1 Response to uo90sampras_lendl

1. Voo de Mar says:

   March 6, 2024 at 5:53 pm

   Points won by each set: | 37-37, 52-51, 24-29, 31-39, 29-22 |
   Points won directly behind the serve:
   32 % Sampras – 61 of 186
   19 % Lendl – 32 of 165

   I’d say there are two matches (both Grand Slam five-setters) entwining thirty years of men’s tennis:
   # this one when 30-year-old Lendl (the best player of the 80s) lost to 19-year-old Sampras, who’d become the best player in the following decade
   # and a five-set Wimbledon loss of 30-year-old Sampras to 20-year-old Federer – clearly the best player of the 00s

   The 4-hour 5-minute contest between Lendl [3], who’d played in the US Open final eight times in a row (1982-89), and an extremely gifted young American [12], theoretically could have been won by the Czechoslovak in straight sets if he’d played more efficiently the most important points of the opening two sets. Up to 5:4 in the 1st set, Lendl was holding with ease, breaking Sampras was close, yet the youngster broke first in the 10th game – Lendl sent long a relatively easy forehand on game point having saved a set point. In the 2nd set the Czechoslovak was serving at 5:4, at 5-all he squandered 4 mini-set points (Sampras withstood two of them with the help of acrobatic half-volleys). Two very intense sets cost the new champion a lapse of concentration, and Lendl – five-set master – after taking the 3rd set easily, already led 4:0* (four deuces) in the 4th set. The decider seemed inevitable, yet Sampras sneaked to 4:5* (40/15), then lost four straight points. He gained two breaks in the final set, in games Nos. six & eight, having saved a break point at 4:2 with a deceitfully slow 1st serve on Lendl’s backhand.

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