Duel Match Stats/Reports - Edberg vs Courier, US & Australian Open finals, 1991 & 1992

[Waspsting]

Stefan Edberg beat Jim Courier 6-2, 6-4, 6-0 in the US Open final, 1991 on hard court

It was Edberg's first US Open title, he would finish the year ranked number 1 for the second year in a row and would go onto defend the title the following year. Courier was the reigning French Open champion. The two would contest the next Australian Open final, with Courier winning

Edberg won 96 points, Courier 59

Edberg serve-volleyed off all first serves and all but 2 second serves

Serve Stats
Edberg...
- 1st serve percentage (37/66) 56%
- 1st serve points won (31/37) 84%
- 2nd serve points won (20/29) 69%
- Aces 3
- Double Faults 1
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (20/66) 30%

Courier...
- 1st serve percentage (49/89) 55%
- 1st serve points won (29/49) 59%
- 2nd serve points won (15/40) 38%
- Aces 3
- Double Faults 4
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (12/89) 13%

Serve Patterns
Edberg served...
- to FH 17%
- to BH 46%
- to Body 37%

Courier served...
- to FH 49%
- to BH 44%
- to Body 7%

Return Stats
Edberg made...
- 73 (39 FH, 34 BH), including 17 return-approaches
- 9 Errors, all unforced...
- 9 Unforced (6 FH, 3 BH), including 3 return-approach attempts
- Return Rate (73/85) 86%

Courier made...
- 45 (11 FH, 34 BH), including 1 runaround FH
- 5 Winners (5 BH)
- 17 Errors, all forced...
- 17 Forced (4 FH, 13 BH)
- Return Rate (45/65) 69%

Break Points
Edberg 6/14 (8 games)
Courier 0/3 (2 games)

Winners (including returns, excluding serves)
Edberg 32 (4 FH, 2 BH, 11 FHV, 7 BHV, 8 OH)
Courier 16 (9 FH, 6 BH, 1 BHV)

Edberg had 19 from serve-volley points
- 9 first 'volleys' (3 FHV, 4 BHV, 1 OH, 1 BH at net)
- 10 second volleys (5 FHV, 5 OH)... 1 OH not clean

- 5 from return-approach points (1 FHV, 2 BHV, 2 OH)

- FHs - 3 cc (1 return, 1 pass - the pass possibly not clean) and 1 lob
- BH pass - 1 cc

Courier's regular FHs - 3 cc, 2 inside-out, 1 inside-in and 1 inside-in/cc
- FH passes - 1 cc at net and 1 lob
- BH return passes - 2 cc, 1 dtl and 2 inside-in (1 possibly not clean)
- regular BH pass - 1 cc (a slice)

- 1 from a serve-volley point, a first volley BHV (a net chord dribbler)

Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Edberg 30
- 15 Unforced (2 FH, 3 BH, 4 FHV, 6 BHV)
- 15 Forced (3 FH, 6 BH, 3 FHV, 3 BHV)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 52.7

Courier 40
- 13 Unforced (10 FH, 1 BH, 1 FHV, 1 BHV)... with 1 FH at net pass attempt
- 27 Forced (7 FH, 16 BH, 2 BHV, 2 BH1/2V)... with 1 BH running-down-drop-shot at net
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 50.8

(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
Edberg was...
- 68/92 (74%) at net, including...
- 46/60 (77%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 28/34 (82%) off 1st serve and...
- 18/26 (69%) off 2nd serve
---
- 9/17 (53%) return-approaching

Courier was...
- 11/24 (46%) at net, including...
- 3/7 (43%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 3/6 (50%) off 1st serve and...
- 0/1 off 2nd serve
---
- 0/1 forced back

Match Report
A top notch Edberg sweeps aside Courier on a quick-ish hard court. Whether Courier plays well or not doesn't really come up... its more like he's not allowed to play at all

Edberg's at net 92 times in matches 155 points. Discounting points he has no scope to come in (i.e. aces and double faults), he's at net 92/144 points or 64% of the time

On his service games, he serve-volleys all but twice - and on both exceptions, he comes in early and wins the points. In return games, he approaches off the return 17 times (not infrequently against first serve and as often as not behind a firm shot or wide shot as a chip) and rallies to net 13 times

1 of the biggest indicators of high quality play is when a player has more winners than total errors. Here, Edberg has 32 winners to 30 errors (15 UEs, 15 FEs)
Usually, this happens when a player has a huge load of unreturned serves. Here, Edberg's is a moderate 30%

The return? He has humongous 86% return rate, though Courier holds back some on his first serve
Purely from the baseline? He has 5 UEs to Courier's 11. Courier also hits plenty of winners and forces errors in a way Edberg doesn't. And of course, Edberg can and does come to net to end points from baseline rallies

He even passes well and keeps Courier to low 46% net points won, forcing 5 errors while Courier has 3 UEs

The harshest thing one can say about Edberg's showing is he's not perfect. 10 volleying UEs isn't small. Courier usually passes firmly at least, and sometimes, more than that, so the errors are on the hard side for being marked UE

Edberg's serve game
Edberg serve-volleys all but always (stays back twice - and comes in quickly off those). Particularly good first serving - better than Courier's - and Courier's rushed and jammed on the return regularly. 84% first serve points won is a good indicator of the quality of the combination of first serve and the volleying behind it

69% second serves won though has something to do with Courier's returning. There's scope for better returning against it than Courier manages

Very body and body-ishly cramping serving from Edberg. Rarely does he throw a serve out wide. He's sent 37% to body and bulk of the remainder is close to body. Rarely does he open the court or look to stretch Courier out. And avoids the Courier FH, serving just 17% there (virtually all of which is close to body)

Courier's regularly jammed to return against first serves (credit Edberg's serve) and to lesser extent against seconds (room for improvement for Courier). Still, he returns at healthy against full serve-volleying 69% return rate

Courier returns are mostly at least firm and taken on up. He's around baseline to take first serves and a bit further up against seconds. Doesn't get many balls wide, but good, solid firmly struck balls around net high for Edberg to deal with. With a small number under the net too

Edberg's almost flawless on the volley. The few balls over net are whisked away. The firm stuff around net high or even under are volleyed into corners leaving hopeless running passes. The odd ones that aren't volleyed too far from Courier are deep and punched through perfectly. Courier scarcely sees a stationary pass let alone one he can line up while returning - and whatever he can get back in play, Edberg can dispatch easily.

Very good from Edberg against the challengingly powerful returns or/and passes too. Not only does he rarely miss (he has 6 FEs), but gets those good and deep too. Courier plays with lobs and Edberg dispatches the OHs, a couple of them awkwardly difficult balls

 

[Waspsting]

Courier's serve game
Distinctly average serving from Courier. First serves are typically slower than Edberg's and almost never placed wide. Whereas Edberg looks to cramp Courier by serving close to body, Courier serves freely in Edberg's swing zone. A decent second serve though for someone not coming in behind it... likely wary of Edberg's return-approach counter

In general, Courier's a significantly better server than what he shows in this match. He holds back on the firsts initially and has a short phase where he tries to bang them down in the second, which makes clear how much he held back earlier (and as it turns out, later). He usually misses these big first serves and as his seconds are constantly attacked (he wins just 38% second serve points). Very low 13% return rate - and all 9 of Edberg's return errors have been marked unforced

Edberg returns first serves from well behind baseline and has a good swing at them. He steps up for the seconds and initially, looks to chip-charge them. As match wears on and Edberg grows in confidence and builds a bigger lead to fall back on, he grows bolder and bolder. He's return-approaching even against first serves. Usually, these aren't pre-mediated. Having hit wide or/and particularly deep, he dashes to net behind the return. He picks and chooses which returns to come in behind, and bails on a small number

Return-approaching is only area of net play where Edberg is less than stellar
- serve-volleying - he wins 77% of points
- rallying to net - he wins 87%
- return-approaching - just 53%... and most of his 10 UEs are from there

That's an indication of what Courier can do when he can hit pass from stable position. Also due to Edberg' speed in getting to net... he's there in a flash, and if he weren't, errors would probably be marked FE

Courier tries a few different things while serving. Initially, he looks to beat down Edberg with big FHs as he likes to. Edberg neutral FH is feeble - just popping balls back in court - and Courier's is a sledgehammer. Courier's got 7 baseline-to-baseline FH winners, but also 9 UEs. Edberg has just 2 UEs, but does no damage

Its Courier who leads baseline rallies and its his choice to play beat-down with FHs and eschew BH, which is in line with both his preferences and Edberg's perceived weak FH. In this match, Edberg's FH is soft enough to invite it

Almost no BH-BH play, and UEs on that side read Edberg 3, Courier 1. Edberg's would be attempted approach shots.... BH neutral play makes up negligible amount of play. Not a bad choice from Courier given his large hitting advantage on the FH and Edberg's ability to manufacture approaches off the BH, but though soft of look, Edberg's FH holds up quite well. He has to do a good amount of running around and is often well behind baseline as Courier steps forward to pound balls

Courier tries a few other things. He serve-volleys a bit, coming in 7 times and approaches 17 times from rallying (which is twice more than Edberg). Of course, he has much more scope to do so since he's in leading position from baseline. Edberg's groundies are feeble enough looking that one wouldn't expect him to hit good passes. Only he gets a good lot in low - dippingly, not powerfully and probably not by choice - and Courier struggles in forecourt, winning just 46% net points. Courier's net play is hesitant and he's easily scared off from trying more by odd tricky volleys he faces up front

He tries banging down big serves for awhile, but usually misses first serve and sticks to moderate serving. At no time does he try to just outlast Edberg, which is a good idea. Edberg's ability to manufacture an approach from anything not intensely hit is excellent. Some wonderful, sneak in approaches too

Match Progression
Edberg breaks to move ahead 2-1 in a 20 point game, where his quick-dash approaches are highly effective

Courier has 2 break chances shortly after in a 10 point game where Edberg misses 7 first serves. Some powerful returns from Courier there - including 2 BH inside-in winners - but Edberg proves up to handling the power hits on the volley to hold

Edberg breaks again right after, wrapping up a perfect FH lob winner, a FH cc return winner and an approach to force a passing error

Courier plays more aggressively in second set. He serves harder (returns keep coming back like clockwork anyway) and looks for point ending shots from the back. Edberg meanwhile raises his first serve in count drastically from 39% in first set to 68% and cruises on serve. The break comes early to 15, mostly due to back-to-back double faults, though Edberg finishes with a return-approach ending with a BHV winner

Courier lobs more and more. Some tricky OHs, but Edberg's up to putting them away

A difficult serve out for Edberg. He makes just 2/10 first serves and Courier hammers returns. Edberg's forced into 2 volley errors (also has 1 UE), but his excellent volleys against forceful passes - including an inside-out BHV winner to a powerful, low-ish return and down break point, a back-pedalling OH on full stretch, which he's not in control of

Starting in second set, Edberg wins 11 straight points. Edberg's like a shark having smelt blood and looks to come in early and from regulation positions, making a few errors so doing and return-approach more often than previously. He does so before Courier can get into any groove hitting a few balls from the back and is left to make passes. And Edberg's on top his volleying. Down 0-4, Courier looks to come in himself but get broken again anyway before Edberg serves it out

Summing up, top class, seamless, making-the-game-so-easy showing from Edberg. On serve, he ties up Courier with body-ish serving and volleys everything into corners or punched through hard, leaving next to impossible passes against firm returning. Returns with impeccable consistency and return-approaches with the same judgement. From the baseline, hangs tight against heavy hitting while making quick dashes to net from even positions where he continues to volley flawlessly

Not a whole lot wrong from Courier. Serve isn't strong, but not as negligible as its made to look. Decent, challenging returns, which are also made to look inadequate. Good, hard hitting groundstrokes but even then his opponent finds a way to net. Essentially, Edberg doesn't let him play

Stats for Edberg's semi with Ivan Lendl - Tri Match Stats/Reports - Edberg vs Lendl, US Open semi-final, 1991, Australian Open & US Open quarter-finals, 1992 | Talk Tennis (tennis-warehouse.com)

 

[HBK4life]

This was like someone smothering a person with a pillow. Edberg woke up right that day.

 

[bluetrain4]

This was probably Edberg's big-stage peak. Just a masterful performance. He normally had a lot of trouble with JC. And there was some talk about how he might never win the USO - nothing ever seemed to go right for years. That he turned around and absolutely grinded out a defense of the title the next year is even more impressive.

 

[andreh]

I've heard Edberg say in a few interviews that he considers this to be the best individual match he ever played.

 

[muddlehead]

Just finished reading a 1991 book by Eliot Berry which discusses this match.. From Edberg's post match presser.

"I was very disappointed last year and very lucky this year. We did not go into the city this year but stayed on Long Island in a home, not a hotel room, and that made a big difference. How was it for me playing today? It was almost like a dream. The tension did not come at all. It feels like a relief now., but I was so relaxed the whole time. It was a feeling like the first two sets against Becker at Wimbledon last year. I could do nothing wrong."

 

[Waspsting]

In 1992, Courier beat Edberg 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 in the Australian Open final on hard court

Courier would follow up by defending his French Open title and finishing the year ranked number 1. The two would meet again in the final the following year, with Courier again winning

Courier won 130 points, Edberg 111

Edberg serve-volleyed off all first serves and all but 4 seconds

Serve Stats
Courier...
- 1st serve percentage (79/118) 67%
- 1st serve points won (52/79) 66%
- 2nd serve points won (26/39) 67%
- Aces 3, Service Winners 1 (a second serve)
- Double Faults 2
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (32/118) 27%

Edberg...
- 1st serve percentage (78/123) 63%
- 1st serve points won (52/78) 67%
- 2nd serve points won (19/45) 42%
- Aces 2
- Double Faults 7
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (33/123) 27%

Serve Patterns
Courier served...
- to FH 34%
- to BH 53%
- to Body 14%

Edberg served...
- to FH 13%
- to BH 67%
- to Body 20%

Return Stats
Courier made...
- 83 (17 FH, 66 BH)
- 13 Winners (3 FH, 10 BH)
- 31 Errors, all forced...
- 31 Forced (2 FH, 29 BH)
- Return Rate (83/116) 72%

Edberg made...
- 84 (37 FH, 47 BH), including 1 runaround FH & 17 return-approaches
- 1 Winner (1 FH)
- 28 Errors, comprising...
- 16 Unforced (4 FH, 12 BH), including 1 runaround FH & 5 return-approach attempts
- 12 Forced (3 FH, 9 BH)
- Return Rate (84/116) 72%

Break Points
Courier 5/14 (8 games)
Edberg 2/11 (5 games)

Winners (including returns, excluding serves)
Courier 46 (15 FH, 23 BH, 2 FHV, 2 BHV, 4 OH)
Edberg 33 (7 FH, 1 BH, 10 FHV, 11 BHV, 4 OH)

Courier had 31 passes (18 FH, 23 BH)
- FH returns - 2 cc
- BH returns - 4 cc, 2 dtl, 1 inside-out, 1 inside-in, 2 longline (1 Edberg left, 1 possibly not clean)
- regular FH passes - 4 cc (1 at net), 1 dtl and 1 longline
- regular BH passes - 2 cc (1 at net), 10 dtl (1 net chord pop over) and 1 lob

- regular FHs - 2 cc (1 return), 1 cc/inside-in, 2 inside-out (1 at net) and 2 inside-in

Edberg had 22 from serve-volley points
- 13 first 'volleys' (4 FHV, 7 BHV, 2 OH)... 1 OH was a forced back, on the bounce baseline shot
- 7 second volleys (4 FHV, 1 BHV, 2 OH)
- 2 third 'volleys' (1 FHV, 1 FH at net)... the FH at net was also a pass

- 1 from a return-approach point (1 FHV)

- FHs - 1 cc return, 1 dtl pass at net, 1 dtl/inside-out pass, 1 longline pass and 2 lobs
- BH - 1 dtl pass

Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Courier 43
- 18 Unforced (13 FH, 2 BH, 1 FHV, 1 BHV, 1 OH)... with 1 FH pass attempt & 2 FH at net
- 25 Forced (12 FH, 9 BH, 1 FHV, 2 BHV, 1 BHOH)... with 1 FH at net pass attempt & 1 BH running-down-drop-shot at net
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 50

Edberg 45
- 22 Unforced (4 FH, 7 BH, 2 FHV, 6 BHV, 2 OH)... with 1 FH at net
- 23 Forced (2 FH, 3 BH, 6 FHV, 2 FH1/2V, 10 BHV, 1 BHOH)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 52.3

(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
Courier was...
- 17/34 (50%) at net, including...
- 2/3 (67%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 1/2 off 1st serve and....
- 1/1 off 2nd serve

Edberg was...
- 85/146 (58%) at net, including...
- 67/110 (61%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 50/76 (66%) off 1st serve and...
- 17/34 (50%) off 2nd serve
---
- 6/17 (35%) return-approaching
- 2/2 forced back

Match Report
Great match - from both players and with play along near identical lines to the US Open final. Court seems a bit slower and its sunny and apparently very hot

Match is exciting. Servers hold most of the time as they should, but returners are able to get into games reasonably often too. It makes for a good watch

Match is close too, more so than the scoreline might indicate. Upton the very end of third set, the two are neck and neck, with both playing outstanding tennis. Serving at 4-5, Edberg plays a poor game. An easy first 'volley' FH at net miss costs him and he double faults twice from deuce to lose the set

4th set is the only one where one player is clearly ahead of the other. Edberg is either tiring, mentally down or both in it, Courier remains strong and maintains his hard hitting, high quality. With Edberg's level dropping, Courier storms ahead to win it comfortably.

Using the US Open match as a frame of reference, Courier's showing is a beefed up one. Very clean hitting from Courier - on the return, on the pass and even baseline-to-baseline

Edberg's serve game
Edberg plays his game too, serve-volleying all but 4 times (and 2 of those are in the last game of the match), return-approaching regularly (about equally against Courier's 2 serves). He's driven to return-approach so much because finding net from baseline rallies is a tall order, with Courier constantly battering the ball. He doesn't volley quite as well as previous match (which wouldn't be reasonable to expect) but still does so very well. Primarily credit to Courier for the difference in Edberg's results at net

Comparing basic net figures across the two matches - the US Open on the leftt, this one on right -
1st serve-volleying 82%.... 66%
2nd serve-volleying 69%.... 50%
return-approaching 53%..... 35%
rallying to net 13/15 or 87%.... 12/19 or 63%

Not much difference in Edberg's serving. Serves at higher percentage here (63% to 56%). Still serves a lot to the body and around it. Similar unreturned rates (US Open +3%, with 6 more double faults here). Courier's still taking the first serve return from the baseline and stepping up a bit against seconds. Only at the very end does Edberg's serving strength drop, when he appears tired. This court is a bit slower maybe but certainly not drastically so

The main difference is in Courier's ball striking.

- On return, he belts the ball hard and wide and connects cleanly more often. Especially against second serve. He's got 12 return-pass winners. He's able to get the return wide more often than US Open and on top of facing powerful returns, Edberg's stretched out to make the volleys too

This time, it's Courier with more winners than total errors 46 -43 - like Edberg in previous match, outstanding

Edberg volleys well. Anything there to be putaway is putaway. The regulation height volleys down the middle are hard hit and Edberg isn't at his best in controlling the volley. He volleys away from Courier, but not infrequently, short of into corners as he generally tends to and Courier's able to reach the ball and have a crack at the pass

9 UEs in forecourt for Edberg, compared to 10 in US Open
Its on the FEs that there's a big difference. In US Open, it was just 6. Here its 19 and most are very, very difficult volleys. He didn't face volleys like this in earlier match - powerfully hit wide passes or powerfully hit to the feet. And that's while volleying well enough to make a sizable chunk of such volleys, which is no mean feat

To be clear, amidst the return winners and winning passing shots, Edberg still has advantage with unreturned serves, whisking away volleys above net and coping with tough volleys. Courier gets his hits in regularly enough though to be a threat to break almost all match

Alternatives for Edberg?
In general, Edberg likes to lead with body-ish serving, while his serve isn't fast enough to necessarily jam the returner. Or for that matter, precise enough to be dead on the line of body. In other words, returner can reach ball without difficulty. The advantage to Edberg is that there's little angle for returner to pass him, and returns come to predictable position. The potential disadvantage is returner is left in central-ish position, so fewer easy volleys into wide open court for him to make. That's a significant disadvantage, but for him, it doesn't matter too much as he's usually able to make do with little space

Still, I've found him to be more effective still when serving out wide to open the court and volleying into it and using the body-ish serving as a change up (as opposed to the other way around).

In this match, the serving strategy isn't working - Courier's hammering returns such that on power alone, its tricky to control the first volley against regulation placed, down-the-middle & around-net-high returns. And there's plenty of wide returns that just go through for winners (12 of them) or present very difficult volleys that are likely to force errors (as they do)

No changes from Edberg. He carries on serving close to Courier - and keeps dealing with thumping returns. He also doesn't go for anything extra on the serve - of power or placement - when in a hole either. I don't think he was capable. If he was, surely he would try an ace or service winner? Instead, he serves about the same pace and placement all match, but for end when fatigue is likely the cause for pace dropping slightly

Given how hard Courier swings at the returns, its risky to go wide if you can't get it wide enough to stretch him. In hindsight, it was worth the risk. The way Courier returned, it seemed sooner or later a break would come

 

[Waspsting]

Courier's service games
Courier's service games are similar to previous match also. Courier serves heftily but almost always in Edberg's swing zone. Initially, there's room for improvement in Edberg's BH returning and he misses a sizable number of regulation returns. He finishes with 12 BH return UEs. As match wears on, Edberg returns very surely and the Courier turns to going for wider and genuinely forceful serves

From the baseline, Courier hammers the ball, off both sides. Its beat down play and largely successful. Not only is Edberg pushed back to at least reactive position (and often defensive), he's kept away from net

Courier primarily leads with powerful FHs to boss play and Edberg's FH looks feeble. Courier has 6 baseline-to-baseline winners off his FH and pins Edberg back, but also match high 13 UEs. While Edberg's FH does negligible damage, it proves very steady with match low 4 UEs. And despite the power, Courier can't force errors out of Edberg from the back either (just 4 baseline FEs for Edberg, most of them passes)

In short, like Edberg's service games, there's enough going on from the returner to regularly have chances to break, but play is on Courier's racquet. Edberg's pinned back to the extent that he takes to return-approaching whenever he hits a particularly deep return against first serve

Courier's best passing comes against the returning approaching Edberg. He hits some amazing passing winners off the BH against deep balls when not fully set. All credit to Courier for keeping Edberg to just 6/17 return-approach points won and that's leaving aside the 5 errors he has trying. Courier thwarting this play is one of main keys to the match. He ends up winning just more second serve points won than firsts

Match Progression
Excellent first set from both players. Courier returns powerfully, giving Edberg not-easy to control volleys even at net height. Edberg though, manages. Edberg's second serves though are punished harder still

Edberg struggles a little bit to return consistently and Courier's apt to beat him down from the back with FHs, advance gradually and go for kill shot from well inside-court. He also comes to net a good amount

Just the 1 break in game 6. Edberg misses a couple of regulation volleys and double faults in it. Edberg has a break point as Courier serves out the set on which he misses a neutral BH

Action changes a bit in second set. Edberg returns more consistently, but continues to get bossed from the back. Courier starts missing returns but is very punishing on the pass against any imperfect volleys. Edberg's always ahead though after breaking right at start in game where he hits two perfect FH lob winners. Again, the serve-out isn't easy and Edberg has to save 2 break points to level the match

Players trade breaks to start the third. Courier's break back is a particularly brutal game. Set continues with both players in top form. The ending is anti-climactic. Serving at 4-5, 30-15, Edberg misses an easy FH at net and back to back double faults gives the set to Courier

Fourth set is the only one in match that isn't particularly good. Edberg appears to be tiring, his serve weakens and his movements drop a touch. Courier's level probably doesn't change but looks better due to drop in Edberg's. He continues hammering returns and for first time in match, it looks easy. From 2-2, Courier wins the last 4 games to end the match, finishing with back-to-back cc return pass winners of either wing

Summing up, excellent match from both players. Courier's BH returning and passing in particular is outstanding and he hammers the ball to keep Edberg back. Edberg scampers and resists being beat down on the baseline while doing his usual silky serve-volleying, but the returns come back too hard too often for comfort

Very little in it for all but 3 sets - a short run of very poor misses from Edberg gives Courier the 2 sets to 1 lead and he's the physically stronger player to dominate after that

Stats for Edberg's quarter-final with Ivan Lendl - (8) Tri Match Stats/Reports - Edberg vs Lendl, US Open semi-final, 1991, Australian Open & US Open quarter-finals, 1992 | Talk Tennis (tennis-warehouse.com)
Stats for third round match between John McEnroe and Boris Becker - (8) Match Stats/Report - McEnroe vs Becker, Australian Open third round, 1992 | Talk Tennis (tennis-warehouse.com)