Match points
…Nicolas Lapentti – the biggest specialist of m.p. matches (16-2 record)…
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Who has won a match withstanding the most match points in the 21st century? Answer: Rainer Schuettler, who saved 10 match points (two MP’s on return) to defeat Andreas Seppi in the second round of Kitzbühel 2004. The German won 3-6, 7-6(13), 6-0 withstanding those match points at three different games: 4:5 (15/40), 5:6 (15/40) and in the tie-break at: 6:7, 8:9, 9:10*, 10:11, 11:12* & 12:13.
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Adriano Panatta saved 11 match points in the 1st round of Rome ’76 against Kim Warwick (3-6, 6-4, 7-6). It’s the Open Era record equalled by two players in 1989: Kelly Jones who overcame 6-7, 7-6, 7-6 Sandon Stolle (his main-level debut!) in Montreal, and Simon Youl, who beat Glenn Michibata 3-6, 7-6, 7-6 (Schenectady). The second place share Schuettler and Alberto Martin, who saved 10 MPs against Adrian Voinea in Bucharest 1999 as he prevailed 3-6, 6-4, 7-5.
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There have been four matches so far in “the best of five” format with 9 match points saved, here are the players who won them: Christophe Roger-Vasselin & Vincent Spadea (Roland Garros ’82 & ’04), Nick Kyrgios (Wimbledon ’14) and Andrey Chesnokov (Davis Cup ’95)
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Vijay Amritraj won an event in Bretton Woods ’73 saving match points in three different matches (the only case in the Open Era). Max Mirnyi also saved match points in three different matches within a week (Stuttgart ’01), but the first of those matches occurred in the qualifying event.
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In a Davis Cup rubber of a 1930 tie between USA & Italy, Wilmer Allison defeated Giorgio De Stefani 4-6, 7-9, 6-4, 8-6, 10-8 after saving 18 (!) match points. Allison saved two match points in the 4th (Allison trailed 2:5) and sixteen in the 5th set (he trailed 1:5)
