By Nick Georgandis
The 1989 women's field at the French Open was like stepping through time to see the past, present and future of the WTA.
Steffi Graf was a few days short of her 20th birthday when the tournament started, and was in perhaps the most dominating stretch of tennis in the Open Era - having won five straight Slams and the Olympic gold medal. She was 41-1 to start the season with seven titles.
The field also included 15-year-old unranked Monica Seles in her Grand Slam debut as well as 17-year-old Spaniard Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, the eighth seed.
Graf was a machine through the first four rounds, never losing more than two games in a set. Seles was the surprise, winning her section thanks in large part to an upset of fourth-seed Zina Garrison-Jackson in the third round.
She wasn't the only surprise to make the quarterfinals, however. American Mary Joe Fernandez, the 15th seed, upended No. 2 seed Gabriela Sabatini 6-4, 6-4 in the fourth round.
None of the four semifinalists lost a set in the quarters, but Seles opened eyes all over the world when she took Graf to three sets in one semifinal, while Vicario steamrolled Fernandez 6-2, 6-2 in the other.
Vicario won a gutty 7-6(6) tie-breaker off Graf in the final, but the German seemed to be locking up her sixth straight Slam when took the second set 6-3 and led the third 5-3.
But Vicario broke Graf's serve and raced past her, winning the final four games to claim her first Grand Slam and prove that Graf, despite being perhaps the best of all-time, wasn't invincible.