Gustavo Kuerten beat Andre Agassi 6-1, 6-4 in the Miami semi-final, 2000 on hard court
Kuerten would go onto lose the final to Pete Sampras. Agassi was the world number 1 and had recently won the Australian Open
Kuerten won 61 points, Agassi 42
Serve Stats
Kuerten...
- 1st serve percentage (18/50) 36%
- 1st serve points won (17/18) 94%
- 2nd serve points won (21/32) 66%
- Aces 9
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (24/50) 48%
Agassi...
- 1st serve percentage (32/53) 60%
- 1st serve points won (21/32) 66%
- 2nd serve points won (9/21) 43%
- Aces 1
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (17/53) 32%
Serve Patterns
Kuerten served...
- to FH 18%
- to BH 72%
- to Body 10%
Agassi served....
- to FH 47%
- to BH 53%
Return Stats
Kuerten made...
- 36 (16 FH, 20 BH), including 2 return-approaches
- 1 Winner (1 FH)
- 16 Errors, comprising...
- 7 Unforced (3 FH, 4 BH)
- 9 Forced (5 FH, 4 BH)
- Return Rate (36/53) 68%
Agassi made...
- 26 (8 FH, 18 BH), including 3 runaround FHs & 2 return-approaches
- 2 Winners (1 BH)
- 15 Errors, comprising...
- 10 Unforced (3 FH, 7 BH), including 1 runaround FH & 1 return-approach attempt
- 5 Forced (2 FH, 3 BH)
- Return Rate (26/50) 52%
Break Points
Kuerten 3/5 (4 games)
Agassi 0
Winners (including returns, excluding serves)
Kuerten 10 (7 FH, 2 BH, 1 BHV)
Agassi 11 (4 FH, 3 BH, 1 FHV, 1 BHV, 2 OH)
Kuerten's FHs - 2 cc, 2 dtl (1 return), 2 inside-out and 1 longline/inside-in
- BHs - 1 cc and 1 dtl pass
Agassi's FHs - 1 cc, 1 cc/inside-in, 1 inside-in and 1 drop shot
- BHs - 2 dtl (1 return) and 1 inside-in return
Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Kuerten 14
- 9 Unforced (5 FH, 2 BH, 1 FHV, 1 BHV)
- 5 Forced (2 FH, 2 BH, 1 FHV)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 50
Agassi 27
- 23 Unforced (14 FH, 9 BH)
- 4 Forced (3 FH, 1 BH)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 47.8
(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 for these two matches are keyed on 4 categories - 20 defensive, 40 neutral, 50 attacking and 60 winner attempt)
Net Points & Serve-Volley
Kuerten was...
- 2/5 (40%) at net, with...
- 1/2 return-approaching
Agassi was...
- 7/8 (88%) at net, including...
- 1/1 serve-volleying, a 1st serve
---
- 1/2 return-approaching
Match Report
Disappointing match with Agassi being terrible - particular on the return and off the ground, from where he plays wildly - and Kuerten bombing down first serves and able to rely on Agassi spraying the ball out on a fast-ish court
Guga bombs down first serves, looking for unreturnables all the time. One result is very low in-count of 36%. Other is 94% first serves won (17/18), with 14 of those 18 unreturned (9 of them aces). And more broadly, 48% unreturned serves
Not much to be done against the bombed first serves, particulalry for Agassi, whose customary attempt to take big serves early often left him particularly open to being aced or otherwise rendered helpless. On top of that, his movement in returning is considerably off too. Not that being on top of that would necessarily help much against Guga's calibre of first serves
It would help with against the seconds though, and Agassi misses 10 second serve returns too. Even by his standard, he's particularly looking to take them early - near a third off way to service-line. Its a good second serve and very difficult to attack. Agassi's got 2 return winners, but that's about it. Guga with 10/32 2nd serves unreturned. The ones that come back don't do so with much heat other - usually, the advancing Agassi pushing the slighlty wide ball back. He even return-approaches twice... a sign of being in a desperate hurray to be aggressive. Steady head as well as good serving from Guga to have no double faults against an obviously out-for-blood Agassi
With that many unreturned serves, not much left for Guga to do in play. He's usually in good position on third ball and dispatches them as he likes. 0 break points faced by Guga and complete command of his service games
Agassi plays wildly on serve too. He's trying to blast serves down, but doesn't have the accuracy or pace to be overwhelming with it. He serves some pretty hefty second serves - particularly for him, but they'd qualify as good by all but the monstor servers' 2nd serves. Guga, taking returns from sizably behind baseline, is able to return well, swinging the balls back with authority. Still, 32% unreturned rate for Agassi is high. Its not at all a typical slow Miami court. Guga is willing to go for a fair bit on the return to neutralize Agassi's advantage, which has a hand in 7 return UEs, on top of hefty serving by Guga
Agassi looks for third ball winners to a crazy extent. Would be difficult to hit such shots against weak returns (of which there aren't many) more often than not, let alone the strong or good ones Guga makes. Its not just over-aggression though, its also poor aggression. He misses signficant number of putaway balls too. Just 43% second serve points won. The decent 66% first serve points won are all about unreturneds
When return is made, Agassi wins just 13/36 points. Playing with mad aggression. Also doesn't move much or at all well
Around this period, Agassi was apt to play a very percentage conscious game, keeping the ball in play heavily but steadily. And his movement was still decent to good. Here, he plays with fruitcake aggressive abandon and doesn't move much, particular in second set. He takes a medical time out at end of first set where he has his foot treatment. Wholly out of norm play is likely due to physical issues on the day
In play -
- Winners - Guga 10, Agassi 11
- Errors Forced - Guga 4, Agassi 5
- UEs - Guga 9, Agassi 23
Numerically, top notch 10 winners, 9 UEs from Guga. But with Agassi's UEs accounting for 23 points (as opposed to Guga's winners and errors forced's total 14), realistically its more about Agassi being very poor
Despite the extreme aggression, reasonable 47.8 UEFI for Agassi. 11/23 of his UEs are neutral shots (Guga has 4). Rallies are short. Doesn't take much time for Agassi to miss - aggressive or not. Slow movement has a hand in that. Guga isn't particularly secure, its just that Agassi is particularly bad in giving up UEs early. 'Neutral' rallies are however, hard hitting from both sides, thus the errors are relatively not-easy and likely to come sooner rather than later with the ball bashing play. Not enough to justify Agassi's very high error rate though
Struggling to attack, Agassi even comes to net some, winning 7/8. The one he loses is a return-approach. Would be difficult to find ways in regularly against Guga's firm shots
Match Progression
Strangely poor game by Agassi to get broken at start, missing different types of third balls. 1s regulation BH, 1s a mid-court sitter, 1s against a deep-ish return and finally, an attacking shot against a decent return. Lot of variety, but all roads leading out of court
Misses 2 more third balls - 1 a dtl BH, the other a FH inside-out - to get broken again late in the set. Meanwhile, Guga smacking down first serves with abandon, usually missing, but Agassi's making a mess of advanacing second serve returns too. Guga serves out in a deuce game
Agassi takes a medical time out to have a foot looked and re-bandaged between sets
He manages to hold onto serve with difficulty - surviving 8 and 12 point games - comes to net to good effect, while continuing to be over-aggressive. Guga meanwhile if anything, ups the ante on his power serving - and 7/9 of his first serves are aces and the other 2 force errors (in first set, 2/9 were aces and 3 other drew errors)
Break comes near end, and features 2 third ball FH errors - the first a drop shot attemtp and the second on break point, a regulation shot. Guga tanks his last return game and serves out to love with 4 unreturned serves. Last 7 points of match are all unreturned
Summing up, A very poor showing from Agassi. He's in excessive hurry to end points quickly - contrary to his playing style around this period - and very poor at it. It'd be near impossible to be successful going for the shots he does, but he also misses as often as not when winner is there to be hit. Similarly overaggressive on the return - even by his standard - with similar result. Kuerten serves huge and hits a few good winners, but leaving things to Agassi to mess up is gist of match
Kuerten would go onto lose the final to Pete Sampras. Agassi was the world number 1 and had recently won the Australian Open
Kuerten won 61 points, Agassi 42
Serve Stats
Kuerten...
- 1st serve percentage (18/50) 36%
- 1st serve points won (17/18) 94%
- 2nd serve points won (21/32) 66%
- Aces 9
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (24/50) 48%
Agassi...
- 1st serve percentage (32/53) 60%
- 1st serve points won (21/32) 66%
- 2nd serve points won (9/21) 43%
- Aces 1
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (17/53) 32%
Serve Patterns
Kuerten served...
- to FH 18%
- to BH 72%
- to Body 10%
Agassi served....
- to FH 47%
- to BH 53%
Return Stats
Kuerten made...
- 36 (16 FH, 20 BH), including 2 return-approaches
- 1 Winner (1 FH)
- 16 Errors, comprising...
- 7 Unforced (3 FH, 4 BH)
- 9 Forced (5 FH, 4 BH)
- Return Rate (36/53) 68%
Agassi made...
- 26 (8 FH, 18 BH), including 3 runaround FHs & 2 return-approaches
- 2 Winners (1 BH)
- 15 Errors, comprising...
- 10 Unforced (3 FH, 7 BH), including 1 runaround FH & 1 return-approach attempt
- 5 Forced (2 FH, 3 BH)
- Return Rate (26/50) 52%
Break Points
Kuerten 3/5 (4 games)
Agassi 0
Winners (including returns, excluding serves)
Kuerten 10 (7 FH, 2 BH, 1 BHV)
Agassi 11 (4 FH, 3 BH, 1 FHV, 1 BHV, 2 OH)
Kuerten's FHs - 2 cc, 2 dtl (1 return), 2 inside-out and 1 longline/inside-in
- BHs - 1 cc and 1 dtl pass
Agassi's FHs - 1 cc, 1 cc/inside-in, 1 inside-in and 1 drop shot
- BHs - 2 dtl (1 return) and 1 inside-in return
Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Kuerten 14
- 9 Unforced (5 FH, 2 BH, 1 FHV, 1 BHV)
- 5 Forced (2 FH, 2 BH, 1 FHV)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 50
Agassi 27
- 23 Unforced (14 FH, 9 BH)
- 4 Forced (3 FH, 1 BH)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 47.8
(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 for these two matches are keyed on 4 categories - 20 defensive, 40 neutral, 50 attacking and 60 winner attempt)
Net Points & Serve-Volley
Kuerten was...
- 2/5 (40%) at net, with...
- 1/2 return-approaching
Agassi was...
- 7/8 (88%) at net, including...
- 1/1 serve-volleying, a 1st serve
---
- 1/2 return-approaching
Match Report
Disappointing match with Agassi being terrible - particular on the return and off the ground, from where he plays wildly - and Kuerten bombing down first serves and able to rely on Agassi spraying the ball out on a fast-ish court
Guga bombs down first serves, looking for unreturnables all the time. One result is very low in-count of 36%. Other is 94% first serves won (17/18), with 14 of those 18 unreturned (9 of them aces). And more broadly, 48% unreturned serves
Not much to be done against the bombed first serves, particulalry for Agassi, whose customary attempt to take big serves early often left him particularly open to being aced or otherwise rendered helpless. On top of that, his movement in returning is considerably off too. Not that being on top of that would necessarily help much against Guga's calibre of first serves
It would help with against the seconds though, and Agassi misses 10 second serve returns too. Even by his standard, he's particularly looking to take them early - near a third off way to service-line. Its a good second serve and very difficult to attack. Agassi's got 2 return winners, but that's about it. Guga with 10/32 2nd serves unreturned. The ones that come back don't do so with much heat other - usually, the advancing Agassi pushing the slighlty wide ball back. He even return-approaches twice... a sign of being in a desperate hurray to be aggressive. Steady head as well as good serving from Guga to have no double faults against an obviously out-for-blood Agassi
With that many unreturned serves, not much left for Guga to do in play. He's usually in good position on third ball and dispatches them as he likes. 0 break points faced by Guga and complete command of his service games
Agassi plays wildly on serve too. He's trying to blast serves down, but doesn't have the accuracy or pace to be overwhelming with it. He serves some pretty hefty second serves - particularly for him, but they'd qualify as good by all but the monstor servers' 2nd serves. Guga, taking returns from sizably behind baseline, is able to return well, swinging the balls back with authority. Still, 32% unreturned rate for Agassi is high. Its not at all a typical slow Miami court. Guga is willing to go for a fair bit on the return to neutralize Agassi's advantage, which has a hand in 7 return UEs, on top of hefty serving by Guga
Agassi looks for third ball winners to a crazy extent. Would be difficult to hit such shots against weak returns (of which there aren't many) more often than not, let alone the strong or good ones Guga makes. Its not just over-aggression though, its also poor aggression. He misses signficant number of putaway balls too. Just 43% second serve points won. The decent 66% first serve points won are all about unreturneds
When return is made, Agassi wins just 13/36 points. Playing with mad aggression. Also doesn't move much or at all well
Around this period, Agassi was apt to play a very percentage conscious game, keeping the ball in play heavily but steadily. And his movement was still decent to good. Here, he plays with fruitcake aggressive abandon and doesn't move much, particular in second set. He takes a medical time out at end of first set where he has his foot treatment. Wholly out of norm play is likely due to physical issues on the day
In play -
- Winners - Guga 10, Agassi 11
- Errors Forced - Guga 4, Agassi 5
- UEs - Guga 9, Agassi 23
Numerically, top notch 10 winners, 9 UEs from Guga. But with Agassi's UEs accounting for 23 points (as opposed to Guga's winners and errors forced's total 14), realistically its more about Agassi being very poor
Despite the extreme aggression, reasonable 47.8 UEFI for Agassi. 11/23 of his UEs are neutral shots (Guga has 4). Rallies are short. Doesn't take much time for Agassi to miss - aggressive or not. Slow movement has a hand in that. Guga isn't particularly secure, its just that Agassi is particularly bad in giving up UEs early. 'Neutral' rallies are however, hard hitting from both sides, thus the errors are relatively not-easy and likely to come sooner rather than later with the ball bashing play. Not enough to justify Agassi's very high error rate though
Struggling to attack, Agassi even comes to net some, winning 7/8. The one he loses is a return-approach. Would be difficult to find ways in regularly against Guga's firm shots
Match Progression
Strangely poor game by Agassi to get broken at start, missing different types of third balls. 1s regulation BH, 1s a mid-court sitter, 1s against a deep-ish return and finally, an attacking shot against a decent return. Lot of variety, but all roads leading out of court
Misses 2 more third balls - 1 a dtl BH, the other a FH inside-out - to get broken again late in the set. Meanwhile, Guga smacking down first serves with abandon, usually missing, but Agassi's making a mess of advanacing second serve returns too. Guga serves out in a deuce game
Agassi takes a medical time out to have a foot looked and re-bandaged between sets
He manages to hold onto serve with difficulty - surviving 8 and 12 point games - comes to net to good effect, while continuing to be over-aggressive. Guga meanwhile if anything, ups the ante on his power serving - and 7/9 of his first serves are aces and the other 2 force errors (in first set, 2/9 were aces and 3 other drew errors)
Break comes near end, and features 2 third ball FH errors - the first a drop shot attemtp and the second on break point, a regulation shot. Guga tanks his last return game and serves out to love with 4 unreturned serves. Last 7 points of match are all unreturned
Summing up, A very poor showing from Agassi. He's in excessive hurry to end points quickly - contrary to his playing style around this period - and very poor at it. It'd be near impossible to be successful going for the shots he does, but he also misses as often as not when winner is there to be hit. Similarly overaggressive on the return - even by his standard - with similar result. Kuerten serves huge and hits a few good winners, but leaving things to Agassi to mess up is gist of match