2 Responses to ao97muster_courier.

1. Voo de Mar says:

   January 10, 2024 at 1:59 am

   Points won by each set: | 33-22, 26-29, 43-39, 36-28 |
   Points won directly behind the serve:
   22 % Muster – 28 of 124
   20 % Courier – 27 of 132

   A high quality encounter in the night session (finished after midnight) on Centre Court between the two former Nos 1. It lasted three hours, and they both tried everything to outmanoeuvre each other. Muster [5] needed to do that because he was on a 7-match losing streak against Courier [16]. Perhaps helped him unusual beginning of the match – as they started, had to stop for half an hour due to problem with floodlights. Courier dealt worse with that and he almost found himself at 0:5 in the opener. The most important moment came with a double fault at 3-all in the tie-break as Courier wanted to deliver a kick-serve, but hit with the frame and the ball landed closer to the baseline than the service line! Muster won the breaker 7/4 and established a comfortable lead (5:1) again in the 4th set. That Muster’s victory was very telling for the rest of the year: he was serving faster, striking his forehands harder while operating closer to the baseline, and in the consequence he was more eager to attack the net – all those modifications caused that in 1997 he was more efficient on hardcourts than on clay where he’d unquestionably ruled in the years 1995-96.

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2. Voo de Mar says:

   January 10, 2024 at 5:29 am

   They play two more matches against each other, both semifinals on hardcourts within two months after their Aussie Open meeting
   – Muster wins 7-6, 2-6, 6-3 in Dubai (2 hours 28 minutes, Courier takes one point more), then at Key Biscayne 6-3, 6-4.
   Those defeats marked Courier’s end as a Top 20 player. He edges Muster 7-5 in their H2H (0:2 – 7:0 – 0:3)

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