ao96agassi_courier

Points won by each set: [ 41-44, 18-27, 31-24, 28-27, 29-18 ]
Points won directly behind the serve:
20 % Agassi – 29 of 142
29 % Courier – 43 of 145

Big match on Rod Laver Arena between the defending champion (Agassi) and the former champion (1992-93). It seemed that the winner of this contest would capture the title because the 1994 champion (Sampras) had already been ousted… it didn’t happen though… Courier [8] saved a set point at *5:6 in the tie-break after Agassi [2] missed a casual forehand, won it 9/7 and took control over the match. It looked like a straight setter as Courier had a game point for a 2:0 lead in the 3rd set. Maybe he lost his concentration then, having beaten Agassi in six consecutive meetings (!); moreover Agassi hadn’t won a match coming from a two-sets-to-love deficit. But the years 1994-96 marked the best period in Agassi’s career, especially from the mental point of view – it was a time he was able to win this type of matches that he couldn’t have won in his first years on the tour, and the AO quarterfinal was added to that quite list of difficult victories within a few years. In the 4th set Courier was still in the driving seat – he won a superb game at ‘love’ for a 4:3 lead (three baseline winners, then unreturned serve), but basically from that moment on he didn’t show anything interesting to the end, almost losing a bagel set in the 5th, strange collapse… Agassi led 4:0* (40/0), so if he had converted one of those break points, he would have probably won nine easy games in a row! Courier lost an Aussie Open quarterfinal leading 2-0 in sets for the second year running #

# Courier’s two-sets-to-love up back-to-back defeats in Melbourne:
1995 quarterfinal: Courier – Sampras 7-6, 7-6, 3-6, 4-6, 3-6… 3 hours 59 minutes… Total points: 159-175… Courier 5 pts away *4:3 (40/15) in 4th set
1996 quarterfinal: Courier – Agassi 7-6, 6-2, 3-6, 4-6, 2-6… 3 hours 18 minutes… Total points: 140-147… Courier 6 pts away at 4-all (30/0) in 4th set

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