2 Responses to halle95rosset_stich

1. Voo de Mar says:

   July 26, 2023 at 4:10 pm

   Points won by each set: | 20-28, 50-50, 42-46 |
   Points won directly behind the serve:
   42 % Rosset – 50 of 118
   35 % Stich – 41 of 116

   Even though extremely skilful from a technical point of view, Stich was a prototype of an all-serve player. His physical preparation wasn’t great, so quite often he was mainly focused on holding his serve hitting returns erratically, therefore on faster surfaces he was playing more tie-breaks than anyone else in the early 90s, and created scorelines which broke new grounds:
   – first “best of five” win not breaking the opponent (Edberg)
   – first five-setter with only three breaks (Krajicek)
   – first five-setter when the loser didn’t break once (Becker)
   – first time squandering match points in two different sets of a final (Rosset)

   Stich [10] was on his way to notch a comfortable 6-3, 6-4 victory in Halle; raced to a 3:0 lead, but wasted a break point at 3-all in the 2nd set (Rosset’s FH volley). In the tie-break Stich led 5:3*, 6:5 (BH error), 8:7 (ace) & 10:9 (FH error). He didn’t seem bothered with wasted chances and began the decider holding four times at ‘love’. Then at 5:4* he squandered another three match points (Rosset got two unreturned serves pointing the backhand and forced a forehand error with his volley on match point no. 6). Stich had his seventh and last MP leading 7:6 in the second tie-break – Rosset [13] responded with another service winner, this time towards the forehand. At 8-all the net-cord helped the Swiss as he returned – Stich played a reflex-volley, and Rosset passed him with ease. On his third MP, Rosset delivered another big serve to Stich’s forehand which was too heavy to be blocked. “It was a good match,” Rosset said. “With two good serving players like us, you just have to concentrate on the tiebreak for success.” # Rosset’s great revenge for a loss to Stich two years before in Stuttgart (indoors), when having a double match point, the Swiss committed two double faults in a row!

   Rosset’s route to his 11th title:
   1 Andrey Olhovskiy 6-4, 7-5
   2 Olivier Delaitre 7-5, 6-3
   Q Jimmy Connors 7-6(3), 6-3
   S Jacco Eltingh 7-6(4), 7-5
   W Michael Stich 3-6, 7-6(11), 7-6(8) – 7 m.p. [3, 4]

   # Comparison of their two matches when the winner was a point away to be the loser:
   Stuttgart ’93 (2R): Stich d. Rosset 7-6, 3-6, 7-5… 2 hours 32 minutes… Total points: 121-118 (aces: 12-13)… Breaks: 4-4
   Halle ’95 (Final): Rosset d. Stich 3-6, 7-6, 7-6… 2 hours 16 minutes… Total points: 110-124 (aces: 14-10)… Breaks: 0-1

   Log in to Reply
2. Voo de Mar says:

   July 26, 2023 at 4:44 pm

   The 2 meter tall Rosset was a big-server (certainly Top 10 in the 90s), but he wasn’t a natural serve-and-volleyer. Grass was the only surface on which he was regularly running forwards behind 1st and 2nd serve, and it was his worst surface (the only one with a ratio below 50%). Following his triumph in Halle, he was stunned in the Wimbledon first round by Joyce 0-6, 7-6, 5-7, 2-6, a mediocre US player

   Log in to Reply