One of the greatest tennis matches in Melbourne is a duel that became famous as the “Battle of the Mustaches”. The Australian Open was still played on grass pitches in the Kooyong district, and the 1976 final was a windy affair. On one side: John Newcombe, a man in a white shirt and with a walrus mustache. On the other side: Mark Edmondson, a man in a yellow shirt with a walrus schnauzer. Edmondson, 21, was almost unknown at the time: a tennis traveler who laboriously scraped together the money for the tour and took the tram to his sleeping place after the semifinals. In the weeks leading up to the Australian Open, he had worked as a window cleaner. The day was “hot as hell”, he said later, a storm broke up in the middle of the match, the game was briefly interrupted, and when the balls flew again the wind had turned: Edmondson, number 212 in the world rankings, beat him Defending champion in four sets. At the award ceremony he was so perplexed that he dropped the trophy.
What does the mustache battle say about professional tennis today? More than enough. Because Edmondson is the last male Australian to win the Australian Open. In the women’s category, Chris O’Neil’s last home win (1978) was 43 years ago.
Tennis is a sport in which the angle of the stroke or the spin of the ball are decisive. But when national tournament balances are drawn up, the historical perspective is always decisive. From a German perspective, for example, at this year’s Australian Open, which ends this Sunday, an alleged women’s debacle was complained about. The third round in Melbourne Park, where today there is no lawn but a blue hard court, took place without a representative of the German Tennis Association (DTB). Such an alarming hole in the tableau had not been torn at Grand Slam tournaments since the French Open 2010.
Every victory, every defeat in an individual sport like tennis has its own story
However, a three-time Grand Slam winner swung the bat in Melbourne: Angelique Kerber, champion at this tournament five years ago. Now she stepped out of a 14-day quarantine on the square, and after the hard room arrest without clearance, she was out of shape. Every victory, every defeat has its own narrative, as can be seen from the example of Mark Edmondson’s curious Greyhound.
As far as men’s tennis is concerned, the last German Australian Open winner was to be found on the other half of the globe in a television studio: Boris Becker, champion 1991 and 1996, did not comment from Melbourne this time because of the pandemic, but from Munich-Unterföhring for Eurosport. Alexander Zverev, the first candidate for Becker’s successor, lost in the quarter-finals against eight-time tournament winner Novak Djokovic, but at least he had made it to the US Open final in New York in the fall.
In fact, the future in this country could focus more on the flight of the balls among men. Because in women’s tennis, the farewell of a golden generation is getting closer: Angelique Kerber, Mona Barthel, Andrea Petkovic and Laura Siegemund have passed the threshold of their fourth decade; Julia Görges, 2018 semi-finalist at Wimbledon, has already resigned. The greatest successes were recently seen in doubles: both Laura Siegemund (US Open) and Kevin Krawietz / Andreas Mies (French Open) have lifted Grand Slam trophies into tennis heaven in 2020.
It is still a long way from a debacle. And for the sake of fairness, it should be added that the tennis nation Australia has also celebrated great triumphs since 1978 – with Pat Cash, Lleyton Hewitt, Patrick Rafter and most recently Ashleigh Barty in Paris in 2019. Only on his own continent has Mark Edmondson remained without imitators. He then won five Grand Slam titles in doubles. And never shaved off the distinctive schnauzer. Only it is white today.
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