washington03gonzalez_agassi

Points won by each set: [ 17-27, 37-34, 41-42 ]
Points won directly behind the serve:
25 % Gonzalez – 28 of 108
40 % Agassi – 36 of 90

Two players of different generations with powerful baseline games, met twice and what’s intriguing, both matches were concluded with similarly tight scorelines, Gonzalez won them both withstanding double mini-match points! Both meetings were actually surprising due to various reasons: on the first occasion Agassi [1] was a big favorite, three years later Gonzalez’s easy win could be expected as he enjoyed his prime while the out of form Agassi found himself just a few weeks before his retirement. In Washington, Agassi led 6-3 2:0* (15-all) after just 30 minutes of play; in the following game happened something interesting which indicated that Agassi wasn’t very quick anymore – Gonzalez [14] played three dropshots, and Agassi lost all those points with his errors, even though I’d say he had been over the years a specialist of dealing with those particular situations. At 4-all in the 2nd set Agassi led 40/15 on Gonzalez’s serve, yet the Chilean fired two aces. There was 5-all in the deciding tie-break when Gonzalez obtained two points with his two best backhands down the line on that day!… Three years later in Los Angeles, Gonzalez trailed against Agassi 15/40 on serve at 4-all in the 3rd set… Another similarity between those two American matches: Gonzalez had a match point at *5:3 in Washington (double fault) and three match points at 5:4* in Los Angeles before Agassi leveled.

Comparison of their two meetings:
Washington 2003 (SF): Gonzalez d. Agassi 3-6, 6-4, 7-6… 2 hours… Total points: 95-103… Agassi two pts away
Los Angeles 2006 (QF): Gonzalez d. Agassi 6-4, 3-6, 7-5… 1 hour 48 minutes… Total points: 90-83… Agassi five pts away

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