2 Responses to hamburg90aguilera_becker

1. Voo de Mar says:

   September 18, 2020 at 11:49 pm

   Points won by each set: | 31-17, 29-13, 44-46 |
   Points won directly behind the serve:
   22 % Aguilera – 17 of 76
   15 % Becker – 16 of 104

   Becker lost all his six clay-court finals, but he was a clear favorite only once – as he met Aguilera [26]. They had faced each other three times before (twice on clay), with Becker [3] finishing as a winner on each occasion not dropping a set. Moreover Becker had his own crowd behind, yet he lost 11 games in a row, albeit didn’t suffer any injury. In the last game of the 2nd set the rain fell, and after one-hour break Becker was more patient. Admittedly he lost his serve three times again, but broke thrice as well, and put himself in a good position to take a contact set. He led 6:5* (30/0) when Aguilera risked his second serve. A few points later the German squandered a set point netting a forehand off Aguilera’s second serve. In the ensuing tie-break, Becker produced another set point but sent his forehand passing-shot long in a 22-stroke rally. On the second match point for Aguilera, the longest rally of the final occurred – 43 strokes; 40 of them (except Becker’s serve) were conservative, and suddenly Aguilera changed the rhythm playing a safe dropshot, the surprised Becker started to run a bit too late, and couldn’t have controlled his deep backhand approach-shot. “I have never seen anything like the way he played in the first two sets,” Becker said. “He was like a teacher. He put the ball exactly where he wanted it every time, there was no way I could do anything.”

   Aguilera’s route to his 5th & last title:
   1 Goran Ivanisevic 6-4, 6-1
   2 Michael Chang 6-3, 6-2
   3 Jim Courier 1-6, 6-4, 6-4
   Q Magnus Gustafsson 6-1, 6-4
   S Guy Forget 7-5, 7-6(6)
   W Boris Becker 6-1, 6-0, 7-6(7)

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2. Voo de Mar says:

   March 25, 2025 at 7:57 pm

   It was Aguilera’s second triumph in Hamburg. The first one occurred in 1984 when the event had a lower status in the calendar, but the final was held in the “best of five” format too. That title helped him to reach No. 7, then injuries caused he dropped outside the Top 300 in the second half of the 80s. The year 1990 it was his second best season following ’84, but in 1991 he was losing almost all his matches and decided to retire at the age of 29. He played all his 9 main-level finals on clay (5-4 record).

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