la02agassi_gambill

Points won by each set: [ 28-18, 39-30 ]
Points won directly behind the serve:
28 % Agassi – 14 of 50
29 % Gambill – 19 of 65

In 1998 Agassi was coming back after his abysmal ’97 season while Gambill became a new, interesting face of ATP. They played three times within a few weeks, Agassi won twice in straight sets with tie-breaks involved, and it seemed Gambill would be a real deal in the future. It didn’t happen though, and Agassi didn’t lose a set in their ten following meetings (Gambill won once by Agassi’s retirement at 5:4)! So basically among some good results Gambill turned to be Agassi’s whipping-boy. Several of their matches had almost a copy-cat scenario: as many as four times they faced each other in Los Angeles, and almost the same pattern was repeated every time (6-4 6-4 | 6-2 6-2 | 6-2 7-5 | 6-2 6-4) in those matches that lasted 78, 71, 83 & 77 minutes respectively. In their ’02 final, Agassi [7] very nearly repeated his 6-2 6-2 of LA’s ’99 second round – he missed by inches a forehand return having a mini-match point at 4:2, Gambill broke back, nevertheless the 32-year-old favorite took the last two games quickly.

Agassi’s route to his 53rd title (3rd in LA):
1 Kenneth Carlsen 6-3, 6-1
2 Robby Ginepri 6-3, 6-1
Q Gustavo Kuerten 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-4
S Max Mirnyi 6-4, 6-2
W Jan-Michael Gambill 6-2, 6-4

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