Digging in with defiance, Ivan Lendl fought back from a two-set deficit to master his first major and spoil John McEnroe's masterpiece season.
The mercurial McEnroe entered the final with a dazzling 39-0 record. The New Yorker was so dominant through the first five months of 1984 that he had won 65 of his prior 67 sets—including sweeps of Lendl in two clay-court finals—and lost just one set in Paris (to Jose Higueras) during his surge to his first French Open final.
The second-seeded Lendl, who fell in five sets to Bjorn Borg in the 1981 final, swept 1982 champion Mats Wilander in the semifinals and looked to be on form. But an oppressive McEnroe permitted just 10 points on serve through the first two sets and was poised to become the first American man to rule Roland Garros since his Davis Cup captain, Tony Trabert, successfully defended his title in 1955. But the fitter Lendl fought back, eradicating his reputation for shrinking in Grand Slam finals and ending Mac's winning streak.
Though he was sometimes portrayed as a serve-and-volley daredevil playing exhilarating, high-risk points, McEnroe's artfully efficient ad-side attack—the can-opener slice serve that could drive the returner off the doubles alley, creating a routine open-court volley—was one of the highest-percentage plays in the game. Aussie legend Tony Roche, Lendl's coach, an accomplished serve-a-volleyer himself—McEnroe called Roche's backhand volley "arguably the best backhand volley in tennis history"—devised the game plan to defuse that explosive pattern. Roche instructed Lendl to chip his backhand return cross-court, which would force a sliding McEnroe to dig out the sinking shot and hit his volley up.
Serving at 4-2, 40-30 in the fourth set, McEnroe was five points from the title when he confronted Lendl's low chip return and pushed a fluttering volley beyond the baseline. "That, to me, is where I really lost the match," McEnroe said years later. "I don't remember the points after that. It goes by in a blur...I've never watched that match once. I can't bear it. It's too sickening."
One man's anguish was another's awakening. Lendl rose on the red clay in a transformative victory: He grew into a tennis terminator in winning at least one major title in five of the next six years. The man who lost his first four majors dug in and refused to surrender in the face of a truly gifted serve-and-volleyer who could render the ball as still as a door stop. "It feels great to finally answer some different questions," a smiling Lendl told the media afterward.
McEnroe went on to post an astounding 82-3 record in 1984, but remains haunted by the final that slipped from his grip.
“Against most other guys, I would have won that French anyway," said McEnroe, who lost nine of his last 10 matches against Lendl to conclude his career with a 15-21 mark against the man who spoiled his perfect season. "I have to give Lendl grudging credit for being who he was, and for being fit enough to be able to get better as the match progressed. It's the only match in which I ever felt I was playing up to my capabilities and lost. But he didn't beat me. I beat myself."
No. 5: Graf d. Hingis (1999 Final)
No. 4: Gaudio d. Coria (2004 Final)
No. 3: Seles d. Graf (1992 Final)
No. 2: Lendl d. McEnroe (1984 Final)
No. 1: Evert d. Navratilova (1985 Final)
