1989 would be the most critical year in the career of the Swede. In his tennis he had to cope with setbacks. Disaster struck him already at the Australian Open where he had to withdraw in the Quarter-Finals due to a serious backinjury. Play started for him again in April by leading the Swedish Davis Cup team into the Semi-Finals. Then he managed to bring out some great clay court tennis at Roland Garros: he made it to the Finals where only 17 year old Michael Chang could stop him after a hard 5-set match.

Wimbledon was all about revenge this year: for Boris Becker that is. The Swede met his long time rival again in the Finals and revenge was sweet for Boris: 6-0, 7-6, 6-4. In less than four weeks Stefan had to deal with two very painful defeats.

The second half of the year looked good, but not good enough: no tournament victories despite Finals at tournaments in Cincinatti, Basel and Paris-Bercy. The only tournament to come was the Masters in New York. This time revenge was Edberg's: he beat Lendl and Becker in a row to become the Masters: a nice crown on a very strange tennis year.

On the ATP World Ranking List he ended the year at position 3.