36 of 46 games (78%)… number of aces, double faults & break points valid for the entire contest
Points won by each set: | 23-31, ?, ?, ?, 41-37 |
Perez-Roldan [26] was a teenage revelation of 1988 (along with one year younger Agassi). He reached five finals (one title), including the biggest in his career (Rome) and French Open quarterfinal which allowed him to move to no. 13. When the 18-year-old Argentinian took the opening set of the final against Lendl, he had won 21 consecutive sets not requiring a tie-break even once! In the 2nd set he lost his serve thrice though, and the 28-year-old leader of men’s tennis began to dominate. However, Roldan got a second wind racing to a 4:1* (40/15) lead in the 4th set. Lendl came back, only to lose two straight games. In the decider, the teenager led 2:1* (40/30) when unsuccessfully dived to a forehand passing-shot. Later on he led 4:3, but it was his just second five-setter while Lendl had played plenty of them, and the experience paid off – the Czechoslovak was attacking the net a lot in the last three games, winning them all (4-1, 5-3, 7-5).
One of the longest finals of the Open Era (4 hours 37 minutes; third longest at the time) which is surprising looking at the scoreline. I’m not sure about the total points, but my estimation is that Lendl won it ~160-150 pts, so it wasn’t a match with enormous number of deuces (the longest game of 5 deuces occurred as Lendl held to lead 4:2 in the 3rd set). Two factors contributed to the time apart from Lendl’s usual slow pace while serving:
– the crowd was cheering for Perez-Roldan like he was a local player which very irritated Lendl, who was arguing with Richard Ings (chair umpire) a few times, demanding the silence of the crowd
– very low percentage of Lendl’s first serves in (just 18% in the opener!)
Lendl’s route to his 72nd title:
1 Jaroslav Navratil 6-2, 6-4
2 Milan Srejber 6-1, 5-7, 6-1
3 Guy Forget 6-3, 3-6, 6-3
Q Jaime Yzaga 6-2, 4-6, 6-2
S Kent Carlsson 6-3, 6-3
W Guillermo Perez-Roldan 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4
36 of 46 games (78%)… number of aces, double faults & break points valid for the entire contest
Points won by each set: | 23-31, ?, ?, ?, 41-37 |
Perez-Roldan [26] was a teenage revelation of 1988 (along with one year younger Agassi). He reached five finals (one title), including the biggest in his career (Rome) and French Open quarterfinal which allowed him to move to no. 13. When the 18-year-old Argentinian took the opening set of the final against Lendl, he had won 21 consecutive sets not requiring a tie-break even once! In the 2nd set he lost his serve thrice though, and the 28-year-old leader of men’s tennis began to dominate. However, Roldan got a second wind racing to a 4:1* (40/15) lead in the 4th set. Lendl came back, only to lose two straight games. In the decider, the teenager led 2:1* (40/30) when unsuccessfully dived to a forehand passing-shot. Later on he led 4:3, but it was his just second five-setter while Lendl had played plenty of them, and the experience paid off – the Czechoslovak was attacking the net a lot in the last three games, winning them all (4-1, 5-3, 7-5).
One of the longest finals of the Open Era (4 hours 37 minutes; third longest at the time) which is surprising looking at the scoreline. I’m not sure about the total points, but my estimation is that Lendl won it ~160-150 pts, so it wasn’t a match with enormous number of deuces (the longest game of 5 deuces occurred as Lendl held to lead 4:2 in the 3rd set). Two factors contributed to the time apart from Lendl’s usual slow pace while serving:
– the crowd was cheering for Perez-Roldan like he was a local player which very irritated Lendl, who was arguing with Richard Ings (chair umpire) a few times, demanding the silence of the crowd
– very low percentage of Lendl’s first serves in (just 18% in the opener!)
Lendl’s route to his 72nd title:
1 Jaroslav Navratil 6-2, 6-4
2 Milan Srejber 6-1, 5-7, 6-1
3 Guy Forget 6-3, 3-6, 6-3
Q Jaime Yzaga 6-2, 4-6, 6-2
S Kent Carlsson 6-3, 6-3
W Guillermo Perez-Roldan 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4