Points won by each set: [ 37-40, 37-30, 44-42 ]
Points won directly behind the serve:
26 % Becker – 28 of 105
30 % Masur – 38 of 125
# Becker [2] wasn’t a specialist of winning decisive tie-breaks, but that year in Paris he won two matches of this type day-by-day, and what’s really staggering, he not only repeated the scoreline, but also repeated the same pattern which led to the victory! Despite being a qualifier Masur [66] began the match with self-confidence having won the only previous matches against Becker (Australian Open ’87). The underdog saved three set points in the opener (Becker improved from 3:5 to 6:5* (40/15)) – two of them thanks to difficult volleys, the third one with an overhead. Masur’s volley error cost him losing the serve at 3-all the 2nd set. Becker broke at 1-all in the decider to lead 5:3 thirty minutes later. At 5:4 he had a match point on serve, but made a volley error. Just like a day before against Forget, Becker had wasted three set points in the 1st set and match point at 5:4 in the 3rd set! To some degree the deciding tie-break against Masur reminded that one which Becker won vs Forget. In both tie-breaks Becker distinctively led (5:0 vs Forget, 4:0 vs Masur) to lose his serve twice: against Forget it went from 5:0 to 5:3*, against Masur from 4:0* and 5:2 to 5-all, then 6-all. In that tense moment Masur netted his forehand volley and on the third match point sent his forehand long in a position from which he should have passed his opponent.