The 2019 Grand Slam season is over, so it’s time to take a look back at some of the best men’s singles matches from the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and U.S. Open. Finals and early rounds alike delivered the goods to tennis fans.
Australian Open
Kei Nishikori vs. Pablo Carreno Busta (fourth round) – This one had everything, including awesome tennis from just about start to finish. It will unquestionably go down as one of 2019’s best matches that did not include any member of the Big 3, right up there with the Stan Wawrinka vs. Stefanos Tsitsipas thriller at Roland Garros. It had controversy, too, as Carreno Busta felt he was wrong by the chair umpire during a historic fifth-set super-tiebreaker (it was the first year using that format at the Aussie Open). Nishikori finally prevailed 6-7(8), 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-4, 7-6(8) after five hours and six minutes, leaving the Spaniard in a fit of screaming, bag-tossing rage. As for the quality, baseline battles rarely feature more winners than errors, but in this one Nishikori was plus-14 and Carreno Busta was plus-13 in that department.
Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. Roger Federer (fourth round) – Instances of the younger generation stepping up to challenge the Big 3 are few and far between. The most notable such moment just came in the U.S. Open, albeit in Daniil Medvedev’s losing effort against Rafael Nadal. Another one–this one in victory–came Down Under, where the stage was not quite as big and the quality was not quite as impressive. But Tsitsipas vs. Federer was a fun one…at least for the fast-rising Greek. He showcased commendable net-charging tactics from start to finish, taking it to the 19-time Grand Slam champion by going into the forecourt 68 times and winning 48 of those points. Tsitsipas saved all 12 of the break points he faced on the way to a 6-7(11), 7-6(3), 7-5, 7-6(5) upset that required three hours and 45 minutes.
Frances Tiafoe vs. Grigor Dimitrov (fourth round): Although the quarters, semis, and final of the Australian Open were non-stop snooze-fests, the fourth round produced a smorgasbord of riches. Among them was Tiafoe vs. Dimitrov, which was overshadowed in part by the two aforementioned contests. Dimitrov’s 2019 campaign will be remembered for an out-of-nowhere semifinal run at the U.S. Open that was highlighted by a five-set upset of Federer. But before the Bulgarian fell off the map from February through early August, he turned in a decent showing in Melbourne. It could have been even better, but Tiafoe held him off 7-5, 7-6(6), 6-7(1), 7-5 with a quarterfinal spot alongside Rafael Nadal at stake. Despite firing 59 winners to only 43 errors, Dimitrov still could not get past the up-and-coming American–who played the best match of his young career.
French Open
Stan Wawrinka vs. Stefanos Tsitsipas (fourth round) – In terms of quality, drama, and length, this had to be considered the best match of the tournament. It was a complete roller-coaster ride, with Wawrinka winning 7-6(6), 5-7, 6-4, 3-6, 8-6 after five hours and nine minutes. It was played in front of an absolutely jam-packed Suzanne Lenglen crowd. It was a battle that influenced the rest of the summer for each player. Tsitsipas, who during his press conference looked like he had seen a ghost, never recovered. Wawrinka, meanwhile, followed up his French Open quarterfinal run with the same result at the U.S. Open.
Rafael Nadal vs. Dominic Thiem (final) – Nadal ran away with it in the end, but that was pretty much a foregone conclusion. For two sets, this was more fun than anyone could have expected. Nadal had to play his typically incredible clay-court tennis to take the first set and Thiem showed why he is the second-best clay-courter in the world as he stole the second. From a quality standpoint, those first two sets were two of the best of the year. Predictably, Thiem could not sustain it and eventually succumbed to the King of Clay 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 after three hours and one minute.
Best match that not many will remember: Jan-Lennard Struff vs. Borna Coric (third round): One of the best things about the French Open is the fans. If you are from France or even Belgium, Germany, or any other Western European country, your crowd support is going register on the Richter Scale. That was the case from Struff, who might as well have been playing at home with the Germans making an outer court at Roland Garros a borderline fire hazard. The 29-year-old touched off his breakout summer with a 4-6, 6-1, 4-6, 7-6(1), 11-9 upset of Coric that lasted four hours and 22 minutes.
Wimbledon
Novak Djokovic vs. Roger Federer (final) – The first-ever tiebreaker at 12-12 in a singles match was saved for the final, making this even more historic that it already was. Although the first thing that comes to everyone’s mind is Federer’s failure to capitalize on 40-15, double-championship point on his own serve at 8-7, the quality sustained for most of the four-hour and 57-minute thriller (other than Djokovic’s second-set walkabout) cannot be forgotten. The world No. 1 won 14 fewer points than Federer but won the big ones to triumph 7-6(5), 1-6, 7-6(4), 4-6, 13-12(3). It will surely go down as the best match of 2019 and perhaps one of the best matches ever played.
Roger Federer vs. Rafael Nadal (semifinals) – The two greatest Grand Slam champions of all time first continued arguably the greatest rivalry of all time at the French Open, where Nadal dominated a semifinal on his clay-court stomping grounds. Federer had proverbial home-court advantage at Wimbledon one month later, as the Swiss prevailed 7-6(3), 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 on his favored grass of the All-England Club. The highlight was the final service game at 5-4 in the fourth, during which Federer fought off one break point and missed two match points before finally sealing the deal. Centre Court had to be the loudest its ever been–or at least close–throughout that last game.
Best match that not many will remember: David Goffin vs. Daniil Medvedev (third round): Medvedev’s epic summer really began with the hard-court swing, but few people will remember that he also played one of the best matches at Wimbledon. In a preview of what would become a surprising Cincinnati final, Goffin got the best of the Russian 4-6, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 in three hours and 31 minutes during third-round action. The thriller ended with Goffin winning two incredible rallies in a row to hold serve at 6-5 after saving one break point, thus completing his comeback from 4-1 down in the fifth.
U.S. Open
Rafael Nadal vs. Daniil Medvedev (final) – Have we ever had two consecutive Grand Slam finals produce such entertainment? Maybe so, but it would take some serious research to either confirm or deny. As an encore to Djokovic vs. Federer, Nadal and Medvedev played almost as long and produced almost as much drama. Medvedev, who was in his fourth straight final (also Washington, D.C., Montreal, and Cincinnati), finally seemed to be left for dead when he trailed by two sets to love and a break in the third. Instead, the 23-year-old Russian improbably battled back to turn this into a five-set thriller that lasted four hours and 49 minutes. Perhaps most amazing was that Medvedev, who was booed non-stop earlier in the tournament, had the Arthur Ashe crowd chanting his name by the end.
Matteo Berrettini vs. Gael Monfils (quarterfinals) – They were not playing for much more than the right to lose to Nadal, but a spot in a Grand Slam semifinal is still a very high stake. And with that pressure on, Berrettini and Monfils played a high-quality contest in which they had to be decided by a fifth-set tiebreaker. Berrettini had never even been to a slam quarterfinal before, but showed the clutch gene beyond his years by prevailing 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(5) after three hours and 57 minutes. The huge-hitting Italian got the best of Monfils’ defense…which is certainly not easy to do!
Best match that not many will remember: Andrey Rublev vs. Stefanos Tsitsipas (first round): Tsitsipas’ stay in New York did not extend past the first match of the second day. Of course, it has to be said that he got a brutal draw. Rublev was unseeded, but he was already a former U.S. Open quarterfinalist (2017), beat Federer earlier this summer in Cincinnati, and he ended up reaching the quarterfinals this time around in New York, too. The Russian had a tough time finishing off this one even though Tsitsipas was cramping throughout the fourth set. Rublev finally triumphed 6-4, 6-7(5), 7-6(7), 7-5 after three hours and 54 minutes. The quality was by no means the best of the event, but the drama does not get much better for a first-round affair.
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what other ones?
Honorable mention: Federer v Nadal semi at RG. Conditions were horrible that day, very windy, a bit wet, clay blowing in their eyes. It was Federer’s first clay season in 3 years and he’d been playing very well. Nadal’s 12th RG was on the line. These two ultimate professionals dealt with the conditions and got on with playing the best they could without complaint. It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t dramatic, it wasn’t close, but it was awe-inspiring.
yep. underrated match.
and actually the first set was extremely high quality given the circumstances mentioned above.
The Wimby final between Fed and Novak provided great drama and the stakes were impossibly high! If Fed had won – as he should’ve done – he would’ve surpassed Sampras’s count of 8 Wimby trophies and would’ve been the sole leader on the green stuff. As it is, Fed still has to Share this record with Pistol Pete. If Fed had won, he also would’ve kept Novak at a safe distance in the overall slam count. Fed would’ve had six slam trophies more than Novak (and two more than Rafa instead of just one). And even for Novak it might be very challenging to win six or seven more slams in the next couple of years, which he needs to do in order to equal or surpass Fed’s record number of slam titles. We will only know for sure in a couple of years, but Fed may well have lost not just the match but also the GOAT race when he squandered his match points. At his age it will be much more difficult to win slams than for his two younger rivals and fellow GOAT-contenders Novak and Rafa. Fed now needs all the help he can get from the younger generation. Maybe, the young guns can help him to keep Rafa and Novak at bay. If they don’t do that, it’s totally possible that Novak AND Rafa will end up with more slams than Fed! The Wimby final 2019 may also have had another side effect, which is important for the GOAT race: it’s possible that Novak and Roger had to pay a steep price for being involved in the longest Wimby final ever played: both weren’t physically fully fit at the USO, and were therefore eliminated fairly early by their lofty standards. This helped to pave the road to Rafa’s very important 19th slam win, since he didn’t have to play against Novak or Roger in order to win the title.
It’s hard to come up with another slam match which had the same historical importance as the 2019 Wimby final. Therefore it definitely deserves to be mentioned in Ricky’s latest article. However, I disagree that the match should be included in the greatest-match-of-all-time list. The technical quality of the match wasn’t nearly as high as it’s historical significance. Novak didn’t really play at his usual brilliant level, and he only won the match because Fed, who was playing better than Novak for the majority of the match, blew the most important points. There are many other slam matches which had a much higher technical quality than this year’s Wimby final.
As to the Tsitsipas/Wawrinka match at the FO: this was truly a memorable match and a high-quality encounter. And I agree with Ricky that the loss affected Tsitsipas badly. He didn’t win another slam match afterwards, and his win/loss record at the NA hardcourt swing wasn’t much better. I really hope that he manages to recover mentally and physically and that he will do reasonably well at the year-end indoor hardcourt swing.
good post
Fed-Djoker definitely didn’t have a sustained high level from start to finish. but it was often very good in the most pressurized moments.
Sampras didnt have eight Wimbys, nor did he have five in a row. Not to mention losing to Fed .
Fed is the grass GOAT , surely.
Sorry, have I miscounted Sampras’s Wimby trophies? He may have had only seven.
I don’t think that Sampras loss to Fed at Wimby necessarily means that he was a lesser grass court player and I think he had a lot more serious competition at Wimby than early Fed. Therefore it’s not clear to me if Sampras was really worse than Fed on grass. The call is close and somewhat subjective IMO, especially since the grass on which Fed won all his Wimpy trophies was different than the grass from Sampras’ times. But Fed had of course a lot more final appearances, which is most certainly important, too.
Sampras himself said a while ago that he may have retired too early and that he foolishly resisted to get a more modern and bigger racquet, lol! Fed had the same qualms for a long time, but he finally switched and it payed off big time.
Fed does have the record for consecutive matches at Wimby,doesn’t he?
Plus his longevity.We can’t really speculate how many Sampras or Borg might have won,fact is they retired early.
I don’t really buy the weak era thing.Yes the grass was faster in Sampras day but that would help Fed also.You can only play who’s there.
You maybe forgot Sampras lost in 1996 which broke his winning streak
Yeah, but two of those five in a row were against this Spanish clay court specialist kid.
Even tougher,defending his title after losing in RG final both years.
US Open : Monfils over Shapovalov
One of Zverevs 5 setters
yep, Monfils-Shapo was great
Paire v Nishikori at the French was good from what I remember
oh yeah I was there. Huge choke by Paire.
I feel sad for the other person when Nishikori wins a 5 setter. Either he loose badly next match or withdraw..
You maybe forgot Sampras lost in 1996 which broke his winning streak