by Randy Walker
@TennisPublisher
Tennis tournaments, most notably Grand Slam events, can often be incubators for sickness and viruses as you have overcrowded player lounges, locker rooms and media rooms with people who have traveled from all over the world to this destination.
Back in 1988, a virus nearly brought the U.S. Open to a halt.
On September 9, 1988, as documented in my book “On This Day In Tennis History,” the traditional second Friday schedule at the US Open in New York was nearly a non-starter as Rick Leach, stricken with a stomach flu, was forced to withdraw from the men’s doubles final against Emilio Sanchez and Sergio Casal, and Chris Evert was not able to post in her women’s singles semifinal against Steffi Graf for the same reason. Fans in the stadium were left to only watch Gabriela Sabatini defeating Zina Garrison in the other women’s semifinal and then being served some senior doubles featuring Hank Pfister vs. Tom Gullikson in senior men’s singles and then Bob Hewitt and Frew McMillan vs. Marty Riessen and Sherwood Stewart in senior men’s doubles.
Evert was sickened two nights earlier and did not leave the room until defaulting to Graf, who would go on to win only the third Grand Slam by a woman beating Sabatini in the women’s singles final.
“I’m disappointed,” Evert said in a statement Friday. “It came so suddenly after my match on Wednesday. I got through all my matches with the girls I was supposed to beat. I was really looking forward to playing Steffi and being part of her Grand Slam bid. I could have gone out there with no pressure, hit out and really given it a shot against Steffi. It’s the first time in 18 years of Grand Slams that I’ve had to default. My body feels like it’s been through a war. Every muscle and joint aches. Physically, I couldn’t go out and play. I don’t have any energy. I think I’ve been through the worst of it, with the vomiting and diarrhea, but I still have a temperature of 101 degrees.”
Leach was sickened the night before the men’s doubles final and his condition was worse than Evert’s. He had a 103-degree fever and could not even stand out, vomiting much of the night before the final. He was actually hospitalized before being released the next day. The day before the final on Thursday, Leach had to stop practice after only a few minutes, claiming fatigue. The morning of the final, Leach was very ill and vomiting in the locker room. Wrote Lisa Dillman in the Los Angeles Times, “When Pugh arrived at the center for practice on Friday morning, however, Leach was visibly ill, shivering and vomiting in the locker room.”
“This whole summer, our No. 1 goal was to win the U.S. Open,” said Pugh after the default.
Dillman reported that tournament doctor Gary Wadler examined both Evert and Leach and said he did not know if the illnesses were linked, even though the two players had the same symptoms.
There were no other health issues reported for the remainder of the tournament with Graf and Mats Wilander as the singles champions.
