2 Responses to wb90s_bergstrom

1. Voo de Mar says:

   October 3, 2025 at 11:23 am

   In both matches, stats of sets 2 and 3 only

   Bergström – some sort of an enigmatic figure among the golden generation of Swedes born in the 60s. He was one of the best European juniors in 1985, but didn’t transfer this to his professional career. Based on his ATP results (no titles, no Masters 1K quarterfinal), reaching a few third rounds at Slams would be fair in his case because the common knowledge tells that it’s easier to beat higher ranked opponents in the ‘best of three’ format than the ‘best of five’, however, it didn’t apply to Bergström, who reached three Slam quarterfinals, and twice was eliminated in the fourth rounds. Who knows, maybe with more lucky quarterfinal draws he would have reached the semifinal, but in the last eight he always played against the top players (Edberg also defeated him in Australia).

   =============================

   Points won by each set: | X, 27-14, 34-29 |
   Points won directly behind the serve:
   22 % Edberg – 12 of 53
   11 % Bergstrom – 6 of 51

   Points won by each set: | X, 40-36, 31-17 |
   Points won directly behind the serve:
   29 % Becker – 12 of 55
   26 % Bergstrom – 18 of 69

   Bergstrom [98] played his first major quarterfinal on Court no. 14 – because of rain, male and female quarterfinals were clustered. In theory such a small stadium could have helped the much lower ranked Swede, but nothing like that happened. Edberg [3] was leading from start to finish, everything went so smooth for him that he played a pathetic overhead at *4:1 (30-all) in the 3rd set – a sign of evaporating focus. He lost his serve as many as three times in that set, but served the match out without any problems.

   Four years later Bergstrom [112] entered the court no. 1 and played very competitive match for two hours (three years earlier on the same court he had lost to Becker in a tight four-setter of the 4th round), only a few points decided about the opening two sets. The Swede was two points away to steal the 1st set in two different games, in the tie-break he led 5:4* before losing the last three points (he should have won in the tie-break two points he lost, a set point included). In the 2nd set Becker [10] trailed 0/30 at 4-all barely avoiding a triple mini-set point, in the following game Bergstrom led 40/0 to lose five straight points. From 3-all onwards in the 3rd set, Becker got 12 points in a row.

   Log in to Reply
2. Voo de Mar says:

   October 3, 2025 at 12:32 pm

   ☆ There was a similar pattern in Bergström’s route to the Wimbledon quarterfinals – he defeated in four sets the best left-handed servers of the 90s beside Ivanišević, namely Forget 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 in 1990 and Rusedski 6-4, 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 in 1994. In 1994 he survived a thriller on court no. 3 against Bryan Shelton 3-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 10-8 in the fourth round, being two points away from defeat at *6:7 in the decider. His trips to the Wimbledon quarterfinals are more surprising given his game-style, he wasn’t a big server, he didn’t implement a constant net-attacking which generally was the most successful strategy at Wimbledon in the 90s, he didn’t possess a huge forehand either.

   Log in to Reply