1 Response to ao95agassi_kafelnikov.krickstein

1. Voo de Mar says:

   January 17, 2016 at 2:55 am

   Agassi [2] enjoyed an impressive form in Melbourne ’95, perhaps the best one in his career. He advanced to the final defeating in back-to-back matches two baseliners, losing just seven and eight games in those matches, respectively. For the 21-year-old Kafelnikov [12], the future Aussie Open champion, it was the first Grand Slam quarterfinal. He enjoyed an optimistic start – break point leading 1:0, but Agassi won five straight games in leaps and bounds. The Russian also led 5:4* in the 2nd set, and similar situation occurred once again – nine straight games for Agassi without any troubles.
   The 27-year-old Krickstein [45] – the Open Era best player considering 16-year-old boys, seemed in the mid-80s to be destined to reach plenty of major semifinals. However, he managed to reach only two (US Open ’89 and Aussie Open ’95). Krickstein began his second of those two semifinals (played indoors due to rain) with an injured right hamstring; at the beginning of the match he felt additional pain in his right groin & dealt with restricted mobility. Actually given Agassi’s amazing form, the scoreline from Krickstein’s perspective looked pretty well. He was a hell of fighter throughout his career, but after losing his serve twice to open the 3rd set, he decided to quit… Agassi’s two combined matches vs Kafelnikov (1:23 hrs) and Krickstein (1:09 hrs) lasted 40 minutes shorter than Sampras’ four-set semifinal against Chang! Certainly, in terms of fitness, it was a key factor prior to the Agassi-Sampras four-set final.

   Points won by each set: | 27-14, 35-27, 25-8 |
   Points won directly behind the serve:
   29 % Agassi – 19 of 65
   19 % Kafelnikov – 14 of 71

   Points won by each set: | 28-22, 27-21, 12:3… |
   Points won directly behind the serve:
   26 % Agassi – 14 of 53
   20 % Krickstein – 12 of 60

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