2 Responses to uo05hewitt_nieminen

1. Voo de Mar says:

   August 15, 2023 at 7:03 pm

   Points won by each set: | 26-34, 24-10, 16-26, 26-21, 39-22 |
   Points won directly behind the serve:
   25 % Hewitt – 28 of 109
   23 % Nieminen – 32 of 135

   Hewitt is one of the most experienced players of the Open Era in terms of five-setters, he played 57 of them (32-25 record), and only once it lasted less than 2.5 hours (2 hours 26 minutes exactly) – against Nieminen [57], for whom it was the first of his three major quarterfinals (in the next two he would be beaten by Nadal). In that lopsided encounter on Arthur Ashe Stadium, set no. 3 was the tightest: there was 3-all when Nieminen took three games in succession. He was serving exceptionally well in that set dropping just two points in five service games, in one of those games he fired three aces in a row. The shift of the momentum occurred as Hewitt [4] led 1:0* in the 4th set, there was a break point for him, and Nieminen applied his first serve-and-volley action, hit a “winner” but a linesman called it ‘out’ (the ball was much closer to the umpire so the linesman not being sure shouldn’t have called the ball at all). It was a year before the first US Open with the hawk-eye system, so the Finn couldn’t do anything to change the linesman’s decision. In the decider he needed 9 deuces on serve at 0:4 to avoid a bagel set.

   Serve & volley: Hewitt 3/4, Nieminen 0/2

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2. Voo de Mar says:

   August 15, 2023 at 9:37 pm

   Hewitt and Nieminen play another Grand Slam match against each other ten years later (Wimbledon) when they both are at the end of their careers as 34 year-old guys,
   and the Finn, serving first in the decider, wins 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-0, 11-9 after 4 hours; his only victory over Hewitt in six meetings

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