By Nick Georgandis
The world of women's tennis shifted in the spring of 1987 at Roland Garros.
Between 1982 and 1986, Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova won 18 of 19 Grand Slam titles.
Navratilova was 30 years old and the No. 1 seed entering Roland Garros, defending champion Evert, 32 years old, was No. 3
.
Sandwiched between the two was Steffi Graf, a month short of her 18th birthday, who started the season 32-0 and was nearly untouchable in the early going, losing just five games in the first three rounds.
Of the top three seeds, only Navratilova lost a set in the first four rounds. All three women breezed through the quarterfinals as well, setting up the rare Navratilova-Evert semifinal. Their previous 10 Grand Slam meetings had been in finals, dating back to the 1981 US Open.
Navratilova thrashed the fading Evert, 6-2, 6-2, while Graf had to hold off a fiesty Gabriela Sabatini in three sets, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5, to reach the final.
Once there, she took the first set from Navratilova, 6-4, lost the second by the same score, then things got interesting.
Graf outlasted the legendary Navratilova 8-6 in the third set to win her first career Grand Slam. She would return and defend her championship in 1988 as she won the legendary Golden Slam - all four majors plus a gold medal at the Olympics. It was the first of her 22 Grand Slam titles, second most in history.
Beaten, but hardly down, Navratilova bounced back to take the titles at Wimbledon and the US Open later in 1987, and added one more Slam at Wimbledon in 1990 at age 33.