The Watercooler, 10.25

'Morning. This is today's Watercooler thread, for discussing today's matches, other tennis-related stuff, and the occasional OT. Heidi will be posting a new Deuce Club thread later in the day, so please save any extensive OTs until then.

Continuing with the unscheduled trip down memory lane in this week's posts, today I have picked up on Matt Zemek's suggestion, and unearthed a photo of young Boris Becker at Wimbledon in 1985 (Though Matt mentioned the old moniker Boom-Boom, Boris himself didn't like the nickname, because of its warlike implications).

I am hoping that this picture might simultaneously lift a little of the teutonic gloom surrounding Bismarck, who earlier in the week was worrying that Boris had been forgotten, and also make up for the possibly less-than-flattering representation of Boris in Andrew's post, The Elite, Part 1, according to the discussion that took place at the time.

Boris was, of course, the first unseeded player to win the men's singles title, and also the youngest man to do so, defeating Kevin Curren 6-3, 6-7, 7-6, 6-4 in the final. Upon winning Wimbledon, he was 17 years and 7 months old. In 1986, he defended his title, beating Ivan Lendl in the final in straight sets.

I couldn't resist this picture of Boris leaping through the air - it was actually taken during his third-round match against Joakim Nystrom, eventually won with a scoreline of 3-6, 7-6, 6-1, 4-6, 9-7.

The Tribe is welcome to keep making suggestions for historic (they needn't be iconic) images that might be included in future posts.

-- Rosangel