1 Response to orlando88chesnokov_mecir

1. Voo de Mar says:

   March 26, 2025 at 6:15 pm

   Points won by each set: | 37-40, 37-27 |
   Points won directly behind the serve:
   17 % Chesnokov – 11 of 62
   17 % Mecir – 14 of 79

   The 22-year-old Chesnokov [29] was some sort of a revelation in 1988. In the first years of his career he’d been mainly associated with European clay-courts. All of a sudden in the first quarter of the ’88 season – despite showcasing the same patient baseline attitude – he reached two finals Down Under (on hard and grass), Aussie Open quarterfinal in its first edition on hardcourts, which was followed by two good results on American hardcourts (title in Orlando, quarterfinal at Key Biscayne). It allowed him to move from No. 52 to No. 17 within three months. Given clay as his best surface, his advancement to the Top 10 seemed inevitable, but his progress was slowed down, and he finished the year as No. 14… In Orlando it was his second and last on-court meeting with Mecir [7]. When they had faced each other as teenagers in 1983, Chesnokov had no experience at the main-level, yet almost defeated the two-year-older opponent 10-8, 6-1, 3-6, 4-6, 2-6 in a Davis Cup rubber, leading 3:0 in the 3rd set. The first two sets in Orlando were almost copied, but this time the Soviet player didn’t need to worry about another set. Mecir raced to a 5:3* (30-all) lead. At 5:4 he was broken squandering a set point (backhand error), in spite of dropping just one point on serve in his first four service games. In the tie-break Chesnokov saved two more set points improving from 4:6 – the first one with the help of a moon-lob. The moody Czechoslovak was a bit discouraged after losing the set he should have won, nonetheless the games were tight in the 2nd; Chesnokov won 6 out of 7 games with a two-point difference each, one of them after 7 deuces. He received a check for $59,000.

   Chesnokov’s route to his 2nd title:
   1 John Frawley 6-3, 6-1
   2 Andres Gomez 3-6, 6-1, 6-3
   Q Amos Mansdorf 4-6, 6-2, 6-3
   S Jay Berger 3-6, 6-2, 6-1
   W Miloslav Mecir 7-6(6), 6-1

   Serve & volley: Chesnokov 0, Mecir 2/5

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