Before the 2023 US Open ends, we take the time machine and go back to 1983, the date on which Barbie Bramblett decided to prove that impossible matches can also be won. And not just once.
In the world of tennis there are few feelings more satisfying than saving a match point. In it US Open de 1983the American Barbie Bramblett He saved 18 in a duel that he lost 6-0, 5-0 and 40-0. The feat seemed impossible, there were few who remained in the stands, the same ones who an hour later were rubbing their eyes not believing what they had just seen. How did she do it? Forty years later, she is the first one who is still wondering.
Barbara Christine Bramblett (Houston, 1964) is a name that you will not find in any tennis book. Her title in the 1980 U16 Orange Bowl heralded a career that never came. She turned professional at 18 and retired at 21, competing for only three seasons where she reached #60 in the world. Her best results were quarterfinals in Tokyo (1982) and Miami (1984), but she would soon realize that that lifestyle was not made for her. Of course, she had time to sign one of those victories that are as mythical as they are incontestable, a triumph that she gained dimension with the passage of time.
The miracle occurred in preliminary phase of the 1983 US Open. Barbie faced her compatriot Ann Hulbert to advance to the last round of the Qualy, but nothing came out that day. He lost the first set, the first five games of the second and the first three points of the sixth game. Mathematically it was impossible to be further behind on the scoreboard: 6-0, 5-0 y 40-0. That’s when the match balls start to arrive. One, two, three, four, five… so on up to 18, the same as Bramblett’s age at the time. The minutes passed at the same speed as she was avoiding the abyss, that’s how she went from being one point away from the dreaded ‘bicycle’ – the dobe rosco – to ending up celebrating. the greatest comeback in tennis history (0-6, 7-5, 6-3).
“Obviously, I thought the game was over, I felt very embarrassed,” the American said in an interview in Chron years later. “At that moment I started looking for spin with the ball and my game improved miraculously. Truly, it was a miracle, literally. Every ball I hit ended up falling on the line, I couldn’t believe what was happening. An hour later I had won the match, I would say it was destiny,” says the woman who ended up graduating in History and obtaining a Master’s Degree in Design and Technology, in addition to obtaining a doctorate in English and Technical Communication.
“When I met Ann online, I simply told her: ‘Good match‘. I guess I wasn’t very original at that moment. As I left the track I saw Brad Gilbert in a nearby field and I approached to tell him. ‘Hey Brad, do you know what I just did?‘. The truth is that he had not yet assimilated it, he was amazed when she heard it,” Barbie says excitedly, as if it were the first time she remembered this anecdote. “Then I found Martina Navratilova in an elevator and he said: ‘Hey, you didn’t actually do what I heard you did today, did you?‘. When I told her that he could not react, she went blank.”
While Barbie performed the greatest prodigy in memory on the track, few people know what happened in the stands. Her mother, who accompanied her in that tournament, reached a point where she decided to leave the stadium. And she didn’t come back. The face she would make hours later when she found out the outcome of the meeting had to be tremendous, but it had to be better than that of her daughter when explaining it to her. It’s a shame that it didn’t have any impact. Can you imagine something like this in 2023? On social networks nothing else would have been talked about.
ANOTHER MIRACLE?
Barbie Bramblett was barely able to fulfill her dreams as a professional, she couldn’t even celebrate a simple Grand Slam victory: 0-7 in singles, 0-4 in doubles and 0-1 in mixed. But there was something that she was good at, the comebacks. In 1984, in the Qualy from Avon Futures in Nashville, the American raised her own bet saved 20 match points! against Kathy Holton, activating her super powers again when she lost 6-1 and 5-0. The same disaster again? No, the improbable escalation again: 1-6, 7-5 and 6-0. Although this performance did not cause as much to talk about as the previous one, it was enough to label Barbara as the woman of impossible victories. A shame that at 21 years old she was left empty, without energy or incentives to stay in the gap.
“I was alone most of the time, without parents or coaches. I traveled alone through Europe and Asia for months. I lacked support, I was very young and I was not prepared to go on the professional tour,” she explains in a recent interview with Tennis Magazine. “There was no one in the locker room with whom I could talk about the defeats, and I also lacked a lot of tennis knowledge. At that time I didn’t have time to learn and understand this sport,” says the one from Houston looking back.
To put everything in perspective, it is worth mentioning that the men’s record of match points the American has been saved Wilmer Allison, who saved a total of 18MP in a Davis Cup match in 1930 against the Italian Giorgio De Stefani. Of course, he ended up losing when number 19 arrived. Already in the Open Era, he has the record Adriano Panattawho saved 11MP against the Australian Kim Warnick in the 1976 Italian Open. On that occasion, the Roman did end up celebrating the victory.
And what is the role of our protagonist in sports? In the history books, none. In the record books, preferential seat. About to turn 59, the woman of miracles is currently dedicated to teaching tennis at the City Club and giving painting classes, completely removed from those times where she solved real catastrophes based on discipline and heart. You already know, if you ever think that a match is impossible to win, remember Barbie Bramblett, the woman who stretched the first unwritten law of tennis to the limit: Until the last ball, anything is possible.
2023-09-09 16:00:12
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