Onny’s historic day in Paris
That 1974 French Open was a particularly significant tournament.
Borg, who turned 18 during the tournament, won his first (of 11) Grand Slam titles, beating Orantes in the final 2-6, 6-7, 6-0, 6-1, 6-1.
‘‘The doubles was played after the singles, so we watched quite a bit of it.
‘‘When Borg lost the second set, I said to Dick we’d better get changed.
‘‘ Borg had had a terrible decision in the tiebreaker, and I couldn’t see him coming back from that position.
‘‘But he was superb and totally outplayed Orantes, who was a master on clay.
‘‘That result really announced Borg as a potential superstar.’’
Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman – she of Casablanca fame – turned up at the Roland Garros to watch the final and had a chat to her countryman afterwards.
Parun also reached the fourth round of the singles, having beaten local hero Pierre Barthes 6-4 in the fifth in the third round. He bowed out to top seed Nastase 6-4, 6-2, 7-6.
Chris Evert won her first Grand Slam title, beating Olga Morozova easily in the women’s final. Morozova was the first (of many) Russian to reach a Grand Slam singles final.
A dumpy 17- year- old from Czechoslovakia, Martina Navratilova, teamed with Ivan Molina to win the mixed doubles. She was the youngest winner of any French title to that time.
Mariana Simonescu of Romania won the girls’ singles. She later became Borg’s first wife. And Parun and Crealy? ‘‘ After winning in Paris we teamed up a few more times and were hopeless. I don’t think we won another match,’’ Parun said.
‘‘It was just one of those special fortnights, I guess.’’