set. Monica then started moonballing and slowly but surely it ground Chris down. Monica was trying for the same thing here but she didn't play a good match.
@@zeddeka This was vintage Chris. The weaponry and power of her modern game with the mental strength of her 70's game. She said she concentrated like she was 17 again. What was even more amazing was her movement / anticipation to get to so many of this bullets and respond with such depth and purpose, time and again. Monica had extremely deceptive strokes, very hard to read direction, yet Chris was there... That is what eventually did Monica in here.
You have to remember Monica was only 15 here! She definitely learned from this match and other losses in 89 and 90 before she began to absolutely dominate the tour
Definitely one of Chris's best matches. Can't help thinking though that if she had been up against the Seles of 1991 or 1992, Monica would have won.
Great Win for Chris 😀
You can definitely see how young Seles' forehand hadn't developed to be as consistently lethal as her backhand yet. Hence all the moon balls from that wing.
Trying to disrupt Evert’s rhythm
The way Monica wins the point at 56.30 is something I have never seen ever after. Chris's face was soo pissed off.
Haha! Yeah, this match featured some odd play. Hardly a classic in my eyes. Monica was certainly hitting some deep lobs!
Could the video quality be any poorer? 💯
My two favorite ladies players of all time. Baseline queens. Seles would’ve won about 10 more grand slam titles.
Yep, we were robbed of one of the great rivalries
@@Ineddiblehulk Not Seles and Evert, LOL! This was Evert's final ever match.
Here are the two names I'm looking for
they didn't make mistakes even if they got tired
It's hard to see such perfect tennis players nowadays.
A massive age gap and generational gap too. Really enjoyed this historic game between 2 legends. Chris being my favourite 🤩
Chris is so fun to watch here! Even as her game clearly stands out as being from an earlier era, she demonstrates why she’s such a great champion.
She makes the most of all of her strengths and exploits all of Monica’s weaknesses. Her shot selection and placement are superb. It’s like Chrissy knows exactly which shot her opponent doesn’t want to hit next, and executes it perfectly. Masterful performance, especially against the younger much more powerful Seles.
54:58 Donald viendo el partido.
Compared to modern tennis this game looks like it is being played in slow motion! Amazing how things have changed.
And yet the players of the 1990s were so much better than those of the 2010s!
Remember how Kimiko Date ended her career in 1996, came back in 2009 and - being in her early 40s - beat up slam winners of the 2010s left and right? 😂
Imagine what young peak Steffi would have done to clowns like Sharapova or Osaka! Naomi most probably would have started to cry and called Steffi “racist“!
Racket technology...the rackets today will sends shots zinging at a much faster pace using the exact same stroke...if you gave today's players the rackets Monica and Chris Evert are using here, it would look almost the same, just a little bit faster... (Monica hit the ball hard even by regular top players of today's standards)...and the rackets they're using are already a noticeable difference in power from the old wood rackets people used before the mid-1970s.
Old tape makes it look that way
People here moaning about how dated the tennis looks here... it was over 30 years ago!
I know, it’s annoying. The tech was older with the racquets and other equipment, the training was different, heck even the cameras paint a different image for us watching this on a screen since they’re not nearly as sophisticated as what we have today! Why are people so surprised that Seles and Evert are playing a different game than the Williams sisters?
I really loved that right before winning point when the whole crowd started cheering for Chris, and Monica had to delay her serve, you could tell by the look on her face that Chris didn't like the whole crowd being behind her, and a 15 year old kid being across from her. I think she wanted the crowd behind Monica too. She was already showing signs of how great she was going to be, and it wasn't a close match that needed the whole crowd behind the person winning.
At 58:58, they play a 1:13 point. . . AWESOME!!!! It’s very interesting. Moonballs mixed with wicked drives, this match is fantastic!
Seles tactic to throw off Chris’s rhythm
Never seen so many moonshots :)
Shame on monica playing those crappy moonballs
@@jaspalcheema1500 Monica was only 15....as she matured Monica quickly replaced the moonballs with her powerful groundstrokes.
@@jaspalcheema1500 That was the staple of Jnr tennis back in the day
@@joeyconvery2055 Stupid reply because Monica wasn't ever a moon-baller. She is using the tactic here to try and put off Evert's rhythm and patience. It work earlier in the year on clay in the Houston final.
@@joeyconvery2055 it was nothing to do with that. Monica already had the powerful strokes (just look at her match 4 months earlier in the 1989 french open semi against Graf), but chose to play a moonball strategy in this match. The reason behind it was because Chris had said some months earlier that she "no longer had patience to trade moon balls with kids half her age". Monica had played Chris earlier that year in Houston and started with her normal attacking game. Chris loved the pace and won the first set. Monica then starting moonballing and it ground Chris down. Monica won the match, and that's what she was trying for here. Chris also had something of a technical weakness when dealing with high balls. She wouldn't step in like a modern player would and instead backed way off.
Love the upward chin position as chriS walked to her chair after serving ankh winning that first game after double faulting to lov 30. To start a match serving when your opponent is someone you absolutely don’t want to lose to from love b30:*gives one third sense that the match is in your hands , the ouptcome has more t do with how you lay. A confidence booster for sure because Chris saw this ad a green light to give herself the full right to win. This is Vintage ChriS Evert . . The Uber Evert , the Evert pushed by Maertina from 82-84 to become an all court player ( at this point evert could hit any ball any where on the court . She still preferred the baseline and playing steady but here every ball was an effective penetrating shot. Monica got a taste of othe real Evert after having beaten her 6-4 in the third set . They played a match before that in which chis won by a similar score . ChriS lost to BJK in semis in her first open in 1971 and was beaten soundly . In Evert last open in 1989 sshe beat an upcoming great champion Seles in a quarterfinal 6-0, 6-2 . After everts thrashing of Austin in 80 open stand her two last french open wins over Martina I place this match as her third most important match in regards to her legacy( with her win in 76 Wimbledon over Goolagong a close 5 th. She would lose to Zina in next round n the quarters that was ok because she played one more great great match ( her last professional win ) just one last time to remind us what a tremendous champion she is.
why aren't they getting this old footage remastered?
The two tenniwomen I liked the most in my life.
I love them both!!
3:22 rare one handed shot from Seles for the winner!
Evert was such a great problem solver.
The biggest thing we remember about this match is obviously the emotion around Chris Evert's retirement. We laud her play, as we should. Monica Seles also came to this match with a terrible strategy, and we never saw her play a match like this again--perhaps she was overwhelmed by the moment. She foolishly tried to engage in hypnotic baseline (moonball???) rallies with Chris Evert, on a day when Chris was not going to miss.
Monica was not playing in a Houston final as a surprise finalist with zero pressure anymore. She had never played in a stadium of this stature, with crowds this large and under monumental circumstances. She's 15. This is one of her playing idols and the crowd do not want her to win. Monica starts to play her power game, and she is losing, so she went to her 'plan B' which was that moonball. Problem is that Evert had her teeth in the match by then, her strokes grooved and somehow brought a degree of concentration out of mothballs buried in the back of her closet. None of this would have worked for Chris had her footwork, anticipation and lateral movement been any less than sublime. She literally shrank the size of her court with her feet. Monica's bullets were bound to spray eventually. Chris was the best problem solver on the tour and she definitely picked her tactics here. Notice for example how often she 'centered' her ball down the middle without any pace to work off of, depriving Monica of both pace and angle to work with.
tennis was so much more interesting back then
Yep agreed and its not a generation thing it was better
@@nickhaswell6011 for sure
@@normadesmond6017 exactly, golden years for tennis,
i would love if i could watch old matches in high def i would die for that,
i still watch without high def but with oh my word would loveeee to rewatch seles, graf, borgs etc
@@nickhaswell6011 o, that would be wonderful. And the Monica Seles vs Jennifer Capriati match US Open 1991 in the semifinal.! I still watch these epic matches also, bad quality or not. Love it!
@@normadesmond6017 yeah fantastic matches with or without high definition,
but with high def or cleaned up remastered like they do with old films on bluray would be awesome
I would be watching, navaratilova, graf, evert, seles, borg, mcenroe, lendl, edberg, becker
i watch them still but in high def would be the absolute icing on the cake literally
Patient wise athletic long career funny great commentator businesswoman..love her since u was a teenager and i played tennis bc of her and jimmy connors .i used ro play un fort kauderdale at the lical him every courts at holiday oark once in while and i saw xhris at an event where sge played john the funny lovets play in delray beach charity match .thanks for all ur tough matches Chris and i still love the sport and watch your old matches..ty good luck with tour treatments and i hope ur ok
Never before seen Seles playing so many moonballs. Looks funny. Chris Evert was annoyed grrrrrrr 🤣🤣
56:30 yep
No-one had Sony mirrorless cameras. They had Canon and Nikon. You can hear photographers clicking away! 📷🎾
Chris last great US open match. She couldnt do a thing wrong that Saturday.
Couldn’t hear the score is it 6-1,6-2?
6/0-6/2
Surprised by all the moon balls, especially from Seles!!!🫣
This was her go-to game in her early years. Thankfully she moved past her moon ball era, it gets tiresome to watch.
I loved her grunting. It suited her aggressive style of play.
Can someone take a moonball off the bounce? Please?? Or maybe a swinging volley to end the fricken point? I had forgotten how much of a moonballer Seles was early on. Kudos to Evert for not losing her mind with that crap.
Chrissy be painting them lines.
@56:21 who knew Moonball of the century is actually played by Monica Seles 😮
Am I right in writing that tennis is very different now, with less full court battles and a lot more tricky moves e.g drop shots and other strategies. There is probably better training now.
No. It's all baseline hits.
Barely any drop shots
Wow. Women’s tennis has come a long way.
Is this sarcasm, because it was clearly more competitive back then
Women’s tennis SUCKS right now...no rivalries, all clones of themselves, yes Seles played juvenile moon balls here but check out her match against Graf the same year French semis, way more entertaining than the shit being produced these days with much better raquet technology...
@@viksinha5410 not sarcasm. I’m not talking about the entertainment value. I’m talking about the speed of the ball, tactics, serves. The quality of play among women’s tennis today is comparable to the men in this era.
@@randallarmstrong1840 Ok thanks for clarifying. Yes I agree; it isn’t as good as the men’s tennis, but definitely I am entertained so much more than I was before
Monica's moonballs were a deliberate strategy. Chris had said some months earlier that she "no longer had patience to trade moon balls with kids half her age". Monica had played Chris earlier that year in Houston and started with her normal attacking game. Chris loved the pace and won the first set. Monica then starting moonballing and it ground Chris down. Monica won the match, and that's what she was trying for here. Chris also had something of a technical weakness when dealing with high balls. She wouldn't step in like a modern player would and instead backed way off. You can see how far behind the baseline she is on some points, and Chris moved so far back at one point that she's almost in the stands and the ball bounced over her head.
CE vs Seles! wow, I wish we had a time machine! 8:40 what is this crazy point!
"Game Everet." 5:51. Why was it always so hard for certain umpires to say Evert? 🤣
It used to drive my mom nuts when people would mispronounce Evert. That's one of my first memories of tennis when I was a kid in the '80s.
@@TexaslawhornI used her game to pattern my game after, even as a guy. Watched her whenever she was on tv.
@@SyncopateTheShot nice! I'm so glad we can go back and watch her matches. Wish I could have seen her in person in her prime. Definitely a good game to model after.
It’s WILD to compare the pace of this hitting in ‘89 versus Seles hitting against the Williams sisters in ‘02. The game SPED UP.
Racket technology changed a lot through the 90s.
Yes the rackets...and surely also their 'vitamins'...
chrisy aged like wine! had no idea she was born in the fifties
This was like a mother daughter match.
Awesome!!!
just watched Bianca take out Serena and now watching this is like night and day.
You can thank the 15 year old playing here for changing that style of play...this match certainly wasn’t a typical Seles match even at 15, check out her match at the French semis against Graf way more entertaining than Bianca and Serena, who get “injured” all the time. Weight loss would help that immensely.
@@JF-su9mb you're so damn right..every player today is a clone of Monica..the greatest!
I’m tired of reading criticisms unless you have seen these matches live as I did you have no idea how hard Monica Seles or Steffi Graf or Chris said it could’ve hit that ball but also they played tactically very well as did Martina.
Well no shit. This was over 30 years ago. 🤦🏻♂️
@@JSmith-zr2ve so what if it was over 30 years ago? your point being?
56:33 funniest point in women's tennis history.
Seles is the GOAT , no debate
Nope.
she was a great player but the GOAT, don't think so. I'd put Kournikova before her.
Seles is the GOAT!!!
If I am not mistaken, Monica Seles was the one who started the whole thing about screaming while playing tennis. I was a kid when she became a top player and I remember watching this young lady screaming while playing tennis.
the trend that eventually bled into the men. Now even men give birth on court, especially Sonego.
La Flor vs la Cenicienta
technically, tactically, & mentally Evert was as good as it gets. total assassin. check her stats, it’s stunning.
Chris made 52 slam semis which is very impressive.
But won only 18 slams.
@@carrerau7138won only? What a jerk comment.
Great match between players.
Evert won because of experience. The level changed with Graf/ Seles
Would it kill you to show the scoreboard now and then?
What an excellent juniors match
Jerk comment made by someone totally ignorant of the game. Midsized rackets limited the power or speed of the ball.
@@lenwelch2195 Women played excellent tennis in the 80s and early 90s with midsized racquets... this just isn't the best example of it. The moonball rallies were a little bit embarrassing to watch, but sure winning pretty isn't always necessary
Evert at 34 still beat Teenagers.
Can still bagel
Ya think there was enough unforced errors in this match? My God.
weird match by Seles, unvelieveble patient and accuracy from Chriss! For me, Monica's playing style on this match is kind of suspicious, looks like she respected so much Chriss that she didnt want to win... With Graff she played so much different and more agrressive... if you look at the end of the match, Monica went to the net so happy to shook Chriss hands and looked into her face with such admiration... never saw that before from Seles ;)
6/0 6/2 was the score ! no mention to it in the video . . . Evert outplayed Seles in this match !
Great play by Chrissy here we can see that Monica is going to be a champ though soon
Excellent
Very Nice
Monica... ❤😍
Chrissy left, Monica soon learned how to step into a moon ball and the WTA improved instantly.
This wasn't Monica's usual game, even back then. It was a deliberate strategy she had for this match. Chris had said about a year earlier that she "no longer had the patience to trade moonballs with kids half her age". Monica had played Chris in Houston earlier that year and played her normal game in the first set. Chris loved the pace and won it. Then Monica started moonballing and it gradually wore Chris down. Monica won that match. So that's what Monica was trying to do in this match - she abandoned her normal attacking game and it didn't work.
@@zeddeka I believe that. But I saw a match recently that I hadn’t seen back in the day with Seles vs the eldest Maleeva sister at the 90 French Open. I had never seen her having so much trouble stepping into the ball.
The moonball tactic would not work in today's tennis lol
Wozniacki used it a lot.
Is that Donald Trump sitting with Andy at 54:57? 😬
Yes
You mean, the loser? Yep. Sure is.
@@JSmith-zr2ve : It’s creepy AF, right?
@@JSmith-zr2ve You watch to much CNN.
It is so interesting to see how the game has sped up since Evert's day. You also forget about Seles as a blonde with the long hair.
2:06 see how Monica not going to the net to end the point quickly? Sele would develop into an amazing player punishing her opponent with powerful ground strokes. But in this match, she's completely school by a finesse veteran. 54:57. Looks familiar.
AMAZINGGGGGGGG
25:48 THE LOOK !!!!
The ball looks so slow. I didn’t realize how hard the ball is hit these days.
Have you ever had a racket of the late 80s in your hand, kid....?
😂
Is that person on the left side Donald Trump at @54:55
Yes.
Yes, but Evert was quietly anti-Trump during his term.
@@jamespeyton7312 Most rich and famous were anti-Trump, no surprise there. I guess those rich people love communism. Why don't they give all their money away first?
Seles ruined her rhythm in that match by moon balling too much.
Monica is only 15 here a sophomore in high school impressive …
Moonballs 😮😮😮
Please remember where were you, when you were 15 😅✊
エバート&ナブラチロワから→グラフ、セレシュ、サンチェスらと世代交代が進んだ頃。15歳の少女がここまで強いとは驚きだったでしょう。カプリアティもいたけど、カプリアティは20代半ばに真の強さを手に入れた。
monica wasnt using her yonix racquet here yet
Yonnex
@@stevena.2306 yes yonnex thankyou
@@stevena.2306 Yonex
@@JSmith-zr2ve : yep oops. fast fingers.
Donald Trump is everywhere in the sport
Quite intersting and unexpected what happened here. It seemed to me that Seles felt much more pressure here than Chris. Maybe she wanted to prove so badly that her win in Houston wasn't a one timer. She didn't beet Evert with moon balling there. Seles was always good in taking balls early in the rise. Here out of the sudden she did not do that at all, not only engaging into moon ball ralleys, but also starting them. Handing the experienced
Chris the win on silver tablet with that.
The reason behind Monica's moonballs was because Chris had said some months earlier that she "no longer had patience to trade moon balls with kids half her age". Monica had played Chris earlier that year in Houston and started with her normal attacking game. Chris loved the pace and won the first set. Monica then starting moonballing and it ground Chris down. Monica won the match, and that's what she was trying for here. Chris also had something of a technical weakness when dealing with high balls. She wouldn't step in like a modern player would and instead backed way off. You can see it in several points here. In one point, Chris moved so far back that she ends up against the stands and the ball bounced over her head.
the rally at the one hour mark is very strange. both players just lobbed moonballs at each other for a while.
The future greatest president of the US was in attendance.
Your joking right? THE WORST EVER, ..
@@garygentry8050 That would be Creepy Joe, the demented grifter and Chinese puppet.
widely & correctly seen as the worst, except by the 🧟♂️ cult.
I think these moonballs work pretty well. I play them constantly against my more talented friend and it gives him headaches and me some wins (else I'd just lose 10 out of 10 games). I think it would even work today in men's tennis as long as you time those moonballs to land pretty deep (which you can train).
Monica, simply the best ever
Chris spanked her here. But Monica owned Steffi until stabbed.
Chris & Martina> Monica & Serena >>Steffi. Justine could’ve been up there if she stayed longer
@@yussepig6629 Monica was just 15 years old for godsake. Your bias really stinks
@@yussepig6629 Monica owned Steffi ??lol😂😂 Graf leads their h2h 10-5.
Who can imagine that this teenager unsecure will be the great champion one year later and dominate tennis dor 3 years.
I just realised the umpire is mispronouncing Chris's surname and calling her Everett