The 1989 French Open was a tennis tournament that took place on the outdoor clay courts at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. The tournament was held from 29 May until 11 June. It was the 88th staging of the French Open, and the second Grand Slam tennis event of 1989.
For the first time in French Open history the Singles championships were won by two teenagers – Michael Chang (17 years, 3 months) and Arantxa Sánchez (17 years, 6 months). Chang still holds the record for youngest ever male Grand Slam singles title winner. He gained admirers for his audacious style of play and battling qualities. Sánchez broke the record for the youngest ever champion at Roland Garros, a record bettered the following year by Monica Seles (16 years, 6 months).
Sánchez's victory made her only the seventh woman to win a Grand Slam tournament in the 1980s; the others being Martina Navrátilová, Chris Evert, Tracy Austin, Evonne Goolagong, Steffi Graf and Hana Mandlíková.
Steffi Graf's loss in the women's final was her only Grand Slam defeat in two years. She won eight of the nine Grand Slam tournaments from the 1988 Australian Open – 1990 Australian Open. This prevented her from completing a second consecutive Grand Slam and was her 9th Grand Slam final on her record run of 13 finals.
One notable débutant was Monica Seles, appearing in her first Grand Slam. She reached the semi-finals without being seeded, and aged only 15. Jennifer Capriati also made her presence felt, becoming the youngest ever winner (13 years, 2 months) of the girl's singles title — this record was broken in 1993 by Martina Hingis, aged 12.
Famous quotes containing the words french and/or open:
“But compared with the task of selecting a piece of French pastry held by an impatient waiter a move in chess is like reaching for a salary check in its demand on the contemplative faculties.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)
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which stands continually open to our gaze, but it cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and interpret the characters in which it is written. It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometrical figures, without which it is humanly impossible to understand a single word of it.”
—Galileo Galilei (1564–1642)