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Chris Evert in 1983

2K views 3 replies 4 participants last post by  Rollo 
#1 ·
Been watching a lot of Chris's matches from 1983. I found this one I thought was interesting because of the quality of tennis from her but also the nice little interview at the end of the clip on how and why she was beginning to experiment with and switch to graphite:



Always lovely to see Chris beating players with graphite. I can't even imagine how much skill that would take.

On a superficial note, I really like the way she looked that year with the headband and whilst she wasn't at the peak of her powers I think she was playing very well and showing the world the best of wood racquets. The last stand so to speak. But what a magficent stand that was.

Would be great to hear from Chris fans more on 1983.
 
#2 ·
1983 was notable that it was Chris's first non-slam semi in her career, when she lost to Kathy Jordan at Wimbledon. It's amazing how much this upset (despite Chris being unwell) and Martina's loss to Kathy Horvarth at the French in the same year, were remembered for years. Shows how dominate these two ladies were, considering nowadays a no. 1 or no. 2 losing in the 3rd or 4th rounds, causes some publicity then pretty much forgotten. (Serena's loss to Vinci at the US probably the exception)
 
#3 ·
The first thing that comes to mind when I think of 1983 besides losing a ton of interest in tennis that year (both tours) are those two shocking loses. I think chris's is more significant but Martina might have gone lossless that finest of years (for her ONLY)! I always giggle when Mary Carrillo says Serena is in greatest danger in early rounds, then after that she's almost unbeatable
. That was Martina in 1983. There was no way in hell she was going to lose to Chris that year, only two years after losing love and love to her on clay, but Kathy horvath or Helena sukova - arrogance to panic with nothing in between.
And, yeah sukova was semis but we all know Martina that it was a done deal, same as Serena last Sept.
 
#4 ·
On a superficial note, I really like the way she looked that year with the headband
The headband look was my favorite for Chris as well Sam. Andrea Temesvari also had that look-good company!

Looking at her matches from 1983 what impresses me is how much depth her shots carried. Louloubelle mentioned the Kathy Jordan match, significant in so many ways.

For one-it was her first defeat before a semi EVER. Think on that for a minute.

The loss ended a chance at the ITF's new Grand Slam concept, where any woman winning all four majors in a row had won THE Grand slam. Evert had won the US and Aussie in late 82 and then the French. So that upset stomach and Jordan victory must have been a blow.

After that she had a close 3 setter vs Martina in Canada-then a blow out loss at the US Open. That defeat was the one that probably convinced her to change to graphite. She could still beat 99% of the rest of the tour, but not Navratilova.

I'll never forget watching the 1984 US Indoors, Evert and Navratilova's first match where both women had metal. The hard hitting left me breathless. I couldn't imagine a harder hitting match.. Man was I wrong!

The change to metal made Evert's game more powerful on ground strokes. The change was noticeable, at least to me. Chris was the same player but the metal amped up the power a ton.

The flip side was more errors.
 
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