Points won by each set: [ 38-45, 24-29, 34-24, 29-26, 29-22 ]
Points won directly on serve:
33 % Sampras – 50 of 149
32 % Courier – 49 of 151
Grand Slam champions rarely lose matches leading 2-0 in sets, so there are only a few cases when a Grand Slam champion lost twice to a player (nota bene: an other Grand Slam champion) despite the two-set cushion: Vilas lost twice to Orantes, Lendl twice to Chang and Courier [8] to Sampras [1] as well – in the third case those both five-setters occurred in the last eight of Grand Slams and were almost identical; in both of them Courier survived the opening, two quite balanced sets to lead 4:3 (40/15) in the 4th set – the main difference that in Melbourne he had a point for a 5:3 lead on serve, in Paris on return. Actually that Parisian double mini-match point saved by SamPe, is one of the most amazing ones in tennis history at this level – he saved the first BP with a powerful ace down the T, then changed his racket after the first missed serve when the strings had been broken, and fired another ace off the second serve with the speed between his standard 1st & 2nd serves! Sampras was playing third five-setter in the event, he looked physically worse than his friend, but somehow managed to break at 1-all in the decider, and focused himself only on holding own service games to the end, relying on his two best shots: serve & forehand. Courier was serving better than ever on that day, yet the problem was, he didn’t deliver good serves at any of the most vital moments, as Sampras created his break point chances in three consecutive sets (the break in the mid set at 2-all). Courier was frustrated losing the match in a copycat style, in the 4th game of the decider he threw his baseball cap to the stands. It was his last major quarter-final, he couldn’t reach that stage for another 4 years of his career.