Becker vs. Edberg — Three Straight Wimbledon Finals, Three Different Winners

Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg met 35 times between 1984 and 1996, and Becker won the series decisively, 25-10. But reduce this rivalry to that one number and you miss what actually made it matter: three consecutive Wimbledon finals, one after another, that the two of them simply kept trading.

1988: the upset

Edberg was expected to lose. Becker was the favorite, the two-time champion on a surface that suited his serve-and-volley game perfectly. Edberg won anyway, 4-6, 7-6(7-2), 6-4, 6-2, taking control of a crucial second-set tiebreak after Becker had dominated the first set. It was Edberg's first Wimbledon title.

1989: the reversal

A year later, Becker took it back. He beat Edberg 6-0, 7-6(7-1), 6-4 — a first set that Edberg simply couldn't get into at all, followed by a tiebreak Becker controlled from the front. It was Becker's third and, as it turned out, final Wimbledon title.

1990: the decider

Their third straight final is the one both men still talk about as the best of the trilogy. Becker rallied from two sets down to level it at two-all, but Edberg closed it out 6-2, 6-2, 3-6, 3-6, 6-4, sealing the fifth set with a topspin lob winner. Three finals, three different winners, and neither man ever got the chance at a fourth — no other pairing has played three consecutive Wimbledon finals against each other since.

Off the fast courts, a different story

Away from grass and the biggest stage, Becker's dominance was even clearer: 13-4 on carpet, 7-3 on hard courts, and only tied 1-1 on clay, a surface neither man specialized in. It's a reminder that the Wimbledon trilogy, as good as it was, was really the exception in an otherwise one-sided rivalry — which somehow makes those three finals matter even more.