2 Responses to kitzbuhel92sampras_filippini

1. Voo de Mar says:

   August 8, 2023 at 1:47 pm

   Points won by each set: | 43-44, 33-27, 26-10 |
   Points won directly behind the serve:
   28 % Sampras – 25 of 88
   15 % Filippini – 15 of 95

   Filippini [69], the best Uruguayan of the 90s, like many other South American players born in the 60s & 70s, built his career around clay-courts. He was reaching finals of small ATP events (ten in total, nine on clay), but from time to time he was able to play good tennis in bigger tournaments on the red surface: he reached semifinals in Barcelona ’88 and Kitzbuhel ’92, quarterfinals in Rome ’93 and Roland Garros ’99.
   Sampras [3] led 6:5* (30/15) in the 1st set and 4:1 in the tie-break when tried to play a backhand return winner and missed not by much. As he was 6:5 down, arguably the best rally of the match occurred and Filippini won it despite Sampras playing a few powerful shots. Until 2:1 in the 2nd set people could expect an upset, but Sampras broke in the 5th game on his fourth chance, and won 11 out of the last 12 games altogether against the tired opponent (Filippini survived the third round against Mattar after 3 hours 20 minutes – one of the longest ‘best of 3’ matches of 1992, and in the quarterfinal he was also a few points from defeat against E.Sanchez).

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2. Voo de Mar says:

   August 8, 2023 at 4:02 pm

   5-0 for Sampras in their H2H ultimately, but paradoxically Filippini was the closest to beat Sampras on carpet where he was generally struggling to win matches against anyone; in Philadelphia ’95 Sampras survived 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 trailing 1:3 and complained it was the slowest carpet court he ever played on.

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