Every US Open championship run is memorable. After all, the courts of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center are professional tennis’ ultimate proving grounds. To win here, you need the whole package: intelligence, desire, stamina and courage. You need to own every shot in the book, and when that’s not enough, you need to be ready to write a new chapter or two.
But since the dawn of Open tennis in 1968, some of those championship runs have been particularly memorable and especially impressive. Some have been unexpected; some have included particularly large hurdles. Some have taken an extra degree of toughness and a double shot of tenacity.
Throughout the summer, as we make our way toward new memories at the 2021 US Open, tennis historian Steve Flink, himself enshrined in the International Tennis Hall of Fame, will be recounting some of the most notable, improbable, and particularly memorable championship runs in US Open history. In this installment, he looks at Boris Becker’s successful stare down of fate en route to capturing the 1989 US Open men’s crown.
When Boris Becker confronted Derrick Rostagno in the second round of the 1989 US Open, the burly German was riding high. He had won his third Wimbledon singles crown earlier in the summer. He was playing the most persuasive brand of tennis of his career, blending his unrelenting power with greater precision, bringing a measure of variety into his game. He was exploring the boundaries of his potential, showing his fellow players how far he had come as a craftsman and competitor, proving to himself that he was now the sport’s premier performer when the stakes were highest.
Becker believed he was ready to collect his first US Open title at long last. His boosters were convinced that his time had come in New York. And tennis fans who were not necessarily in Becker’s corner realized that his game had matured and his outlook had changed.
And yet, Becker found himself on the verge of a devastating defeat when he faced the dangerous and gifted Rostagno on the old Louis Armstrong Stadium court. The 21-year-old German was slightly off his game. Rostagno was attacking ruthlessly and demonstrating no fear of his revered rival. This was a day when Becker was strikingly vulnerable, and Rostagno was exploiting that to the hilt. The Californian was closing in on a major upset over the No. 2 seed and Becker seemed uncertain of how to pull himself out of a difficult predicament. By no means did Becker seem resigned to losing, but his swagger was missing, and his tennis was not up to par.
Rostagno—a Californian ranked 65th in the world—built a two-sets-to- love lead before Becker struck back boldly to take the third set. But Rostagno served for the match at 6-5 in the fourth set before Becker forced a tie-break with a clutch game on the return. Rostagno moved in front 6-4 in the tie-break. He was right where he wanted to be, leading double match point, within striking distance of a win that might well have altered the arc of his career. He served-and-volleyed on the first match point, and Becker displayed his poise under pressure and his capacity not to overplay when the chips were on the line. He kept his return low, made Rostagno play an arduous backhand half-volley, and then struck his forehand crosscourt passing shot clearly without going for an outright winner. Rostagno could not make a demanding forehand volley, awkwardly snatching at and missing that shot as the ball skipped off the top of the net.
Now Becker served at 5-6, still match point down. Rostagno chip-charged off a second serve, and closed in on the net. Becker went crosscourt again with his forehand pass, but this time he clipped the net cord with that shot. Rostagno, rushed into an errant forehand volley, was immensely unfortunate. He had covered that passing shot. Had the ball not hit the net cord and ricocheted so awkwardly, Rostagno would almost surely have closed out the contest right then and there.
Instead, Becker survived, coming all the way back to win 1-6, 6-7, 6-3, 7-6, 6-3. Fate—in the form of a net cord—had intervened on behalf of Becker. Clearly, he was a man of destiny. No one could say he did not deserve to beat Rostagno in the end, but the fact remained that Becker survived that harrowing skirmish to a significant degree because he was lucky.
But the greats know how to employ luck to their benefit, and Becker took his good fortune and ran with it all the way to his only US Open title. In the third round, he avenged a 1986 semifinal US Open defeat to the free-wheeling Miloslav Mecir in four sets. Then he came from behind to oust 1986 French Open finalist and two-time NCAA titlist Mikael Pernfors in another four-set collision.
Becker was now unstoppable. He obliterated 1983 French Open champ Yannick Noah in the quarterfinals and world No. 16 Aaron Krickstein in straight sets to reach the final. Waiting for him there was his chief rival for world supremacy—Ivan Lendl.
Lendl was appearing in a men’s record eighth consecutive US Open final, striving for his fourth crown on the New York hard courts, and slightly favored by many because of his enduring consistency at his favorite Grand Slam event.
But Becker was ready for his formidable adversary. By this time, he was increasingly sure of himself and his chances. Becker took the pendulum-swinging first set in a decisive tiebreak before Lendl recouped to seal the second. But thereafter Becker was the better man under pressure. He came though, 7-6, 1-6, 6-3, 7-6. Serving at 5-4 in the fourth-set tiebreak, he unleashed an ace and a service winner back-to-back to close out the match in style.
Becker established himself as the first man since Manuel Orantes in 1975 to capture the US Open after saving match points along the way. That was no mean feat. It was indicative of a man who knew just how good he was, and who competed with an inner fire that few in his era could match. After beating Lendl for the crown, Becker said, “I beat the No. 1 player in the word today but I could easily have lost to Rostagno.”
But perhaps Becker was underestimating his own recuperative powers and his almost singular propensity to stare straight into the eye of danger and somehow escape unscathed. When he found himself in such a dire predicament against an inspired Rostagno, Becker was fearless.
His longtime manager Ion Tiriac said at the time, “Boris’s philosophy is that whenever you need it in a match, you raise your game. A great player is only as great as he can play in these important situations. That’s when Boris is at his best, because in most cases he comes out clean when it really counts.”
Becker said after taking that US Open title so memorably, “It is something to do with learning about life. You go out there and you give it your best. That’s all that you can do. If you win, it’s great; if you lose and you give it your best try, that’s OK, too. That’s why my spirit is so good. I know if I lose, it’s not the end of the world. It only depends on how I lose.”
That was the essential Boris Becker; the Becker who was victorious three times on the lawns of Wimbledon, twice in the land Down Under at the Australian Open, and once at the US Open. Becker was the premier pressure player of the late eighties and early nineties. He was a fascinating individual who seemed to welcome stress just to discover how he would deal with it.
At the 1989 US Open, Becker declared unequivocally for his fans in New York and all over the globe that he was a great champion with a temperament and disposition unlike anyone else in his profession at that time.
Meanwhile, he reminded us all that sometimes in sports the fates intervene and propel a great player to a destination he might never have reached. Becker stood on the precipice of defeat when he collided with Rostagno, but then one critical net cord gave him a new lease on life and another chance to put himself on the honor roll of US Open champions.
Becker seized that opportunity, triumphed mightily, and made history as the first man from his country ever to win the US Open title.
