Match Rewind: Ilie Nastase vs. Jimmy Connors...1972 Wimbledon Quarterfinal

[don_budge]

Match Rewind: Ilie Nastase vs. Jimmy Connors...1972 Wimbledon Quarterfinal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIBQ71N2YJk

Match Rewind. A great concept. Just to shed a little light on the subject. A blast from the past. Ilie Nastase and a very young and inexperienced nineteen year old Jimmy Connors take the court at Wimbledon in 1972. I was at the Don Budge Tennis Camp at the time of this tournament. Fresh out of high school. Just connecting the dots. I remember The Great One lamenting a bit about how much he missed out on the money. The winner of Wimbledon in 1972 received five thousand British Pounds. Not a ton of money today, but enough to make Don Budge just a little green with envy. He wasn't really complaining or whining. He had so much class off the court...the rules still applied. As well behaved as Ilie and Jimmy were on the court this particular day, Don still saw a bit of room for improvement. You see...times were changing. Ever so slowly. Tennis was metaphoring life even back then. Things were evolving.

Speaking of evolution. Check out the sticks the boys were playing with. Ilie had the ultra chick Dunlop Maxply and my goodness, he could make that thing sing. Jimmy was sporting the invention of the day using a steel Wilson T2000. A radical departure from the traditional wood. The conditions on the ground were ultra slick grass and a bit chewed up as well. The bounce was anything but true all of the time but they still managed to find the sweet spot a lot of the time. Their swings had built in margin for error. A mishit on these frames was a deal ender. There wasn't any wiggle room. Nastase had a field day against young Connors on this fine day...6-4, 6-4, 6-1. Ilie was at the top of his game.

The video speaks for itself. Jack Kramer and Dan Maskell in the announcer roles doing a very classy job of announcing. They let the match speak for itself for the most part. Notice the way that Nastase wears his white Fred Perry shorts and shirt. The shirt is tucked in throughout the match. The way he is moving around the court is with a feline grace that is so silky smooth...it is hard to notice. He is flying under the radar. Connors is also wearing Fred Perry whites, but the clothes almost look like they are second hand from his older brother compared to way Nastase wears them. Jimmy also has some pretty outrageous mutton chop sideburns going on. Nastase's hair looks as if he just emerged from a salon. The guy just oozed charisma.

One thing that must be mentioned after watching this beautifully orchestrated match is the style of the Nastase strokes. Everything is so freaking fluid. You don't want to give him anything vulnerable on the forehand, yet he makes some very elegant passes on the backhand side. In fact...it is the backhand that really illustrates how fluid and elegant Nastase really was. Everything on that side...the volley, the backhand overheads, the return of serve...every single stroke is a poem in motion. But compared to the serve...nothing comes close. This serve is so ultra fluid that it verily melts from his bouncing into his backswing. Once he is at the top of the motion he subtly manipulates the face of the racquet to apply variation of speed, spin and placement. Jimmy Connors is the emerging return of serve for the era and Nastase has him guessing and flailing all day long. The video doesn't give the players of this era justice. Everything happens out on the court deceptively fast and the speed of the court is hard to imagine.

[seano]

DB - I love watching these matches on youtube. Looked it up, Nastase held a 15 - 12 lifetime advantage over Connors H2H. I've been searching for a documentary I heard about on Nastase but not with any luck, I keep looking. Saw a very good documentary, a couple years ago, about Stan Smith that I really enjoyed.

Sean

[joeldrucker]

That is a great match call and fun tennis. Watched that one a while ago -- Nastase at pretty much his peak; Connors, as you note, just emerging. Mr. Budge, I assume you have a great backhand. I played for years at the Berkeley Tennis Club, where Budge often played and his coach, Tom Stow, had been the pro (after working with Budge at another venue). Great stuff and thanks for sharing.

[don_budge]

Dan Maskell with his wonderful ability to understate and at the same time showcase a moment at 56.30 or so..."Nastase coming out to serve leading 5-4 in the second set after having one the first 6-4. He really must be pleased with that absolutely fantastic game he played there to break service. Some of the most wonderful play that I think that I've ever seen on this center court. His passes, his deftness, his touch, his speed. Everything." Nastase had broken the Connors serve after having been broken himself to go up 5-4 in the second set up a break. To serve out the set. After going down love-30 he does just that with four consecutive points.

[don_budge]

DB - I love watching these matches on youtube. Looked it up, Nastase held a 15 - 12 lifetime advantage over Connors H2H. I've been searching for a documentary I heard about on Nastase but not with any luck, I keep looking. Saw a very good documentary, a couple years ago, about Stan Smith that I really enjoyed.

Sean

I looked that up too, seano. A bit surprising, yet just more testimony about the high quality of the game back in those days. Many, many great players and many great head to head matchups. Speaking of Stan Smith...his H2H with "The Mercurial One" was 11-10. I will search for a match between these two great, great players. Back in "those days" there was style and there was subtlety. There was nuance. There was a high degree of fundamentally correctness as well. Strokes that were "homemade" were exploited as weakness. Anything that wasn't solid was surgically sliced and worked over. A beautiful contrast and a great example of what I am writing about is the matchup of Smith and Nastase. Smith a bit more wooden in his approach to the game. So solid fundamentally. His behavior stoic and a real lack of demonstrative flair. Nastase completely opposite in his approach stroke wise and his attitude. His game reflected his artistic nature. Silky smooth yet volatile. Simmering just beneath the surface was a thin line between the madness and the utter perfection. Thank you for commenting. You have seen a lot in your career and can appreciate both the modern and classic eras. You know the difference, too.

[don_budge]

That is a great match call and fun tennis. Watched that one a while ago -- Nastase at pretty much his peak; Connors, as you note, just emerging. Mr. Budge, I assume you have a great backhand. I played for years at the Berkeley Tennis Club, where Budge often played and his coach, Tom Stow, had been the pro (after working with Budge at another venue). Great stuff and thanks for sharing.

That's don_budge to you joeldrucker...hahaha. Great to have you here! For many years we address each other on the forum by our username. You know...when I joined on New Year's Eve 2009, I was searching for a video of the Don Budge backhand. The real one. Not little old me. And my search steered me to this website. When I signed up I used don_budge as my username never realizing when I did that there was a forum that I would participate on. Here we are almost 7,000 posts later. Over one a day for all those years.

I went to Don Budge's Tennis Camp in the summers of 1972 and 1973. Man...was I ever so lucky to have done so. Watching and listening to the legend on a daily basis is a big reason that I revere the game. He ate most of his meals with the camp. My coach always emphasized the history of the game to the extent he encouraged his players to be students of the game. One day at his camp as an 18 year old, I worked up the courage to go up to Mr. Budge and asked him if he would "hit a few" with me. Remember "hit a few". Do you want to hit a few? He said, "Sure, go and get my racquet out of the ball room". I ran and got it. Big old wooden thing. No leather on the handle. Such a huge thrill for this kid. I'll never forget this great, fine gentleman. Yeah...it was during this summer of this match at Wimbledon. I love the old game. So pure and innocent on the surface. Yet, there was some seething beneath the surface. The beauty of the sport...then.