Lori McNeil played 745 singles matches and claimed 10 WTA titles (as well as 32 doubles titles) in her 19-year career, but one match alone gets standout billing in her Hall of Fame entry: her sensational first round defeat of defending champion Steffi Graf at Wimbledon in 1994. 

A glance at the gilt lettering on the All England Club singles champions’ roll of honour shows how players who triumph on Centre Court tend to block-book the honours board with multiple titles – think Borg’s five, Navratilova’s nine, Sampras’ seven – and the 1994 Championships came bang in the middle of Steffi Graf’s dominance. The unseeded McNeil’s 7-5, 7-6(5) victory on that damp and gusty evening of Tuesday, 21 June would be Graf’s only loss at Wimbledon between 1991 and 1997.

McNeil’s reward was not just her advance to the second round, but an enduring reputation for the one hour and 43 minutes of tactical serve-and-volleying on Centre Court that punctured Fräulein Forehand’s aura of invincibility. As one despondent German journalist said to another after Graf’s exit, “What are we going to write about for the next fortnight?”

In beating Graf – who was already a five-time champion on the grass and inventor of the Golden Slam (holding all four Slam titles and winning an Olympic gold medal in 1988) – McNeil consigned her opponent to the record books with a particularly miserable milestone ‘achievement’. The American’s straight-sets victory meant Graf became the first defending ladies' champion in Wimbledon history to suffer a first round loss.

From the outset, the draw prompted raised eyebrows among the tennis cognoscenti. McNeil, though unseeded, was a skilled grass court player. The former world No.9 had honed her skills alongside Zina Garrison (the 1990 Wimbledon finalist) at the free tennis programme started by John Wilkerson at MacGregor Park, Houston. And in that summer of 1994, she arrived at the All England Club having won the title at Edgbaston in the run-up to the Championships.

She had also famously beaten Graf once before, in 1992, in the first round of the WTA Tour Championships, marking the first time since 1985 that Graf had lost in the opening round of a tournament. So, the expectation was for a skilled contest – but certainly not for one of the most seismic shocks in Wimbledon history.

The drama, and rising tension, took place across five hours: the match interrupted by two lengthy rain delays. As McNeil converted match point for an incredible victory, a sombre, shocked hush spread across the Grounds as Graf left the court, her face etched with despair.

“In modern times, there had never been an upset quite like this,” ran the report in the official 1994 Wimbledon Annual. “In the continuing absence of Monica Seles and Jennifer Capriati, the impending retirement of Martina Navratilova and the question marks against the grass court ability of all bar Jana Novotna among the other seeds, Graf was the strongest favourite anyone could remember. She has lost only three matches since winning her fifth Wimbledon title and her third in succession a year earlier.”

Graf, respectful of McNeil’s history in tactically outplaying her, downplayed the result. “It's not that big of an upset because of who I lost to,” she said, before heading straight to the airport.

For McNeil, the hullabaloo surrounding her first round defeat of Graf weirdly overshadowed what proved to be her most successful Grand Slam. Her form took her to the semi-finals, where she lost 10-8 in the final set to eventual champion Conchita Martinez. (This equalled McNeil’s previous best Grand Slam singles performance, in 1987, when she reached the semi-finals at the US Open after defeating six-time champion Chris Evert in the quarter-finals only to lose to Graf 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.)

In 1994, she also reached the finals of the mixed doubles partnering fellow American T.J. Middleton. Again, the scoreline was a lengthy three sets as Helena Sukova and Todd Woodbridge edged a victory over their unseeded opponents. Her name may not appear on the honours board of Wimbledon 1994, but there’s no denying that Lori McNeil was one of the stars of The Championships.

Despite the absence of a Championships this year, there are still plenty of ways you can get into the Wimbledon spirit…

#WimbledonRecreated

Help us recreate Wimbledon from home by sending us your favourite traditions and moments on social media using the hashtag #WimbledonRecreated - and look no further than this if you’re in need of inspiration...

Play The Championships

Now’s your chance to play The Championships with our interactive game - take on seven rounds of retro tennis action and battle to become a Wimbledon champion, with prizes on offer for the top scores.

A Wish from Wimbledon

If we could grant you one wish, what would it be? Let us know here, and it might just come true!