McEnroe d. Nystrom 6-1, 6-0, 7-5
I had never seen any part of this match, but I remember vividly the reaction to it. Rino Tommasi gave an interview on CBS and said, almost casually and to wide agreement, that if McEnroe played as he did in the first two sets against Nystrom, no one was going to beat him.
However, to me McEnroe looks better – faster – in the previous year’s final than he does here.
Mac lost 3 points on his serve in the first set. He broke Nystrom five times in the last two sets. McEnroe himself was broken twice, both times in the third set.
Steve Wynyard was in the chair. He ordered a point to be replayed that had put McEnroe up 3-love in the third. Nystrom held; he had not won a game since the second game of the match. McEnroe was broken in the next game for the first time in the match, and lost his next service game. In all Nystrom won 5 games in a row and took a 5-2 lead in the third (with a set point on his serve at 5-3). But McEnroe then won 5 straight games to close out the match.
McEnroe was never quite happy – certainly not as serene as he was in 1984. Watching this match I decided that McEnroe, not Lendl, is the grouchiest tennis player I’ve ever seen.
Nystrom had just beaten Becker in the 4th round. He'd beaten McEnroe in 3 straight sets in Dallas and taken Becker to 5 at Wimbledon. He was a good doubles player who could volley.
McEnroe had defeated Nystrom 7-5 in the fifth in Paris.
My count:
I've edited these stats and they are now complete; I used a French-language version of the USA television coverage, recently uploaded to YouTube, that contained the games I had been missing.
McEnroe had 9 aces and 6 doubles.
Nystrom had 4 aces and 2 doubles.
I gave McEnroe 7 service winners, Nystrom 1.
McEnroe had 27 winners: 5 FH, 7 BH, 9 FHV, 4 BHV, 2 overheads.
Nystrom had 21 winners: 12 FH, 7 BH, 2 FHV, 0 BHV, 0 overheads.
McEnroe made three service return winners off his backhand side; one was off Nystrom’s first serve and was a pass. McEnroe also made 3 BH passes and 1 FH.
Nystrom did not make a service return winner until the third set, when he knocked off McEnroe’s second serve once with a forehand and his first serve twice with backhands; all of these were passes. He also had 13 passing shots that were not returns: 11 forehands and 2 backhands. Finally, he had two winning BH lobs in the third set.
McEnroe was broken twice, Nystrom 8 times.
At 5-love in the second per USA, they were both serving at 63%.
A boxscore printed in the Tampa Tribune:
Following the boxscore:
They played 196 points in 25 games, a very high average of 7.84 per game.
McEnroe won 55 of 84 points on serve (65.48%), Nystrom 51 of 112 (45.54%).
McEnroe held in 11 of 13 service games (serving exactly 1 ace per game), Nystrom in 4 of 12.
Each man converted 33% of break points.
Peter Alfano in the New York Times:
I had never seen any part of this match, but I remember vividly the reaction to it. Rino Tommasi gave an interview on CBS and said, almost casually and to wide agreement, that if McEnroe played as he did in the first two sets against Nystrom, no one was going to beat him.
However, to me McEnroe looks better – faster – in the previous year’s final than he does here.
Mac lost 3 points on his serve in the first set. He broke Nystrom five times in the last two sets. McEnroe himself was broken twice, both times in the third set.
Steve Wynyard was in the chair. He ordered a point to be replayed that had put McEnroe up 3-love in the third. Nystrom held; he had not won a game since the second game of the match. McEnroe was broken in the next game for the first time in the match, and lost his next service game. In all Nystrom won 5 games in a row and took a 5-2 lead in the third (with a set point on his serve at 5-3). But McEnroe then won 5 straight games to close out the match.
McEnroe was never quite happy – certainly not as serene as he was in 1984. Watching this match I decided that McEnroe, not Lendl, is the grouchiest tennis player I’ve ever seen.
Nystrom had just beaten Becker in the 4th round. He'd beaten McEnroe in 3 straight sets in Dallas and taken Becker to 5 at Wimbledon. He was a good doubles player who could volley.
McEnroe had defeated Nystrom 7-5 in the fifth in Paris.
My count:
I've edited these stats and they are now complete; I used a French-language version of the USA television coverage, recently uploaded to YouTube, that contained the games I had been missing.
McEnroe had 9 aces and 6 doubles.
Nystrom had 4 aces and 2 doubles.
I gave McEnroe 7 service winners, Nystrom 1.
McEnroe had 27 winners: 5 FH, 7 BH, 9 FHV, 4 BHV, 2 overheads.
Nystrom had 21 winners: 12 FH, 7 BH, 2 FHV, 0 BHV, 0 overheads.
McEnroe made three service return winners off his backhand side; one was off Nystrom’s first serve and was a pass. McEnroe also made 3 BH passes and 1 FH.
Nystrom did not make a service return winner until the third set, when he knocked off McEnroe’s second serve once with a forehand and his first serve twice with backhands; all of these were passes. He also had 13 passing shots that were not returns: 11 forehands and 2 backhands. Finally, he had two winning BH lobs in the third set.
McEnroe was broken twice, Nystrom 8 times.
At 5-love in the second per USA, they were both serving at 63%.
A boxscore printed in the Tampa Tribune:
Following the boxscore:
They played 196 points in 25 games, a very high average of 7.84 per game.
McEnroe won 55 of 84 points on serve (65.48%), Nystrom 51 of 112 (45.54%).
McEnroe held in 11 of 13 service games (serving exactly 1 ace per game), Nystrom in 4 of 12.
Each man converted 33% of break points.
Peter Alfano in the New York Times:
When John McEnroe is at his best, it really doesn't matter who is standing across the net. On the nights when his serve is accurate and he hits his volleys with a surgeon's touch, then the fans who anticipated a tennis match have to settle for a one-man exhibition instead. On nights like these, the only player who can beat McEnroe is himself.
After struggling in the early rounds of the United States Open, McEnroe was mostly brilliant last night, defeating Joakim Nystrom of Sweden, 6-1, 6-0, 7-5. He lost only three points on his serve in the first set and broke Nystrom five times in the first two sets. The crowd of 19,145 who had hoped the quarterfinal round would mark the anticipated meeting between McEnroe and Boris Becker -the Wimbledon champion - were simply hoping that Nystrom would arrive before the match was over.
They applauded politely for McEnroe but clearly were disappointed that Nystrom wasn't making this a night to remember. ''I played great tennis for two sets, about as good as I can play,'' McEnroe said, ''and there was scattered applause. What do they want to see, 7-5, in the fifth set of a terrible match or something special?''
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