1995 was a great year for surface dominance

[Down_the_line]

Looking at the various results at the big tournaments in 1995, it seems that it resembled current tennis somewhat in that a select few players dominated, specifically on their best surfaces.

Consider that the Australian Open, US Open, Indian Wells, Miami, Canada and Cincinnati were (and still are) the 6 biggest outdoor hard-court tournaments. Below are the final results at those tournaments in 1995:

Australian Open: Andre Agassi def. Pete Sampras
Indian Wells: Pete Sampras def. Andre Agassi
Miami: Andre Agassi def. Pete Sampras

Canada: Andre Agassi def. Pete Sampras
Cincinnati: Andre Agassi def. Michael Chang
US Open: Pete Sampras def. Andre Agassi

Now consider that the biggest clay-court tournaments were the French Open, Monte-Carlo, Hamburg and Rome. Below are the final results:

Monte-Carlo: Thomas Muster def. Boris Becker
Hamburg: Andriy Medvedev def. Goran Ivanisevic
Rome: Thomas Muster def. Sergi Bruguera
French Open: Thomas Muster def. Michael Chang

Let's say the two biggest grass-court tournaments were Wimbledon and Queen's Club. Below are the results:

Queen's: Pete Sampras def. Guy Forget
Wimbledon: Pete Sampras def. Boris Becker

Lastly, the indoor hard-court season may not have been dominated by specialists but the biggest tournaments were won by the already dominant players of that year:

Essen: Thomas Muster def. MaliVai Washington
Paris: Pete Sampras def. Boris Becker
YEC: Boris Becker def. Michael Chang


I just thought this was a really cool tennis season. It seems like it had a definitive top 5 players in Sampras, Agassi, Muster, Becker and Chang, and they absolutely dominated on their preferred surfaces, very similar to today's tennis. It's especially incredible that Sampras and Agassi met in the final in 5 of the 6 biggest hard-court tournaments!

Anybody who watched tennis regularly during the 90's want to share any of their memories of 1995? Any specific highlights you can recount?

 

[big ted]

1995 is the year that really made the sampras-agassi rivalry, culminating at the usopen finals and it made tennis in america more popular again albeit briefly, thanks to them and also nike. i only wish they could have played the wimbledon finals too, agassi was so close. agassi really wanted that usopen title too, i dont remember anyone taking a loss as hard as he did, as it really put his career in a tailspin for the next 2-3 years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E7048vLTZM

off the topic but i think thats one of the differences between "tier 1 champions" as people here like to call them (federer/nadal/sampras), and others like agassi/mcenroe. the greatest ones dont get too high on their wins and dont get too down on their losses, they just move on.

 

[PMChambers]

It was an important time for the Agassi / Sampras rivalry which was an underachievement for 6 years. The media had played it up as an all time rivalry for year after year and nothing eventuated, so it was a good sign in 94/95 that it actually happened though very breif, unfortunately it ended very fast after and time Agassi pulled it together Sampras was aging and ready for retirement.

Boris was great, he spent most of the last 4-5 years winging and complaining about tennis and how he wanted to retire. But he mentally came of age and played some of his better calculating tennis though not purely his best, the 94 WTF final againstd Sampras was one of his best matches, he dominated but lost indicating Sampras can live on his serve alone if needed. I think he had wrist injury around that time that reduced his power game and he ended up retiring. It was a bit of a changing of the guard with Edberg as well, his level was down from the early 90's and was playing well but not quiet this best.

The field was all round solid but not to the level its has been through the 2005-2014. The top players (1-4) did not dominate and your 5-15 swap positions a lot more than currently, nothing was guaranteed. If you review the top 16 at GS you'll see a lot of 1, 2 & 3 round loses which you don't see today. The draw was not as controlled which helps some what but the difference between 10 and 30 was not as great.

I do prefer the 2005-14 era more but then I thought the 80-90 era was better as well for different reasons. Maybe just reminiscence over reality.

Only regrets I have is the film work in the 70-00 was so poor it's hard to watch old matches through the blur and ATP should lose copy write after 20 years and the matches should be free to view rather than requiring illegal coping and purchasing of boot leg tapes.

 

[PMChambers]

It was an important time for the Agassi / Sampras rivalry which was an underachievement for 6 years. The media had played it up as an all time rivalry for year after year and nothing eventuated, so it was a good sign in 94/95 that it actually happened though very breif, unfortunately it ended very fast after and time Agassi pulled it together Sampras was aging and ready for retirement.

Boris was great, he spent most of the last 4-5 years winging and complaining about tennis and how he wanted to retire. But he mentally came of age and played some of his better calculating tennis though not purely his best, the 94 WTF final againstd Sampras was one of his best matches, he dominated but lost indicating Sampras can live on his serve alone if needed. I think he had wrist injury around that time that reduced his power game and he ended up retiring. It was a bit of a changing of the guard with Edberg as well, his level was down from the early 90's and was playing well but not quiet this best.

The field was all round solid but not to the level its has been through the 2005-2014. The top players (1-4) did not dominate and your 5-15 swap positions a lot more than currently, nothing was guaranteed. If you review the top 16 at GS you'll see a lot of 1, 2 & 3 round loses which you don't see today. The draw was not as controlled which helps some what but the difference between 10 and 30 was not as great.

I do prefer the 2005-14 era more but then I thought the 80-90 era was better as well for different reasons. Maybe just reminiscence over reality.

Only regrets I have is the film work in the 70-00 was so poor it's hard to watch old matches through the blur and ATP should lose copy write after 20 years and the matches should be free to view rather than requiring illegal coping and purchasing of boot leg tapes.

 

[PMChambers]

Sorry for the Double Post was TW Talk really struggled.

 

[magnut]

courier had a real shot to win the US Open that year.

overall it was a pretty good year. 97-2001 was better. 90-93 was also better. but from 94-96 ...1995 was probably the best year although 96 had a few unbelievable moments. There was some good davis cup stuff in those years as well.

The 90s was a pretty awesome time for tennis. actually 89-2001. Outside of wimbledon there were a lot of slams up for grabs and the variety and depth was incredible. Lots of dangerous players and open draws that could blow the top seeds off the court on a given day....Korda, krajicek, Goran, enqvist, Pioline, Stich etc.

The point spread was pretty close compared to now where the top players are protected.

 

[90's Clay]

Back in the days when there was more talent and surface specialists on tour with more guys being threats to the title then 3-4 guys

 

[kiki]

The 90´s were on par with the late 80´s until 1994 or 1995; then the general quality went down even if there could always be some highlights.

 

[Mustard]

1995 was a great year for tennis, and the best year of the 1990s, in my opinion. It was the year of Thomas Muster at his absolute best, in dominating on the clay and also winning a Super 9 event on indoor carpet at Essen. His clay-court dominance in 1995 was incredible, with a 65-2 win-loss record and the great triumph at the 1995 French Open. He had some amazing wins from behind throughout this clay-court dominance as well, with the most famous one being the 1995 Monte Carlo final against Becker.

1995 was also the year of the Agassi vs. Sampras rivalry at its peak. Agassi had been the best player for most of the year, playing great tennis to beat Sampras in 3 big hardcourt finals (including the 1995 Australian Open final), and after losing the first set each time. However, Agassi lost the biggest match of all to Sampras. Agassi took the 1995 US Open final loss to Sampras very badly indeed. The crucial part of the match was Agassi only dropping 2 points on serve after his first 4 service games (very good up to that stage of the match), but then got broken at 4-5 in the first set after completely mishitting a smash at deuce and then losing an epic set point rally. Agassi then went 0-3 down in the second set before he could recover from the disappointment and regain his composure. It was just an uphill struggle for Agassi from there, and although he came back from a break down to win the third set, he never really took the momentum away from Sampras. The aftermath of losing the match saw Agassi lose the fire in his game, and he sunk into an increasing indifference towards tennis for the next year, an indifference which turned into a freefall after Chang beat him badly at the 1996 US Open.

Sampras had hit Agassi hard at the perfect moment at the 1995 US Open. For all of Agassi's summer hardcourt dominance, Sampras' year suddenly looked better. To use an expression, Agassi failed to turn quantity into quality.

 

[pc1]

1995 was a great year for tennis, and the best year of the 1990s, in my opinion. It was the year of Thomas Muster at his absolute best, in dominating on the clay and also winning a Super 9 event on indoor carpet at Essen. His clay-court dominance in 1995 was incredible, with a 65-2 win-loss record and the great triumph at the 1995 French Open. He had some amazing wins from behind throughout this clay-court dominance as well, with the most famous one being the 1995 Monte Carlo final against Becker.

1995 was also the year of the Agassi vs. Sampras rivalry at its peak. Agassi had been the best player for most of the year, playing great tennis to beat Sampras in 3 big hardcourt finals (including the 1995 Australian Open final), and after losing the first set each time. However, Agassi lost the biggest match of all to Sampras. Agassi took the 1995 US Open final loss to Sampras very badly indeed. The crucial part of the match was Agassi only dropping 2 points on serve after his first 4 service games (very good up to that stage of the match), but then got broken at 4-5 in the first set after completely mishitting a smash at deuce and then losing an epic set point rally. Agassi then went 0-3 down in the second set before he could recover from the disappointment and regain his composure. It was just an uphill struggle for Agassi from there, and although he came back from a break down to win the third set, he never really took the momentum away from Sampras. The aftermath of losing the match saw Agassi lose the fire in his game, and he sunk into an increasing indifference towards tennis for the next year, an indifference which turned into a freefall after Chang beat him badly at the 1996 US Open.

Sampras had hit Agassi hard at the perfect moment at the 1995 US Open. For all of Agassi's summer hardcourt dominance, Sampras' year suddenly looked better. To use an expression, Agassi failed to turn quantity into quality.

It's strange that 1995, which I believe was imo Agassi's best year that he failed to be number one for the year. He was the dominant player for most of the year and yet Sampras was number one.

 

[Mustard]

It's strange that 1995, which I believe was imo Agassi's best year that he failed to be number one for the year. He was the dominant player for most of the year and yet Sampras was number one.

The reason why that happened is that Agassi didn't play much for the rest of 1995 after the US Open, while Sampras played a full schedule late in the year. If Agassi had played regularly post-US Open in 1995, he would have ended the year as world number 1 despite winning just the 1 major, like Lendl in 1989. Sampras had a pretty good finish to the year, including winning the Paris Indoors, and it was enough to get him to the year end world number 1.

I agree that Agassi played the best tennis of his career in 1995, certainly better than his 1999. The closest to his 1995 was the opening months of 2001, when he won the Australian Open, Indian Wells and Miami. You can even extend his 1995 run back to the 1994 Canadian Open in Toronto, because that's when it all started, although the 1995 Australian Open was Agassi's first appearance with his new look (short hair, with a receding hairline) rather than the long hair and baseball cap that he was still wearing in 1994.

 

[amazingrace]

1995 was the last ever really good year for mens tennis IMO. Mens tennis since then has been the poorest it has ever been with either virtually no depth, or years it had some moderate depth no or only 1 truly great player playing well (2000, 2004).

 

[Flash O'Groove]

Looking at the various results at the big tournaments in 1995, it seems that it resembled current tennis somewhat in that a select few players dominated, specifically on their best surfaces.

Consider that the Australian Open, US Open, Indian Wells, Miami, Canada and Cincinnati were (and still are) the 6 biggest outdoor hard-court tournaments. Below are the final results at those tournaments in 1995:

Australian Open: Andre Agassi def. Pete Sampras
Indian Wells: Pete Sampras def. Andre Agassi
Miami: Andre Agassi def. Pete Sampras

Canada: Andre Agassi def. Pete Sampras
Cincinnati: Andre Agassi def. Michael Chang
US Open: Pete Sampras def. Andre Agassi

Now consider that the biggest clay-court tournaments were the French Open, Monte-Carlo, Hamburg and Rome. Below are the final results:

Monte-Carlo: Thomas Muster def. Boris Becker
Hamburg: Andriy Medvedev def. Goran Ivanisevic
Rome: Thomas Muster def. Sergi Bruguera
French Open: Thomas Muster def. Michael Chang

Let's say the two biggest grass-court tournaments were Wimbledon and Queen's Club. Below are the results:

Queen's: Pete Sampras def. Guy Forget
Wimbledon: Pete Sampras def. Boris Becker

Lastly, the indoor hard-court season may not have been dominated by specialists but the biggest tournaments were won by the already dominant players of that year:

Essen: Thomas Muster def. MaliVai Washington
Paris: Pete Sampras def. Boris Becker
YEC: Boris Becker def. Michael Chang


I just thought this was a really cool tennis season. It seems like it had a definitive top 5 players in Sampras, Agassi, Muster, Becker and Chang, and they absolutely dominated on their preferred surfaces, very similar to today's tennis. It's especially incredible that Sampras and Agassi met in the final in 5 of the 6 biggest hard-court tournaments!

Anybody who watched tennis regularly during the 90's want to share any of their memories of 1995? Any specific highlights you can recount?

Good thread, especially the answers of Mustard and Pchampers.

It's interesting to note that if the clay court tournaments were indeed won by clay courts specialists, they weren't won against other clay courts specialists. Ivanisevic, Becker and Chang. Chang's game was well suited for clay court, but Becker and Ivanisevic...not so much!

 

[TheAverageFedererFan]

Yeah, a very good year actually.

2013 comes pretty close as well
AO: Djokovic
IW: Nadal
MM: Murray
MC: Djokovic
MD: Nadal
RM: Nadal
RG: Nadal
QN: Murray
WM: Murray
CD: Nadal
CN: Nadal
US: Nadal
SH: Djokovic
PR: Djokovic
TF: Djokovic

(In order of big titles which are GS, 1000s, TF but Queens as an example extra)

 

[NatF]

Yeah, a very good year actually.

2013 comes pretty close as well
AO: Djokovic
IW: Nadal
MM: Murray
MC: Djokovic
MD: Nadal
RM: Nadal
RG: Nadal
QN: Murray
WM: Murray
CD: Nadal
CN: Nadal
US: Nadal
SH: Djokovic
PR: Djokovic
TF: Djokovic

(In order of big titles which are GS, 1000s, TF but Queens as an example extra)

Somewhat similar perhaps except that there were just 3 consistent winners (unless you count Ferrer the perpetual runner up) and the quality of tennis wasn't as good.