By Randy Walker
@TennisPublisher
It will go down as one of the great comebacks in tennis history.
Alison Riske was in an embarrassing situation down 6-0, 3-0 against Garbine Muguruza in the second round of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells on stadium court with global television audience.
But while focusing on just getting a game, and then just focusing on extending the match to an hour, Riske found herself winning one of the salient matches of her career by winning 12 of the last 13 games for the improvable 0-6, 6-3, 6-1.
“You see some bizarre things on the tennis court and that’s right up there,” said Pam Shriver on Tennis Channel of the comeback.
“I was mortified at my performance and was thinking ‘People paid to watch this,’” Riske said to Tennis Channel of being down 6-0, 3-0.
Steve Weissman told Riske and the Tennis Channel audience that his TV colleague Chanda Rubin actually stated during the 6-0, 3-0 deficit that Riske was not out of the match. And as I tweeted that “Of course Chanda Rubin thought Ally Riske was not out of the match down 6-0, 3-0… she was once down 5-0, 40-0 in the final set to Jana Novotna at Roland Garros and saved 9 match points.
You can read in my book “On This Day In Tennis History” (for sale and download here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0942257421/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_M11QW1MGRN2NDB3QGRV8
about the Rubin – Novotna match from June 3, 1995, as excerpted below.
1995 – Jana Novotna performs one of the biggest collapses in major tournament play, leading Chanda Rubin 5-0, 40-0 in the final set in the third round of the French Open and blowing nine match points in losing 7-6 (8), 4-6, 8-6. Says Novotna, who claims she begins cramping in her legs at 5-1 in the third set, “It is always easier to criticize and to say, ‘You had this and you had that.’ But, of course, you have to also understand that this is tennis. This is happening to everybody, and we are only human beings.”
An even more incredible comeback in women’s tennis came two years earlier, also at the French Open, that more directly mirrors the Riske – Muguruza match. It happened on June 1, 1993, as excerpted from my “On This Day In Tennis History” book below.
1993 – Mary Joe Fernandez performs one of the greatest comebacks in the history of the sport, rallying against a 6-1, 5-1 deficit and facing five match points before overcoming Gabriela Sabatini 1-6, 7-6(4), 10-8 in the quarterfinals of the French Open. “Never in doubt,” Fernandez deadpans in her post-match press conference. With Sabatini serving for the match in the second set, Fernandez says she looked the match time clock, which only registered 53 minutes. “I saw that it was only 53 minutes into the match,” says Fernandez. “I said, ‘This is unbelievable. I’ve got to make it to the one-hour mark.’” Fernandez ends up winning the match in 3 hours, 34 minutes, making it the longest major women’s singles match in the Open era.
The greatest comeback of all time, without question because you can’t come back from a deeper deficit, happened at the 1983 U.S. Open qualifying tournament when Barbie Bramlett came back from 6-0, 5-0, 40-0 down to beat Ann Hulbert 0-6, 7-5, 6-3, saving 18 match points! Earlier in the year, Bramlett was down 6-1, 5-0 and saved 20 match points to beat Kathy Holton not losing another game the rest of the match.
