Undoubtedly, the first spot goes to the Borg - McEnroe final of 1980. The 1988 Women's French final between Steffi Graf and Natalia Zvereva lasted just 32 minutes whereas the fourth set tie break alone in the 1980 B - M Final lasted 25 minutes. As McEnroe took that fourth set on the 34th point in the tie break - yes, 34th point - Borg came back in the fifth set, served bullets, pulled everything extra to shut out the mercurial and the one and the only John McEnroe. That one set proved that Borg can serve and volley tremendously if pushed to the wall by a genius like McEnroe. That he was rarely pushed was a different matter.
The second spot goes to yesterday's final. Consider this: Nadal serves 5 - 4 in the fourth set tie break, rushes to the net, punches a good (but not good enough) forehand volley that takes Federer wide off the court on his deuce court, the whole of his court is open, what does he do? He whips a sharply angled backhand cross court that passes Nadal but lands in the centre of the court. That one weak punch by Nadal delayed his victory by over one hour. Many shots played by Nadal and Federer yesterday could not even have been imagined by most of the other players in the circuit today. These two are a class apart.
The last of the three Edberg - Becker finals was a great serve and volley contest but it was not so theatrical as the other two. The sensation about that final was defeating Becker in a five set match which was generally not done.
