1 Response to gsc97bjorkman_becker

1. Voo de Mar says:

   April 23, 2025 at 2:14 pm

   Points won by each set: | 35-26, 30-17 |
   Points won directly behind the serve:
   29 % Bjorkman – 17 of 58
   30 % Becker – 15 of 50

   Becker [17] was a defending champion, but the local crowd didn’t have any basis to believe he’d win this tournament again, because he suffered a slump while approaching the 30th year of his life; he retreated from the regular tour after Wimbledon ’97, and didn’t play for two months at all. The officials introduced “wild card” (de facto for Becker) to the “Grand Slam Cup” rules in order to save the interest of the Bavarian public (the second best German of the 90s – Stich, who could’ve played in Munich, finished his career after Wimbledon ’97). Becker began the first round match in an optimistic fashion, led 3:1* (three deuces), but afterwards he was hopeless like never before on carpet – Bjorkman [13] was hitting winner after winner with his returns (a few times behind Becker’s 1st serve) and passing-shots, and the German lost his serve four times within five service games, not being able to fend off any break point! A few months later they face each other again in the Dubai first round, Bjorkman wins easily again: 6-3, 6-4.

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