Before 1987, the only pain Boris Becker had suffered at Wimbledon was during his third-round match against Bill Scanlon. Stretchered off court two after tearing ankle ligaments, the 16-year-old German exited the tournament in agonising circumstances.
Any disappointment Becker felt would be forgotten in the next two years at SW19. Winning the men’s singles as an unseeded 17-year-old in 1985, Becker proved that this was no fluke when he successfully defended his title a year later. As the 1987 tournament neared, it was hard to look beyond the German, the bookies pricing him as a 4/5 red-hot favourite.
Not all was rosy in Becker’s garden, though. Parting ways with his coach Gunther Bosch in January 1987, it was reported that Becker was also distracted by girlfriend Benedicte Courtin. Manager Ion Tiriac took the step of sending Courtin home prior to Wimbledon, but not before the British press had labelled the German as “Bonking Boris”.
Despite the distractions, nobody could have foreseen Becker’s demise at Wimbledon in 1987. The man who inflicted the defeat upon the double champion hardly stood out as a potential giant killer. But soon, Peter Doohan would be a name dominating the front and back pages, as the 26-year-old Australian caused an upset that shook the tennis world.
Four times previously Doohan had attempted to win a singles match at Wimbledon. On each occasion he failed. In 1986, a shoulder injury suffered before the tournament saw Doohan serve some points underarm, his straight sets defeat to Jakob Hlasek the inevitable consequence. Ending the year as world number 301, Doohan faced an uncertain future.
Doohan had constantly faced doubts during his career. Unable to break through in Australia, he accepted an offer to study at Arkansas University in 1979, enabling him to devote time on his game. Yet by 1986, he had reached a crossroads.
Steadily, Doohan started to turn a corner, reaching the fourth round of the Australian Open in 1987, and although he was easily beaten 6-2 6-4 by Becker in the second round at Queen’s, by the time the gangly Australian arrived at Wimbledon, he had boosted his world ranking to number 70. He also had the honour of representing Australia in the Davis Cup against Yugoslavia.
The improvement continued. Finally winning a singles match at Wimbledon, Doohan’s gruelling five-set win over Austria’s Alex Antonitsch set up his moment of destiny against Becker, who had little difficulty in seeing off Karel Nováček. Doohan had been eyeing up the prospect of playing Becker, but not with too much confidence.
“I thought what a bad draw and started to think about plane reservations out of here,” he later admitted. It was not difficult to see why when you contrast the status of the two players involved. This was also reflected in the fact that prior to the tournament, Doohan had been staying at the Kingston YMCA for £11.40 a night. During Wimbledon, Becker was apparently slumming it in a £207-a-night hotel.
None of this mattered, though, as the players made their way to court one on the afternoon of Friday June 26. Although Doohan got off to a shaky start, going 0-40 down in the first game, a poor leave from Becker set the tone for the afternoon, as the Australian fought back to hold serve. With no service breaks, the first set went to a tie break.
Hitting two fantastic winners during the tie break, Doohan took the first set to raise the possibility of an upset. Continuing on serve in the next set, it would be Becker who made the first move. Breaking Doohan in the tenth game, Becker levelled the match, and it appeared as if normal service had been resumed.
“I kept thinking he would crack and I could win easily,” Becker revealed after the match. But Doohan refused to go away. Throughout the match, Doohan returned Becker’s serve superbly. “At Queen's, I couldn't get any of Boris's serves back,” Doohan said. “But today, he had to face a lot of low volleys because I was getting them back.”
Breaking Becker immediately in the third set, another decisive moment arrived in the seventh game. Saving two break points, Becker was stunned when Doohan slammed two backhand winners from deuce to take control. “When I broke him in the third set, he seemed totally unnerved,” Doohan stated. Doohan took the set 6-2, as Becker’s mood blackened.
Doohan was relentless, Rex Bellamy writing in the Times that he “covered the net like an octopus with souped-up reactions.” Becker’s treble dream was slowly fading. “I couldn't do any more,” Becker commented. “He was just like magic today – all the time he was guessing right. The guy just couldn't miss.”
In front of his hero Rod Laver, Doohan broke Becker in the seventh game of the fourth and final set, to stand on the brink of one of the biggest tennis shocks ever. At 5-4 up, Doohan calmly saw the job through, as a dejected Becker exited the tournament he had made his own, becoming the first men’s champion to exit at this stage since Manuel Santana in 1967.
Although he appeared nerveless during the match, Doohan admitted he was unsure how to react. “The crowd was going crazy. I felt the crowd wanted me to do something spectacular, and I wasn't sure what to do. I was just in a moment of disbelief and I thought I was going to throw my racquet into the crowd and then decided against it because I might have to use it in the next round.”
Becker was praised for his dignity in defeat. “It was not a war – it was a game of tennis and I lost. I'm not immortal, I knew I would have to lose some time at Wimbledon. Sometimes in this game it is sunny, sometimes it is cloudy.”
Doohan was hot property, his journey from Peter Who to a household name complete. Australian television had chosen to show the Ivan Lendl v Paolo Cane match live, rather than Doohan’s. Now, as he sat in the Surbiton house he was sharing with fellow countrymen Charlie and Michael Fancutt, Doohan would become aware of his new found fame.
Hearing a voice on the television that sounded familiar, Doohan walked towards the screen. “I went into the lounge and there on the television set was a map of Australia, with my home town, Newcastle, pointed out. Also on the screen it said: ‘The voice of Mrs Doohan, the mother of Peter Doohan,’ and it had my picture. I could not believe it.” German television interrupted their usual evening schedule to discuss Becker’s defeat, such was the magnitude of the result.
The press understandably went into overdrive after the match. ‘DOOHAN AND OUT! HE COULDN'T GIVE A XXXX FOR BORIS!’ stated the Mirror. ‘THE BREAKING OF BECKER’ was the headline in the Mail. “Boris Becker’s Wimbledon kingdom was yesterday outrageously bushwhacked by an unknown, impoverished Australian called Peter Doohan,” Malcolm Folley wrote in the Express.
As the draw now opened up for the rest of the field, bookmakers breathed a sigh of relief as the German’s exit reportedly saved them £1 million. Doohan at least made sure that his efforts against Becker had not been wasted. Defeating Leif Shiras in 4 hours 22 minutes, he would reach the last 16, before being outgunned by Slobodan Živojinović.
Losing in the men’s and mixed doubles on the same day, Doohan would later be brought back to earth with a bump. But no one could deny him his five minutes of fame. The Becker Wrecker climbed to world number 43 post-Wimbledon; inevitably, his career never touched the same heights again.
Doohan sadly passed away due to motor neurone disease, thirty years after his triumph over Becker. “The tennis fraternity lost a great guy and wonderful player!” Becker tweeted as the news broke. A man who indirectly paved the way for Australian glory at Wimbledon in 1987, Peter Doohan’s place in the history of the tournament and the sport should never be forgotten.
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