1 Response to ao98.korda_kucera

1. Voo de Mar says:

   June 15, 2023 at 3:07 pm

   Points won by each set: | 30-19, 39-30, 14-28, 31-21 |
   Points won directly behind the serve:
   13 % Korda – 14 of 107
   23 % Kucera – 27 of 105

   The first “Czechoslovakian” duel at the latter stage of the Australian Open since Ivan Lendl (Czech) beat Miroslav Mecir (Slovakia) in the 1989 final. At the Aussie Open ’98, Mecir was Kucera’s coach… Kucera [20] started the match leading *1:0 (40/15) – Korda [7], mainly thanks to blistering forehands, won 9 of the next 10 games, and overwhelmingly led 6-1 3:1* (15/0) playing brilliant tennis from the back of the court. However, he was forced to save two break points at 5:4, one of them hitting the baseline with a backhand slice (it caused opponent’s error). Korda won two successive games to lead 5:2 in the 4th set with net-cords behind his backhands.
   Three weeks later they face each other in the Antwerp quarter-finals and Kucera takes a revenge 3-6, 6-4, 6-2; snapping Korda’s career-best winning streak of 14. Korda needed to win that match and another two matches (capturing the title) to become the best player in the world! There were the only two meetings between them… In 1999 Kucera is five points away from another Aussie Open semifinal as he loses to a much lower ranked Lapentti.

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