Forest Hills was a rickety old place . felt like small high school baseball seating...... about a zillion miles from the mega stadiums the Open uses today. still, I with they were still playing har true or whatever it was called. American clay. great to see this vid.
The ‘77 US Open was the only 1 I ever attended and I believe the last on clay. I was very disappointed Borg,my hero had pulled out before my ticket date.
I remember being there that day in Queens after Borg had lost. I was 9 years old and patted him on his back on his way back to the locker room. Forest Hills was a mob scene but in some ways it seems more crowded today in Flushing Meadows.
First tennis match I ever saw in person was Dick Stockton v Tim Wilkinson in Newport. Tim won - I believe - 36, 76, 76. Stockton alienated the crowd by refusing to make any effort to catch balls that were not bounced exactly to him by the ball kids. By the end, the crowd was cheering for Wilkinson.
Thanks for posting this one, even though it’s not a classic one, it’s nice to able to watch B.Borg vs D.Stockton for a few games , I can tell right away B.Borg had some trouble with his physical condition. His body language was different compared with other matches. Good luck !!
Dick Stockton and Brian Gottfried, two players from this era, who are interchangeable. Both solid, top 10 players, with classic textbook shots, but neither had that big shot!
I didn't know that borg retired in this match.... I was wondering all of these decades later, how Vilas won the entire tournament, since Borg had his number...
A rare chance to see Borg wear the Fila Trezzan polo. Stockton is wearing the more famous Settanta made famous by Borg. I believe Borg cancelled his use of this shirt because he believed it brought bad luck to him.
This is CBS’s televised feed which they shared with other networks. It’s not practical to have foreign networks setting up their cameras bc there’s only a few locations in the stadium that can be used, so I’ve network does the televising. The other networks use their own announcers..
@@ripperduck I know it's CBS's feed because it's their graphics. In 1977, I don't think any foreign networks were taking their feed to show a 4th round match on labor day which is when this match was played. That started more in the 80s, I believe.
Stacks was a great player. His passing shots were just a bit below his overall level. And he might have had the best overhead in tennis. The skill level required to play with those rackets was double what it is today; the racket then was the size of today’s sweet spot. And our strings were able to impart about half the topspin. Golf has done a much better job of monitoring equipment. The counter-puncher, touch player was forced into oblivion. And the touch and technical skills of today’s players have deteriorated and, in many cases, don’t exist.
The overhrad is the first thing that I think of with Stockton. Like you said, maybe the best at the time. Grear juinor player. Way better than Connors in the juinors.
@@lancer3412 I am the same age as Connors. In spite of the opinion of most, we know Connors had it. When he got to semis of the Pacific Southwest at the LATC our last year in the juniors, we were not surprised. Connors single-handled ushered in the crushing return and changed the game forever. We lived with that from the age of 11.
@@michaelbroer6378 au contraire. Pickleball forces play from no man’s land. And watch older people bend over at the waist reaching into the forbidden kitchen. It is a back destroying nightmare with people falling over all the time. You can’t put pickleball into the category of a sport; it is a beach game elevated by prize money. And an unstrung paddle offers no feel for the skilled. Most the best pickleball players are failed tennis players. If it weren’t for the fad of pickleball, they would be unhappily teaching tennis. Ping pong is 10x the game, skill-wise and athletically. Pickleball is a dumbed down replica of a sport, much like our schools are being dumbed down. Great place to meet members of the opposite sex though.
I remember this match. He most likely would have won the tournament if he hadn’t hurt his shoulder. He was in top form in 1977 and used to beat Vilas like a drum on clay. Crazy that he couldn’t play Roland Garros that year because Roland Garros wouldn’t allow WTT players to play the tournament.
That was only 74 where they banned the players. The schedules ccnflicted. It wasn't like Wimbledon where WTT took a break. Roland Garros and WTT were going on at the same time. Borg chose the WTT money over the French just as Evert did several times. Well, a player could do both if they could arrange a 3 week break from WTT. i know Nastase did both at least one year, maybe 1977.
@@jdm839 No problem. The French was not as big a deal back then. No doubt still a slam, but certainly not the prestige it later attained. Can you imagine Nadal skipping the French for any amount of money?
