The 27-year-old held his nerve to win 5-7, 6-4, 7-6, 6-3, 10-8 in a match that was just 11 minutes shy of four hours.Īnd so into the final marched the unseeded Washington, where the 17th-seeded Richard Krajicek awaited him. Somehow the American managed to break Martin twice in a row to bring things level and then had a ding-dong battle as they played a total of 18 games in the fifth set. Again Washington found himself staring down the barrel when Martin was serving for the match and a place in the final after he opened a 5-1 lead. Martin was the overwhelming favourite and was up two sets to one before Washington took it to a decider by winning the fourth set 6-3. Things, though, would get even tougher in the semi-finals as he came up against compatriot and 13th seed Todd Martin, who beat Britain’s Tim Henman in the previous round. However, it was anything but easy as the German took it to five sets as he went down 6-7, 7-6, 5-7, 7-6, 6-3 in 3h21m. With the seeded players enduring a nightmare first week at Wimbledon – only four made it into the quarter-finals – it meant Washington would face another unheralded player in Alex Radulescu in the last eight. Ninth seed Thomas Enqvist awaited him in the second round, but the Swede was beaten 6-4, 7-6, 6-3 while Bhodan Ulihrach was dispatched 6-3, 6-3, 6-0.ĭutchman Paul Haarhuis didn’t fare much better in the fourth round as he lasted only 1h43m as Washington ran out a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 winner. On paper it appeared to be a relatively easy first-round match for Washington as he was up against journeyman Richard Fromberg, but he required just over three hours to see the Australian off 6-3, 7-6, 6-7, 7-5. The field was as strong as ever with Pete Sampras the top seed while Boris Becker, Andre Agassi and Goran Ivanisevic were also in the draw. Washington started the tournament with only four ATP Tour singles titles to his name and was unseeded, but to be fair to him, he was ranked 20th in the world at the time. Who is Melissa Johnson, you ask? The infamous 1996 Wimbledon final streaker, of course.īut this is not about that incident (although we might throw in a picture lower down on this page), this is about MaliVai Washington’s incredible run that year. The year that brought us Melissa Johnson. The year that brought us an impromptu concert by Sir Cliff Richard. The year that brought us a surprising winner and an unseeded finalist. And we also wanted to show that Aaron Williams don’t discriminate, you know? He’s down with whoever and whatever comes on that court.Ah Wimbledon 1996. And we wanted it to be an even playing field. But we didn’t want it to just be gratuitous female nudity for HBO’s sake. There’s a bunch of stuff in the that is loosely based on real events, and with that one we were like, ‘What would happen if that happened in ours?’ Obviously my character would immediately try to have sex with her because that’s all he knows - that’s how he communicates with the world. It was just this young, beautiful woman running across the court and everyone’s laughing and smiling and the officials are all shocked. “We looked it up and it was really a fascinating moment, because it was back when that was a real statement. “When Murray and I were brainstorming, he had mentioned this one incident where there was a woman streaker at Wimbledon,” he explains.
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