Match Stats/Report - Enqvist vs Kafelnikov, Paris final, 1996

[Waspsting]

Thomas Enqvist beat Yevgeny Kafelnikov 6-2, 6-4, 7-5 in the Paris final, 1996 on carpet

It was the first of Enqvist’s eventual 3 masters title and only one in Paris. Kafelnikov had won the French Open earlier in the year

Enqvist won 92 points, Kafelnikov 68

Serve Stats
Enqvist...
- 1st serve percentage (48/78) 62%
- 1st serve points won (41/48) 85%
- 2nd serve points won (15/30) 50%
- Aces 20
- Double Faults 5
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (34/78) 44%

Kafelnikov....
- 1st serve percentage (48/82) 59%
- 1st serve points won (32/48) 67%
- 2nd serve points won (14/34) 41%
- Aces 8
- Double Faults 3
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (27/82) 33%

Serve Patterns
Enqvist served...
- to FH 51%
- to BH 37%
- to Body 12%

Kafelnikov served....
- to FH 44%
- to BH 49%
- to Body 6%

Return Stats
Enqvist made...
- 52 (20 FH, 32 BH)
- 2 Winners (2 FH)
- 19 Errors, comprising...
- 7 Unforced (5 FH, 2 BH)
- 12 Forced (7 FH, 5 BH)
- Return Rate (52/79) 66%

Kafelnikov made...
- 39 (20 FH, 19 BH), including 1 return-approach
- 14 Errors, comprising...
- 5 Unforced (4 FH, 1 BH)
- 9 Forced (6 FH, 3 BH)
- Return Rate (39/73) 53%

Break Points
Enqvist 6/9 (6 games)
Kafelnikov 2/3 (2 games)

Winners (including returns, excluding serves)
Enqvist 18 (10 FH, 6 BH, 1 FHV, 1 OH)
Kafelnikov 7 (4 FH, 1 FHV, 2 BHV)

Enqvist's FHs - 2 cc (1 return), 1 dtl, 2 inside-out, 5 inside-in (1 return, 1 not clean)
- BHs - 1 cc pass, 4 dtl (1 pass), 1 running-down-drop-shot dtl at net

Kafelnikov's FHs - 1 cc, 1 dtl, 1 inside-out, 1 inside-in

- 1 BHV was a net chord roll over

Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Enqvist 29
- 19 Unforced (10 FH, 7 BH, 2 BHV)... with 1 FH at net
- 10 Forced (3 FH, 6 BH, 1 FHV)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 48.9

Kafelnikov 37
- 25 Unforced (8 FH, 14 BH, 2 FHV, 1 BHV)... with 1 BH at net
- 12 Forced (5 FH, 4 BH, 2 FHV, 1 BHV)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 46.8

(Note 1: All 1/2 volleys refer to such shots played at net. 1/2 volleys played from other parts of the court are included within relevant groundstroke numbers)

(Note 2: the Unforced Error Forcefulness Index is an indicator of how aggressive the average UE was. The numbers presented are keyed on 4 categories - 20 defensive, 40 neutral, 50 attacking and 60 winner attempt)

Net Points & Serve-Volley
Enqvist was 6/10 (60%) at net

Kafelnikov was...
- 12/22 (55%) at net, including...
- 5/5 (100%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 3/3 (100%) off 1st serve and...
- 2/2 off 2nd serve
---
- 1/1 return-approaching

Match Report
Power hitting slugfest and Enqvist is more powerful. And has bigger serve. And Kafelnikov stands too close to return. Court is quick

Its like a heavyweight going toe-to-toe with a light heavyweight. Exactly like that

Both players serve big - in line with strength of heavyweight and light heavy weight servers
Aces - Enq 20, Kaf 8

Both take returns early, from on the baseline. For Enq, a good move. Few aces go by, but he can powerfully hit through what his chosen position puts in his slot and strikes point ending or initiative snatching or at least, neutralizing returns. For Kaf, not so much. So many aces go by that its questionable it would be worth it even if he could return the way his opponent does. And he can’t - serves in his slot are on him too quick for him to do anything but have a rushed jab at. Result - error or weak, mis-hitty returns Enq can have his way with

Action is simple. 2 trade power groundstrokes. And Enq is considerably more powerful. As rallies go on, his hitting gains in force, Kaf’s goes down. Kaf is pressured into errors. Or Enq goes for (and usually makes) point ending shot. From both sides

What does that leave Kaf with? Coming to net? Would be very difficult to rally there against the calibre of power he’s up against. He doesn’t try much, but he’s a flop when he does. He’s 6/16 rallying to net - and that’s as much about messing up on the volley as it is Enq’s strong passing. In forecourt, Kaf’s got 4 UEs (including a BH), to 3 volley winners

Serve-volley? He’s a perfect 5/5 doing that (also 1/1 return-approaching). Probably wouldn’t work for long were he to do it regularly. Enq returns early and powerfully. Leaving aside constant serve-volleying is beyond his usual game

Trailing in hitting force, for Kaf to hold his own, he’d need Enq to be error prone

Neutral UEs - Enq 9, Kaf 14

There’s more than 1 way to be error prone. Maybe Enq can overreach with his power advantage, go for too much and mess up that way? Nope, Enq plays with fine judgement - carries on with the powerful stock cc shots and when he goes for the point-ender, ball is there for the shot and he also usually makes it. Enq isn’t overly ambitious with his winner attempts, nor lets decent chances for them pass by - excellent shot choices, and well executed

Kaf turns to slicing a bit. Just a bit and more because he has to for not having time to do more. Average slices and doesn’t put Enq off a bit. Just keeps biffing ball back. Now it’s a heavyweight vs a middle weight

QED - Enq far better, whatever goes on. And 90% of what goes on is stock, meat & potatoes stuff

Some fun stats. In the first set, Enq has the grand total of 1 error. Not unforced error, but error, period. Penultimate point of the set (when he’s up 5-2, 40-0 with 3 set points), misses a BH pass against Kaf’s return approach. Kaf has 13 - 9 UEs, 4 FEs. There are 22 points in the set where return is made - and 1 error across all of them by Enq

Last set is aces galore time. His only stumble in the match sees him down 3-0. In his remaining 5 service games, he sends down 11 aces from 19 first serves

44% unreturneds (including 42% first serves being aces), to go with 18 winners, forcing 12 errors and 19 UEs… first class stuff from Enq. The virtually equal winners and UEs is particularly impressive as there’s no bolstering of the positive side of it with forecourt shots, as tends to be the case. His is a pure baseline showing and its rare to have same number of winners as UEs without volleys tilting the balance towards the winners

Still, Kaf’s 25 UEs accounts for biggest lot of point finishing shots. He is pressured into them some, but they’re still very much UEs. Just 7 winners and forcing 10 errors to go with it, so he’s coming out net negative on aggressively ended points/UE differential. He does not play well, independent of Enq’s first rate performance. Does have good 33% unreturneds. Smaller than Enq’s, which is as it should be given Enq has sizably the bigger serve, but a good yield

 

[Waspsting]

Heavyweight. Light heavyweight.

What else? Action is almost all baseline rallies and those are almost all cc based. Its not a moving-opponent around match. BH-BH rallies are majority

Kaf has match high 14 BH UEs (Enq has 7)

FH-FH rallies go the same way, the two trading powerful cc shots until someone coughs p the error or goes dtl attackingly. Things are virtually same on errors front (UEs - Enq 9, Kaf 8), but as with BH, Enq having hitting advantage. And doing a lot more damage. He has 10 winner to Kaf’s 4

To Kaf’s credit, he doesn’t give up many short balls, despite being up against first class hitting. Its just his own force of shot gets weaker. Enq more often than not keeps plying the pressure with a still more strongly struck stock groundie against the weaker rejoinders (as opposed to going for a winner). As impressive as his exemplary ball striking is Enq’s shot choices. With hitting advantage comes temptation to bring out the fireworks. Enq though is very sound in when and how to attack. When he goes longline moderately attackingly, its almost always spot on. Just 3 attacking UEs from him (Kaf has 5). If ball comes back, he’s now in better position to hit the winner

A word on the court. Its not slow, as the number of aces suggest, but its not lightning fast either. If it were, as hard as Enq in particular hits his stock shots, just slightly wide would be enough to cause mayhem. And the players wouldn’t have to hit with such obvious, muscly effort as they do to be damaging either. In general, Paris in the ‘90s had relatively slow carpet courts

Match Progression
Almost perfect opening set from Enq. Hits a BH dtl passing winner on the very first point and continues to hammer groundies to break in 8 point game. No UEs from Kaf, save a double fault in the game

Breaks again for 3-0. Couple of third ball UEs from Kaf, both against decent returns, and Enq wraps up with a FH cc return winner. Throws in another FH return winner next game - this time inside-in and against a first serve - in next game, but Kaf holds with aces of his own. Needs a pair of winners to hold his last service game which goes to deuce after that

Meanwhile, Enq wins 16/17 service points from start (exception is a double fault). He makes his first error in play right at the end - a missed pass against a return-approach - before closing out the set 6-2

Kaf makes 6 returns in the set. Enq wins all 13 first serve points, Kaf just 1/8 seconds. And Enq with just the 1 error

3 breaks on the trot to start the second. Easy FHV miss by Kaf leaves him down 15-40, and Enq converts second break point with a big FH inside-in return + FH inside-out 1-2 ending with a winner

Kaf hits right back with a break to 30. Nice BH inside-out slice approach leading to FHV winner from Enq in the game, but his BH gives up a couple errors and he double faults on break point
Error ridden game to follow completes the trio of breaks. Highlight of the game is Enq biffing a FH dtl winner, and his returns are of decent force and depth. Kaf with just 1/6 first serves in the game

Routine holds from there to end of set. Kaf seems to have settled into being a competitive match for Enq, though he’s still less strong hitter off the ground

Kaf wins 13/14 points to star the third set, with a break to 15 and 3-0, 0-15 lead. 3 groundstroke UEs (the last 1 at net) from Enq gets him broken, and Kaf forces errors with strong, wide groundstrokes in his holds

Double fault gets Kaf to 0-15, and Enq missing a third ball BH makes it 30-30, 2 points away from a double break

Rest of match, Enq wins 31 points, Kaf 13, with Enq dealing in aces. 11/16 of his first serves go through untouched. And steely hitting is as good, if not better than even the first set

Kaf does manage to whip a FH inside-out winner as Enq serves out the match (other 4 points in the game are all aces), to give him a cute final yield of 4 FH winners - 1 cc, 1 dtl, 1 inside-out, 1 inside-in

Summing up, cliché metaphors often miss the point. Adapting one, heavyweight vs light heavyweight sums up this match almost perfectly

Both serve heartily - and Enqvist’s serves is considerably bigger
Both return from baseline - Enqvist is able to return with heat from there, Kafelnikov is too rushed to do much with the balls he can reach
They play from the baseline, trading power hits - Enqvist is heavier hitter, gains ground as rallies go on and shows fine judgement in when to keep plying on the heavy hits and when to go for the point finisher

First class showing from Enqvist. Even allowing for that and the pressure it keeps him under, Kafelnikov does not play well. His returning strategy is faulty and he is discredit worthily off with his BH consistency. Still, overwhelming credit to Enqvist for the outcome. A match with him in this kind of form against a well playing Andre Agassi would make for quite an encounter