wb96henman_kafelnikov

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2 Responses to wb96henman_kafelnikov

  1. Voo de Mar says:
    Points won by each set: | 55-54, 29-23, 37-42, 26-31, 38-34 |
    Points won directly behind the serve:
    32 % Henman – 60 of 184
    28 % Kafelnikov – 53 of 185

    Centre Court, and perhaps the best first round Grand Slam match of the Open Era (given: quality, drama and historical status of both participants, in retrospect) – a duel between 22-year-old players who were at different stages of their careers then – Kafelnikov [5] was a fresh Roland Garros champion while Henman [62] never even played an ATP final before. The underdog saved a triple set point (*3:6 in the 8/6 tie-break) and a double match point (*3:5, 15/40) with two consecutive aces. He needed 3 hour 36 minutes to miraculously notch the win of his life at the time, but he’d put himself in a position to clinch it in three (triple break point at 3-all) or four sets (triple break point at 4:3). It was the beginning of “Henmania” – Henman would be the favourite of the British crowd until 2007 (with poor results in the last three years), playing all his matches only on the two biggest arenas at Wimbledon, including a few similar wins to that famous against the Russian.

  2. Voo de Mar says:
    Two years later at Paris-Bercy, Kafelnikov defeats Henman 6-3, 6-7, 7-6 barely surviving the decider: Henman led 4:1 with to breaks, at 5:4 the Brit had a match point on serve which the Russian fought off with a return winner (Kafelnikov had already led with a break in the second set). Ultimately their rivalry Kafelnikov won 8-6.

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