1 Response to 16-14_marathons

1. Voo de Mar says:

   September 25, 2020 at 2:08 am

   In this picture I’d like to compare two longest Open Era deciding 3rd sets (in terms of games) played indoors and on a hardcourt outdoors. In fact, Lapentti & Meligeni tied an indoor record manufactured in Nancy twenty years before. Those two “American” battles not only share the same scoreline, but also the progress of marathon sets was very similar… and Babolats overcome Wilsons 🙂 In both cases the winner led 5:3* to serve nine times to stay in the match before breaking his opponent in the 29th game.
   Gonzalez was a bit closer than Lapentti to finish his match before “fourth set” – he squandered a match point at 5:3* with a forehand error, and in the following game served at 30/0 to lose four straight points (two with double faults). The Chilean held firmly his eight service games afterwards and troubles appeared at *13:14, but he managed to save two match points – with service & forehand winners. “I can’t believe I lost,” said Dent, “It was the longest match I’ve played, in terms of a set. It was a good match. It was a shame that I lost, but it was fun to be a part of.”

   [CHI] Gonzalez’s route to the Bronze medal:
   1 Konstantinos Economidis [GRE] 7-6(6), 6-2
   2 Hyung-Taik Lee [KOR] 7-5, 6-2
   3 Andy Roddick [USA] 6-4, 6-4
   Q Sebastien Grosjean [FRA] 6-2, 2-6, 6-4
   S Mardy Fish [USA] 6-3, 3-6, 4-6
   3-place: Dent [USA] 6-4, 2-6, 16-14 – 2 m.p.

   Lapentti blew a match point serving at 5:4 as he made a casual forehand error. Among his nine holds to stay in the match, that troublesome occurred at *6:7 (30-all)… the Brazilian was two points away from victory the only time then. Meligeni had a game point to lead 15:14, but lost the point despite two overheads. He enjoyed the best season of his career in 1999, nevertheless the defeat to Lapentti, is included to Meligeni’s worst losing streak consisted of 7 (he didn’t win a match between September ’99 & February ’00). He finished his career with a very poor 2-19 record indoors.

   # Longest decisive 3rd sets:
   2014 London-Olympics, 2R: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga d. Milos Raonic 6-3, 3-6, 25-23
   1987 Queens Club, 2R: Nduka Odizor d. Guy Forget 7-6, 4-6, 22-20
   1986 Queens Club, 1R: Mike De Palmer d. John Lloyd 6-1, 4-6, 19-17
   2014 London-Olympics, SF: Roger Federer d. Juan Martin del Potro 3-6, 7-6, 19-17
   1969 Queens Club, 3R: Roger Taylor d. Stan Smith 3-6, 6-2, 17-15
   1974 Nottingham, 2R: Alex Metreveli d. Bob Giltinan 6-3, 3-6, 17-15
   1983 Queens Club, 3R: Steve Denton d. Todd Nelson 7-6, 3-6, 17-15
   1989 Queens Club, 1R: Chris Bailey d. Jonathan Canter 4-6, 6-4, 17-15
   1979 Nancy, SF: Jean-Louis Haillet d. Patrice Dominguez 3-6, 6-3, 16-14
   1984 Barcelona, 2R: Alberto Tous d. Libor Pimek 3-6, 6-2, 16-14
   1984 Barcelona, QF: Joakim Nystrom d. Jimmy Arias 2-6, 6-4, 16-14
   1999 Munich, 1R: Nicolas Lapentti d. Fernando Meligeni 6-4, 2-6, 16-14
   2004 Athens-Olympics, Bronze: Fernando Gonzalez d. Taylor Dent 6-4, 2-6, 16-14

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