1 Response to ao03agassi_ferreira

1. Voo de Mar says:

   April 4, 2025 at 10:34 am

   Points won by each set: [ 26-19, 30-18, 34-25 ]
   Points won directly behind the serve:
   29 % Agassi – 21 of 71
   34 % Ferreira – 28 of 81

   11 years after his first appearance in a Grand Slam semifinal (also Australian Open), the 32-year-old Ferreira [39] reached that stage for the second and last time. Unfortunately for him, he faced his toughest opponent – Agassi [2]. Ferreira as one of the best players of the 90s, beat all the best guys of his generation (a few older great champions as well) except Agassi (& Chang). It was their 11th & last meeting, and only once Ferreira had been close to beat the American, at the Olympics in Atlanta ’96; all other encounters were one-sided. In the Aussie Open semifinal Agassi broke twice in each set and converted his third match point with a drive-volley, the match lasted only 1 hour 28 minutes… I think there’s an explanation of Ferreira’s inability to deal with Agassi: the South African was known as a player possessing a formidable forehand, but he needed a big swing to produce that stroke with best possible quality. Facing Agassi, he simply hadn’t enough time to play on his own terms from the baseline. Ferreira was a very good doubles player, so he could apply serve-and-volley tactics as a plan B, but it could work against typical serve-and-volleyers, not against baseliners, therefore Ferreira was pretty much hopeless with Agassi standing on the other side of the net.

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