Wimbledon!

A narrative recount of the iconic 1990 Wimbledon rivalry-final between Edberg and Becker which reminded fans why movies about sports can be...deep.

A society toast to the timeless rivalry-driven 1990 Wimbledon Final which showed audiences the modern magic of broadcast sports from around the world and is therefore inspired by the dreamy film Wimbledon (Richard Loncraine). 

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The 1990 Wimbledon Final was about to take place, and the center-court in England had seen many renovations and would see more in the future, but this 1990 classic was the 3rd installment in the iconic and historic Edberg-Becker rivalry at Wimbledon. By this 3rd 'round' in this timeless rivalry, both champions wanted to fill out the 'trilogy' with a thoughtful hard-earned championship match. Neither wanted to seem disattached or disoriented.

BECKER: I can't change history, I don't want to change history. I can only change the future. I'm working on that.

EDBERG: For me, and most of the other players, too, if you had to pick one of the four Grand Slams, you would pick Wimbledon.

So, Edberg was considered the 'gentleman great' of modern men's tennis, combining swift serves with elegant runs to the net combined with nicely tactical play from baseline to create a rather tough form of consistently energized offense and defense. Becker, in contrast, was the wilder and more rough and imaginative tennis player in men's tennis and was always 'anticipated' to come up with strange and twisted if concise winning shots, which he certainly did. The two met two times prior to 1990 in Wimbledon and were even at 1-1. However, in this 1990 Final, the gentleman Edberg took a strong focused command and took an early 2-0 sets lead in the best-of-5 set championship. Becker looked unwinded compared to the cooler Edberg.

Never count out the wild Becker. He's the Van Gogh of men's tennis! Becker then stormed back in the next 2 sets, bringing the best-of-5 set championship dead even at 2-2 sets a piece against his timeless rival Edberg. Miraculously, Becker managed to combine toughness and imagination in these tying and evening 2 sets in his vengeful return to form by informing the Wimbledon crowd that you can't count out the Becker, a man with a special dream.

The final and 5th set of this iconic 1990 Wimbledon championship game saw a very close and tight race and it went down to the basic last pegs, as Edberg pulled out a close 6-4 5th set win to take the trophy.

FAN: Of the 3 games in the awesome Edberg-Becker trilogy, the 1990 Final was arguably the deepest.

Years later, I'd enjoy the fun modern film Wimbledon (Richard Loncraine) and ruminate on how the tennis championships in England had become a source of undeniable civilization diaries. The film features a great cast and an offbeat love-tale set around the Wimbledon tournament which sees a great journalism line on what separates athletics...from diaries.

Would anyone want to see the Edberg-Becker trilogy come out different than the way it did in 1988-1990? Not me, folks. The 1990 Final between these two great rivals in men's modern tennis reminded us all why new era sports fanfare is not just media-glowing but also society-driven.

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"Money is everything" (Ecclesiastes)