uo91connors_haarhuis

Points won by each set: [ 22-30, 35-34, 32-24, 25-15 ]
Points won directly behind the serve:
12 % Connors – 13 of 107
30 % Haarhuis – 33 of 110

When the tournament kicked off, actually no-one expected Connors [174] in the quarterfinals, and suddenly he was a slight favorite to reach the semis as he faced a novice at this level – Haarhuis [45]. The 39-year-old American entered the match slowly like he wanted to check his body after a gruelling five-setter against Krickstein two days before… vs Haarhuis he trailed *0:4 (15/30) when realized that his body was working ok, and began dictating the pace, almost coming back – a bit shaky Haarhuis played a risky forehand leading 5:4 (30-all) and the ball arguably hit the baseline. The Dutchman broke at 4-all in the 2nd set, led 30/15 in the following game when a miracle happened – Connors played his two best returns on that day, and having a break point he defended Haarhuis’ four overheads, finally passing him with backhand down the line on the full run. That amazing rally electrified the 20K crowd and automatically transformed itself as one of the most memorable points in the tournament history. From that moment on, Haarhuis couldn’t be the same player, he was losing his self-confidence with every 10-minute period being overwhelmed by the noisy crowd. Connors took the breaker 7/3 and firmly held all his serves in the following two sets, winning 9 out of the last 12 games.

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