First modification: 21/05/2022 – 20:16
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Paris (AFP) – At just 19 years old, the Spanish Carlos Alcaraz aspires at Roland Garros, which begins this Sunday, to enter the select group of winners of a Grand Slam tournament before reaching twenty.
These are the precedents in the ‘Open era’ of tennis of the players who were crowned in a ‘great’ while still teenagers.
BJORN BORG
In 1974, the Swedish Borg won the first of his six Roland Garros titles just after he turned 18, after beating the Spanish Manuel Orantes in the final 2-6, 6-7, 6-0, 6-1 and 6- one. The Nordic star would win eleven Grand Slams in his career, including five consecutive Wimbledons between 1976 and 1980 before retiring, for the first time, at the age of 26. Borg became the first male tennis player to win a million dollars in 1979. “It’s hard when you’re No. 1. You don’t have a private life, you can’t even walk anywhere. I think that was one of the reasons why I lost the motivation to play tennis”, declared the Swede to justify his early withdrawal.
MATS WILANDER
At just 17 years old, another Swede, Mats Wilander, beat Argentinian Guillermo Vilas in a marathon of 4 hours and 42 minutes in the 1982 Roland Garros final (1-6, 7-6, 6-0, 6-4). ) and achieved it, moreover, without being seeded.
Wilander not only stood out throughout his career for his sportsmanship, such as when in the semifinals of that 2022 edition in Paris he requested the repetition of a point after a right hand from his rival, the Argentine José Luis Clerc, was called out, but also He became number 1 and won seven Grand Slams.
BORIS BECKER
The German burst onto the world tennis scene when in 1985, at the age of 17, he won his first Wimbledon, beating Kevin Curren 6-3, 6-7, 7-6, 6-4, becoming the youngest winner of the tournament. Londoner and the only one to do so without being seeded. Becker captivated the English fans with his powerful services, his precise volleys and, above all, for diving for any ball. The German would win six ‘big ones’, although in recent times his star has faded and a month ago he was imprisoned in the United Kingdom after a bankruptcy proceeding.
STEFAN EDBERG
Edberg won the Australian Open at the age of 19, his first Grand Slam, defeating his compatriot Wilander 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 in the 1985 final, after having beaten Ivan Lendl in a marathon semifinal. by 6-7, 7-5, 6-1, 4-6 and 9-7. Noted for his elegant serve-volley game, he would win again in Australia in 1987, as well as two Wimbledons (1988 and 1990) and two US Opens (1991 and 1992).
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MICHAEL CHANG
The American became the youngest winner of a Grand Slam when he conquered Roland Garros in 1989, at just 17 years and three months. Chang beat Edberg in the final (6-1, 3-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2), but above all he eliminated Lendl, then world number 1, in an eternal 4-hour round of 16 match and 37 minutes in which in the fifth set he could not jump to serve, due to cramps, and even served as a spoon to the despair of his rival. He was the first American to win in Paris since Tony Trabert in 1955. He was the only ‘big’ to be won by diminutive Chang, who was also a 1996 Australian and US Open runner-up.
PETE SAMPRAS
Just a month after turning 19, ‘Pistol Pete’ won the first of his 14 ‘big’ after beating his compatriot Andre Agassi in the 1990 US Open final, 6-4, 6-3, 6- 2), having eliminated two legends like Lendl and John McEnroe in the previous two rounds. Sampras finished his career with 64 ATP titles, including 7 Wimbledon, 2 Australian Open and 5 US Open. The last of them, in 2002 in New York, was again against his great rival Agassi.
RAFAEL NADAL
At the age of 19, in 2005, Nadal defeated Argentina’s Mariano Puerta in the Roland Garros final 6–7, 6–3, 6–1, 7–5, the first of his 13 titles so far on Parisian clay (a record). The Spaniard, who also holds the record for most Grand Slam wins with 21, lifted his first Musketeers Cup on his debut at the Parisian tournament, the first to do so since Wilander in 1982 and the youngest since Chang in 1989. Curiously, Also in 2005 Novak Djokovic made his debut in Paris, who retired in the second round against Argentine Guillermo Coria. Nadal is the last teenager to win a Grand Slam, an achievement that was not achieved by his two great rivals in the last 15 years, Djokovic and Federer.
© 2022 AFP
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