1 Response to wb99henman.courier

1. Voo de Mar says:

   July 12, 2024 at 2:41 am

   Points won by each set: [ 23-28, 41-35, 34-32, 45-47, 57-47 ]
   Points won directly behind the serve:
   32 % Henman – 61 of 189
   30 % Courier – 60 of 200

   Incredibly dramatic and twisted match on Centre Court that lasted three days due to rain, one of the longest Wimbledon matches in the 90s (4 hours 30 minutes). It was a tricky fourth round encounter for the crowd favorite. Even though Henman was a much higher ranked player [6 vs 61], and possessed great experience on that court always being tremendously supported, he had lost two previous matches to Courier, the Wimbledon runner-up in 1993. It’s amazing that Courier was one point away from winning two exceptionally tight five-setters against Henman within three months as he defeated him 7-6(2), 2-6, 7-6(3), 6-7(10), 7-5 in a Davis Cup 4-hour 12-minute thriller in April! “It was like an alien abduction out there; someone invaded his body and turned him into the greatest volleyer in the universe,” Courier ironically commented his epic loss. It was his third consecutive match concluded in a five-setter, he’d beaten in his two previous rounds Carlos Moya as well as Sjeng Schalken 7-6, 3-6, 3-6, 7-5, 13-11 after 4 hours 25 minutes!

   1st set: three breaks of serve, the crucial at 3-all
   2nd set: one break as Courier loses his serve to ’30’ in the 12th game
   3rd set: Courier broken again in the 12th game (to ’15), but he had a double mini-set point in the preceding game (BH error, Henman’s ace)
   4th set: Henman led 4:3* (15/30) when the rain suspended the match for nearly 48 hours; after the resumption Courier saved a mini-match point with a service winner, in the tie-break Henman was three points away from victory at *4:5 when he missed an easy FH volley
   5th set: Henman led 4:2*, but Courier won three straight games – at 5-all he saved two mini-match points… Courier 6:5* (40/15) – Henman saved the first MP with a service winner, then played a deep backhand volley forcing an error, on third match point he fired an ace; at 6-all Courier fought off another two mini-match points (five in total)… there was 7-all (30-all) when Henman’s backhand volley clipped the corner of the court with Courier’s disapproval of that decision, the Brit finally converted his sixth mini-match point with a brilliant FH stop-volley & finished the contest on his first match point with a BH stop-volley holding at ‘love’

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