2 Responses to rg86pernfors_leconte

1. Voo de Mar says:

   June 6, 2024 at 3:11 pm

   Stats without games between 1:2 and 6-all in the 3rd set (73% made). Break points valid for the entire contest.

   Points won by each set: | 20-30, 39-32, X, 32-25 |
   Points won directly behind the serve:
   19 % Pernfors – 17 of 88
   19 % Leconte – 18 of 92

   The first meeting between these 23-year-old players. The match was played in a low temperature (from 14 to 11 degrees Celsius), therefore the players began it for the first three games in training pants as well as sleeveless sweaters. For an hour it seemed impossible that Leconte [10] would lose this match: he was supported by the crowd, he was outplaying his less experienced peer (Leconte’s seventh French Open, Pernfors a debutant) actually in every department, and led 6-2, 4:1 on return. Then, a rather hopeless Pernfors [27] accelerated his serve, and finally won a game quickly – it changed the complexion of the match – he broke in the following game, and the match was stopped by the rain for the first time. After the resumption the conditions were slower which favored the grinder from Sweden. He won the 2nd set (held firmly at 4:5), and the match was suspended again as he trailed *1:2 in the 3rd set. The end of that set it were four consecutive breaks of serve, Pernfors squandered two set points on serve, but he won the tie-break 7/4 with the help of two backhand passing-shots. That gave him wings, and he began the 4th set serving three successive aces! He raced to a 3:0* lead, and was quite close to add another break as he passed the Frenchman, who fell down on the dirt, to make ‘deuce’ in the 4th game. Leconte held, but he was unable to break his opponent the remaining three attempts. Pernfors celebrated the victory on his knees at 8 pm, six hours after they entered the court for the first time. # No doubt that he’s the most surprising French Open finalist of the 80s, his Parisian effort (runner-up with a modest experience at Slams) would be repeated in another two decades: by Alberto Berasategui in 1994 and Martin Verkerk in 2003.

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2. Voo de Mar says:

   June 7, 2024 at 1:21 pm

   # Comparison of the most sensational French Open runners-up:

   1986… 23 y.o. Pernfors [27]… 0-2 record at Slams, 0 titles, defeated 4 seeds in Paris
   1994… 21 y.o. Berasategui [23]… 2-3 record at Slams, 2 titles, defeated 2 seeds in Paris
   2003… 25 y.o. Verkerk [46]… 0-2 record at Slams, 1 title, defeated 4 seeds in Paris

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