One of the game's all-time greats faced a stern challenge in his attempt to achieve something new.
Even though his legendary results were primarily built upon his success on faster surfaces, Boris Becker could play on the clay, with multiple French Open semifinal appearances to back that up. However, he didn’t have the first-place hardware: In 1995, 10 years after bursting onto the scene as a 17-year-old Wimbledon champion, the German had yet to capture a clay-court title. By the time the ’95 Monte Carlo tournament rolled around, Becker had been working with coach Nick Bollettieri for close to a year and advanced to the Monte Carlo final with the loss of only one set.
The player that waited for him in the final promised a challenge.
Thomas Muster, the ninth seed, was pushed to tiebreakers twice over the course of the week, but that was the closest he came to dropping a set. The 1992 Monte Carlo champion was on a mission to regain his place among the game’s elite and entered the tournament unbeaten on clay for the year, with three titles already under his belt.
Becker, who was playing in the third Monte Carlo final of his career, came out in attack mode. Playing his brand of power tennis, Becker took the first set, 6-4. The Austrian, who played a draining semifinal against Andrea Gaudenzi, stayed with Becker in the second, but eventually lost it as well by a score of 7-5 (this was before the final was switched to best-of-three sets).
Perhaps buoyed by two tightly contested sets—and the fact that he’d been on a roll on the dirt—Muster pummeled Becker in the third, 6-1, as errors crept into the German’s game. Becker, though, sensing the finish line, managed to rebound in the fourth. The two got into a tiebreak and Becker, after years of being denied, found himself with two match points at 6-4. He double-faulted. On the next match point, he missed a forehand. Muster then took the next two points to push the match into a fifth set.
Muster’s set point in the fourth might as well have been match point as he raced through the decider, 6-0. Becker found himself on the losing end of a clay-court final once again, while Muster had his fourth tournament win in a row. He would go on to win Rome and Roland Garros (his first and only major title) soon after.
26
Monte Carlo was Muster’s 26th career clay-court title. His only title on any other surface up until that point was Adelaide in 1990 on hard courts.
35
Muster's win over Becker was his 22nd in a row on clay—a streak he would extend to 35 with six titles in a row.
