Saturday, July 21, 2018

Michael Stich, Helena Sukova to Be Enshrined in International Tennis Hall of Fame



We won't be in Newport, R.I., this year for the International Tennis Hall of Fame inductions. But I can say without hesitation that I'm truly happy for new inductees Helena Sukova and Michael Stich, who both had stellar careers and both appear to have lived exemplary lives off the court as well. (And how great do they both look?!)





After winning Wimbledon in 1991



Sukova, whose mother reached the 1962 Wimbledon final, battled her way to four Grand Slam singles finals herself and won 14 major doubles titles. Still, she will probably be best remembered as the woman who as a teen spoiled Martina Navratilova's calendar Grand Slam in 1984, when she beat her idol 1-6, 6-3, 7-5 -- ending a 74-match winning streak --  before falling to Chris Evert in the final. Worth mentioning that if she'd been around in another era, she definitely would have won a singles major. She lost the 1989 Australian Open final to Steffi Graf after having beaten Navratilova 9-7 in the third in the quarters. She beat Chris Evert in straight sets in the semis of the 1986 U.S. Open before falling to Navratilova in the final. And she beat Navratilova in the round of 16 and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in the semis en route to the 1993 U.S. Open final, where she again lost to Graf. 

UPDATE: It's official!




No comments: