2 Responses to montreal99johansson_kafelnikov

1. Voo de Mar says:

   August 10, 2024 at 3:32 pm

   15 of 25 games included to the stats (number of aces, double faults and break points correct for the entire contest)

   Points won by each set: | 13-27, 40-35, 38-28 |
   Points won directly behind the serve:
   ? % Johansson – of 95
   ? % Kafelnikov – of 86

   It’s strange that Kafelnikov [4], a former No. 1, two-time Slam champion and Olympic gold medallist, never won a Masters 1K title (Mercedes Super 9 at the time). He played five finals at this level, and the closest to win one of them he was at the Canadian Open ’99, yet still far away in tennis terms – nine points precisely as he led 40/15 on serve when the scoreboard indicated 3-all in the decider. Johansson [22] began the final making too many errors, but he improved his level from the beginning of the mid-set, and there were many ‘deuce’ games in two successive ‘6-3’ sets, the Swede won majority of them, wasting a break advantage twice in the 2nd set, and once in the 3rd set. Kafelnikov finished his career with a negative record (H2H 5-9 with 8 defeats in a row) against Johansson, who achieved significantly less. The problem against Johansson for the Russian was that the Swede had the same approach to tennis on a regular basis, so keeping the ball in play with hard flat strokes off both wings, being rather reluctant to attack the net. Kafelnikov, a more versatile player, could adapt different strategies depending on the opponent’s style – he was very good at passing-shots facing serve-and-volleyers while against grinders, he was attacking the net quite often. That day Johansson’s backhand was functioning better in typical baseline duels between them. The match point he converted in quite unusual style – his forehand return was just an invitation to a rally, but the Russian didn’t respond thinking his first serve had been too long. Johansson came to Canada with a very bad record that year (10-17), but he suffered two injuries (right arm – March, left wrist – May) which prevented him from achieving better results. Two days after the biggest success of his career at the time, he was forced to retire in Cincinnati due to another injury.

   Johansson’s route to his 3rd title:
   1 Simon Larose 6-2, 6-3
   2 Max Mirnyi 7-5, 7-6(6)
   3 Sebastien Lareau 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-4
   Q Jim Courier 6-4, 6-4
   S Nicolas Kiefer 4-6, 6-1, 6-3
   W Yevgeny Kafelnikov 1-6, 6-3, 6-3
   

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2. Voo de Mar says:

   September 14, 2024 at 3:00 am

   Before Canadian Open ’99, Johansson collected two titles within two weeks of 1997 as he triumphed in Copenhagen and St. Petersburg (both indoors) before losing a semifinal in Hong Kong. Johansson winning 13 matches in a row, wasn’t seriously threatened in any of those matches, so it was the first sign he was capable of quite astonishing consistency

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