Similarly in Rome, Federer v Nadal in the 2006 Rome Masters final when Federer's nerve broke on two regulation forehands when holding match points and I think another too in the final set tie break which would have put him on the brink of victory. A seminal match which led to Nadal establishing an almost hegemonic domination over Federer.

An epic match I saw in person was Federer v Davydenko in the 2009 World Tour Finals. Davydenko had never beaten Federer who, in 2009, was probably at his ultimate peak. He was definitely clearly the top male player at the time.

We had been lucky enough to get tickets for the first of the O2 Tour Finals events. Davydenko had in fact been in the final the previous year, so we should have expected a good performance but this was a class match. As Reuters wrote.

Nikolay Davydenko ended seven years of pain against Roger Federer on Saturday, beating the world number one 6-2 4-6 7-5 to reach the final of the ATP World Tour Finals for a second successive year.

With 17,500 fans, the atmosphere was almost hysterical; I recall one shot when Davydenko played a smash which bounced quite high, Federer leaping and smashing the ball on the run back past Davydenko. Brilliant. Link below

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNMvNflARZ4

-- Edited by JonH comes home on Wednesday 25th of March 2020 03:16:56 PM

Nalbandian Hewitt 2011 Australian Open 1st round. Hard court tennis at its best. Two incredible fighters.

Just finished watching Nadal vs Roddick 2004 Davis Cup Final, great match slowballing Roddick to death on clay, really was the first time people noticed Rafa and saw how good he could become. Unlike Federer (vs Sampras) he never got to play his predecessor, Borg (or even Bruguera) these would of been interesting clay court matches 

EddietheEagle wrote:

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Peak Vilas v Nadal! Funny how Vilas never managed to get the better of Borg. He could play top tennis on all surfaces as well. I watched an enthralling match - an untold epic really - when Vilas beat Roche on a hot Saturday afternoon at Wimbledon in five sets. The courts were so hard they were playing almost like clay. Vilas was able to deploy his amazing topspin lob to deadly effect and eventually wore down the gutsy veteran serve volleyer.

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 Certainly for one year, the end of year Masters (Tour Finals) was played in Melbourne on grass at Kooyong and I am certain Vilas came out on top, despite being a clay court player. He also  won the Aussie Open on grass twice, beating John Marks (a wiley Aussie grass court specialist) and John Sadri (a sort of precursor to the Isner style players of today, he and Victor Amaya where big serving Americans). 

The most memorable match I remember of Vilas though was one that he lost - he went out to a Nigerian called Nduka Odizor, who won the hearts of Wimbledon that year. The press took to him in a way that was probably quite racist in retrospect - the clowning, shot making, talented African player (a latter day Dustin Brown, Gael Monfils) who lived up to the stereotypes of the mystical, ethnic, talented player that played right into the hands of the right wing, populist press at a time when Britain didnt know much about Nigerians at all. Odizor was a real talent but sadly no one really has come through since then from Africa (outside South Africa and one or two Zimbabweans) to take on the mantle - Noah of course was Cameroonian by birth, Senegal had a decent player in Yaya Doumbia and Morocco had some good players for a while). 

Vilas though, back to the point, was a great of his time who never really gets mentioned in terms of greats of all time but was quite possibly in the top few clay court players ever.  

           

 

Status Quo wrote:

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On Vilas, courtesy of Matt Roberts:

Despite winning 16 ATP titles (including two Grand Slams) and more than 130 matches in the 1977 season, Guillermo Vilas was never ranked World No.1.
In those days, rankings were based on the average of a player's results and he stayed behind Jimmy Connors throughout the year, even though Connors won zero slams.

He was a fine player.

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 I also recall:

- he was a poet in terms of things he enjoyed, and I think a bright guy

- Ion  Tiriac was his Manager for a long while and helped him make decent money

- he played in the 1981 Davis Cup Final with Jose Luis Clerc and they played the USA away in the final, the Doubles match between Vilas/Clerc and Mac/Fleming was one of the all time great matches (so qualifies in this thread). 

- in the semis that year, Argentina beat GB ! GB played away on the clay in Buenos Aires and never stood a chance. Our team is interesting though - Buster Mottram (he of the National Front infamy); Richard Lewis (big in sports admininstration of course now); Andrew Jarrett (of course, the Wimbledon Referee now) and Jonathan Smith - of whom I have no idea what happened in later life!

- Vilas is heavily covered in Richard Evans brilliant biography of McEnroe - Borg, Vilas, Mac, Vitas Gerulaitus were good friends and  hung around. They played a famous spring tour of exhibition matches that took them along the South of France, playing in bull rings and the like and making decent money. Nastase would join them and they had a great time, lots of fun, lots of money, lots of girls for the guys to enjoy.   

-- Edited by JonH comes home on Monday 30th of March 2020 12:37:06 PM

My favourite epic matches would be on no-one else's list I am sure. Having gone to Wimbledon every year since 1977, a lot of my favourite matches have come on the outside courts. All my favourite matches have been those I have seen live - TV can never replicate the excitement of live tennis for me, nor can it in any of the other sports I love.

Stumbling across Anna Kournikova's first ever Wimbledon match on one of the park bench courts would be one highlight, Karen Cross nearly beating Iva Majoli to make the 4th round of the singles on the old Court 2, and most of Jana Novotna's see saw matches, when she got ahead, choked and got over the line, would be other highlights. In the early days I was also a big fan of Tom Okker, The Flying Dutchman, who always gave everything, and watching him leap and go for absolutely everything was always very special - the year he made the semis unseeded and I saw most of his matches was brilliant. He was a Wimbledon darling for sure, but you couldn't help but love his guts and determination never to give up.

Three matches though stand out above all others for me. My third best ever match would be Arantxa Rus demolishing the defending Wimbledon champion Sam Stosur in the first round on Centre - Rus was phenomenal that day, and I thought I was witnessing the dawn of a new superstar and was surprised when the career explosion I was expecting failed to materialise. It was a privilege to see that match, and on Centre, only Maria Sharapova in the year she won would come close in terms of the best matches I have seen there.

My second favourite ever match has to be Larissa Neiland (nee Savchenko) the Russian doubles specialist, who again on the old Court 2 lobbed and chipped a fat and slow looking Lindsay Davenport in the finest display of placement and touch I have ever seen - Davenport was a top 3 seed and Neiland considered a no hoper and merely a doubles specialist - in the end you could see Lindsay visibly not knowing where to put herself on court - when she stayed back, little drop shots came over and when she came forward she was passed and lobbed. No-one in the crowd saw that result coming or the performance, but it was amazing; Neiland used all her doubles skills to spectacular effect. Later in the tournament (4th round) she appeared to deliberately throw the match losing 6-0 6-0 in about 40 minutes, probably wanting to concentrate on the doubles, but it was shocking, and the crazy thing is that if maybe she had believed a bit more in her singles ability that year, maybe she could have actually reached the semis.

My favourite match ever was Yayuk Basuki, an Indonesian unseeded player who made the semis that year and came up against Natalie Tauziat, a low seed on the old Court Three - it was the opening match of the day and the most partisan crowd I have ever seen - virtually everyone watching was French, with only two of us (both Brits) supporting Yayuk - even Yayuk's double faults were cheered by the boisterous French fans. The match was a really long three setter, with both players having numerous match points at the end of the third set, and when Yayuk finally won the match, there was almost complete silence, with just the two Brits cheering. It was such a cliffhanger of a match, and I was so proud of Yayuk for coping uncomplainingly with the partisan crowd and then getting the ultimate come back by beating the French favourite. I will never forget the silence at the end of the match - over a thousand people probably watching and only a handful even bothering a single clap.

Wonder what Yayuk is doing now?