Chris Evert vs Martina Navratilova - 1983 Canadian Open Final

To celebrate Chrissie's inauguration into the Rogers Cup (Canadian Open) Hall of Fame last week, here is the wood racket Chris Evert's last major stand against Martina, just one week before the not-so-successful US Open contest which finally convinced Chris to switch to graphite in order to be able to compete. There were so many highlights, we had to cut out a lot just to make the time limit, so it covers just the first 2 sets, which was the real competitive portion of the 6-4 4-6 6-1 match before Chris ran out of steam. It was also so bright, the ball was washed out in the picture so we tried to make it darker for visibility, but with not much more success than the results of the 3rd set! Still, a classic that was easily their closest fight of the year.

Note: There were ten matches in the rivalry where Martina played with graphite while Chris battled her with wood; this was the 2nd to last of those. That said, it was only the first time all year that Martina lost a 2nd set to anyone in 1983.

Cliff Drysdale & Joanne Russell provide commentary, footage courtesy of chrisevert.net

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• chris
• evert
• martina
• navratilova
• 1983
• canadian
• open
• final
• wood
• racket
• tennis
• ice
• maiden
• princess

[LondonNil]

Martina only lost one match in 1983!

[yescanto]

@shottut I agree with you, Jaeger did nothing better than Chris, she didn't serve better, move better, she wasn't quicker, didn't hit better ground strokes (or have better stroke production), but the raquet gave her shots more sip, and yes .. you could see it.

[spartyutube]

Chris looks great with a head band!

[Beautifulmusiclistnr]

@craigferris1  The French Open!

[thadxxx]

Chris serve was so weak here. That hurt her a lot.

[nothingfails99]

So she almost beat Martina here but got crushed a few weeks later at the USO. Tennis can be so weird...

[doetim]

Has there ever been any other player who only lost 1 match in the entire year other than Martina?

[zedlacredit]

@craigferris1 I am quite sure that a great majority of people know the answer. 4th round French Open to Kathy Horvath, Martina was the defending champ.

[craigferris1]

Martina lost 1 match in 1983. Can anyone guess which one?

[jubbadupa]

@kljMN2 Although you gain power with graphite to do loose accuracy, Chris was renown for her percise accurate shot making. I don't think she thought that the trade off was worth it, but surely realized that the game was moving towards power after the 82 & 83 seasons...

[spacecolt]

@kljMN2 She was 29, the most successful player ever using the racket she already had, and didn't want to be inconvenienced when she was thinking of retiring. But I think she decided she didn't want to be 'run out of the sport' by Martina, so she stayed & switched to graphite. She would surely have retired without that new challenge.