Albert Costa beat Alex Corretja 6-2, 6-0, 1-0 retired in the Hamburg final, 1998 on clay
It would be Costa’s only Masters title. He was unseeded and would finish runner-up shortly afterwards in Rome. Corretja had previously been runner-up at the event in 1996 and would be runner-up at upcoming French Open
Costa won 66 points, Corretja 34
Corretja serve-volleyed half the time off first serves
Serve Stats
Costa...
- 1st serve percentage (41/50) 82%
- 1st serve points won (30/41) 73%
- 2nd serve points won (5/9) 56%
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (7/50) 14%
Corretja...
- 1st serve percentage (25/50) 50%
- 1st serve points won (12/25) 48%
- 2nd serve points won (7/25) 28%
- Aces 1
- Double Faults 2
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (4/50) 8%
Serve Patterns
Costa served...
- to FH 24%
- to BH 74%
- to Body 2%
Corretja served...
- to FH 25%
- to BH 71%
- to Body 4%
Return Stats
Costa made...
- 44 (17 FH, 27 BH), including 5 runaround FHs
- 3 Winners (2 FH, 1 BH)
- 3 Errors, all forced...
- 3 Forced (1 FH, 2 BH)
- Return Rate (44/48) 92%
Corretja made...
- 43 (11 FH, 32 BH), including 2 runaround FHs & 1 return-approach
- 1 Winner (1 FH)
- 7 Errors, comprising...
- 4 Unforced (2 FH, 2 BH), including 1 return-approach attempt
- 3 Forced (1 FH, 2 BH)
- Return Rate (43/50) 86%
Break Points
Costa 6/9 (7 games)
Corretja 1/5 (4 games)
Winners (including returns, excluding serves)
Costa 27 (15 FH, 6 BH, 2 FHV, 1 BHV, 3 OH)
Corretja 14 (5 FH, 1 BH, 2 FHV, 1 BHV, 5 OH)
Costa's FHs - 3 cc (2 return passes), 2 cc/inside-in, 4 dtl, 1 inside-out pass, 1 inside-out/dtl, 3 inside-in, 1 drop shot
- BHs - 2 cc (1 pass), 2 dtl (1 return pass), 1 longline pass, 1 lob
- 1 from a serve-volley point, a first volley BHV
- 1 other FHV was a lob
Corretja's FHs - 2 cc (1 return, 1 at net), 1 inside-out, 1 inside-in, 1 drop shot
- BH - 1 drop shot
- 3 from serve-volley points - 2 first volleys (1 FHV, 1 OH) & 1 third volley (1 OH)
Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Costa 16
- 12 Unforced (8 FH, 4 BH)... with 1 BH pass attempt
- 4 Forced (3 FH, 1 BH)... with 1 FH running-down-drop-shot at net
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 49.2
Corretja 30
- 22 Unforced (14 FH, 5 BH, 2 FHV, 1 BHV)
- 8 Forced (3 FH, 2 BH, 1 FHV, 1 FH1/2V, 1 BH1/2V)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 49.1
(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
Costa was...
- 8/9 (89%) at net, including...
- 1/1 serve-volleying, a 1st serve
Corretja was...
- 16/31 (52%) at net, including...
- 6/16 (38%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 5/12 (42%) off 1st serves and...
- 1/4 (25%) off 2nd serve
---
- 0/1 return-approaching
- 0/1 retreated
Match Report
Something’s wrong with Corretja and he’s sluggish of movement even at start and eventually quits. Comfily outplayed from baseline, he serve-volleys more and more until its almost all the time by the end, including more often off second serves, which doesn’t go well either
Not sure what’s wrong with him. Looks more like he’s just physically weak, the way a person gets when they have a fever, more than any specific injury. He doesn’t give chase to gettable balls from early in the match and is slow in moving
Footworks not bad and neither is his hitting. And to be clear, he’s not a standing duck, he does move, just not quickly
Breaks once and has break points in 4/8 return games. Including the last game of the match, after which, during change-over, he pulls the plug
Harmless serve from Costa, so making the return is easy and Cor able to win decent chunk of the slow rallies that follow. “Slow” as in normal, loopy clay stuff
Cor’s appetite for those isn’t big and he looks to rally to net. Not desperately and not in a mad rush, but sooner or later, when there’s a chance. Which, were he healthy, he’ d probably forego to trade a few more groundies
Costa likes his FHs, and moves over to play them most of the time. Inside-in is his best weapon and he gets a few good dtl shots off too. Shots that would normally yield a testing running FH that a good clay courter like Cor puts in play defensively more often than not
Here, they go for winners, with Cor not moving for them
Unretunred serves - Costa 14%, Cor 8%
Costa’s serve is point starter with no demons to it. He draws a few aggressive return errors. In his first service game, Cor serves considerably stronger (though still not too troubling), but eases back to Costa levels. Including when he’s serve-volleying
Baseline action is FH oriented, with that side having combined 22 UEs to just 9 BHs. Costa moving over to play them without strain to balls on his BH too
Off the FH -
Costa has match high 15 winners - more than Cor’s total of 14
Cor has match high 14 UEs - more than Costa’s total of 12
Tells you all you need to know about baseline contest
Some nice shots from Costa. dtl has most winners with 4, followed by inside-in with 3. He’s obviously a big FH preferring player, but doesn’t seem to be an inside-out guy. He likes to hit into open court aggressively (which with Cor’s movements leads to winners), not look to beat-down or hit through Cor. Same type of thing in his ‘96 Monte Carlo final with Thomas Muster, who most definitely wasn’t injured/sick or easy meat for shot-making
Lacking Costa’s shot-making and not being powerful, Cor looks for net to finish. He doesn’t manufacture approaches, he comes in after gaining advantage from back
Rallying to net - Cor 10/14, Costa 7/8
Those net points for Cor correspond to Costa’s FH shot-making and winners. Like some old Lendl-Wilander matches
Also takes to serve-volleying more and more. By the end, he’s serve-volleyed a full 50% of the time off first serves. For that matter, 4/22 times off second serves, when that figure would usually be 0
Serve is weak, Costa has time to put the return wide, Cor isn’t too good on the volley (3 UEs) and it doesn’t go well for him. Just 38% serve-volleying points won
Does about as well serve-volleying as not. Off first serves, Cor wins 5/12 serve-volleying and 6/12 not - and 1 of the latter is a ‘delayed’ serve-volley (coming in off third ball, after seeing the return is weak). And obviously, not well doing either
Match Progression
After Costa holds to love to open, there’s a FH shoot out in Cor’s first game - UEs, wide FEs, winners - but all FHs and FH play, with Costa edging ahead. Its net play that gets Cor through to hold. His first serve-volley gets him return-passed FH cc (why serve-volley to the FH out wide to the guy who obviously loves his wide FHs?), next one comes away with a first OH winner
Lovely, wide BH cc to set up another trip to net, another OH winner and he holds with a delayed, third ball approach FHV winner
Costa holds to love again, and Cor’s broken quickly missing attacking FHs. But breaks right back for 2-3, with Cost missing FHs
And that’s that for Cor. Loses next 10 games before retiring
Its not as bad as it could be, given the above. He remains competitive, gets into return games, doesn’t roll over in service ones either
Lovely, sharpy angled BH cc winner from Costa next game is pick of game. He finishes with blistering FH dtl winner and slicing BH dtl return pass one to break
Missed FHs see him down break point next game, and he serve-volleys for only time in match to save it with a BHV winner, before wrapping with another pair of FH winners (drop shot and third ball inside-in). Another return pass winner brings up break/set point next game - again, FH cc from deuce court. Cor might need serve-out wide to give him better chance to make a winning first volley, but out to Costa’s FH with that serve is just daft. Cor misses FH dtl winner attempt to give up the set
More and more net play and serve-volleying from Cor as second set goes on. He doesn’t look much worse than he did earlier in terms of health, but is getting slower and is barely at service line following a light serve when serve-volleying. With normal movement, he would be perfectly at net - though its doubtful that would do him any good, with Costa having comfy time to pick his spot with the return
Couple of lovely drop shot winners from Cor, but they’re little gems amidst a lot of dirt. He has 2 break points in game 5 (brought up by Costa missing a sitter BH pass from near service line). Lovely BH lob winner against return-approach wipes away the first, and a winning BH dtl does for the next
Despite his preference and proficiency for the the FH, Costa has a lovely BH. Its not tested much, but is good of form and also capable of shot-making
BH dtl winner brings up set/break point awhile later, on which Cor’s forced into FH1/2V error serve-volleying
Cor has a break point in opening game of the third, which Costa takes net to FHV winner away. He ends the game, again, with a pair of FH winners - FH cc and after running Cor about, FH inside-in
Cor decides at the change-over enough is enough and calls it quits
Summing, up, easy match with Corretja very out of sorts but not short of entertainment value. Cost isn’t pressured, but displays some beautiful FH shot-making, while moving over to play FHs regularly. Despite that, his BH is graceful, steady and also capable of finding spots where the slow Corretja isn’t
Corretja is sluggish of movement and not tough to get errors from. Turns to net play and serve-volleying to shorten points, but serve is soft and his movement to net no better than around baseline, allowing Costa time to pass him without much trouble
It would be Costa’s only Masters title. He was unseeded and would finish runner-up shortly afterwards in Rome. Corretja had previously been runner-up at the event in 1996 and would be runner-up at upcoming French Open
Costa won 66 points, Corretja 34
Corretja serve-volleyed half the time off first serves
Serve Stats
Costa...
- 1st serve percentage (41/50) 82%
- 1st serve points won (30/41) 73%
- 2nd serve points won (5/9) 56%
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (7/50) 14%
Corretja...
- 1st serve percentage (25/50) 50%
- 1st serve points won (12/25) 48%
- 2nd serve points won (7/25) 28%
- Aces 1
- Double Faults 2
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (4/50) 8%
Serve Patterns
Costa served...
- to FH 24%
- to BH 74%
- to Body 2%
Corretja served...
- to FH 25%
- to BH 71%
- to Body 4%
Return Stats
Costa made...
- 44 (17 FH, 27 BH), including 5 runaround FHs
- 3 Winners (2 FH, 1 BH)
- 3 Errors, all forced...
- 3 Forced (1 FH, 2 BH)
- Return Rate (44/48) 92%
Corretja made...
- 43 (11 FH, 32 BH), including 2 runaround FHs & 1 return-approach
- 1 Winner (1 FH)
- 7 Errors, comprising...
- 4 Unforced (2 FH, 2 BH), including 1 return-approach attempt
- 3 Forced (1 FH, 2 BH)
- Return Rate (43/50) 86%
Break Points
Costa 6/9 (7 games)
Corretja 1/5 (4 games)
Winners (including returns, excluding serves)
Costa 27 (15 FH, 6 BH, 2 FHV, 1 BHV, 3 OH)
Corretja 14 (5 FH, 1 BH, 2 FHV, 1 BHV, 5 OH)
Costa's FHs - 3 cc (2 return passes), 2 cc/inside-in, 4 dtl, 1 inside-out pass, 1 inside-out/dtl, 3 inside-in, 1 drop shot
- BHs - 2 cc (1 pass), 2 dtl (1 return pass), 1 longline pass, 1 lob
- 1 from a serve-volley point, a first volley BHV
- 1 other FHV was a lob
Corretja's FHs - 2 cc (1 return, 1 at net), 1 inside-out, 1 inside-in, 1 drop shot
- BH - 1 drop shot
- 3 from serve-volley points - 2 first volleys (1 FHV, 1 OH) & 1 third volley (1 OH)
Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Costa 16
- 12 Unforced (8 FH, 4 BH)... with 1 BH pass attempt
- 4 Forced (3 FH, 1 BH)... with 1 FH running-down-drop-shot at net
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 49.2
Corretja 30
- 22 Unforced (14 FH, 5 BH, 2 FHV, 1 BHV)
- 8 Forced (3 FH, 2 BH, 1 FHV, 1 FH1/2V, 1 BH1/2V)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 49.1
(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
Costa was...
- 8/9 (89%) at net, including...
- 1/1 serve-volleying, a 1st serve
Corretja was...
- 16/31 (52%) at net, including...
- 6/16 (38%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 5/12 (42%) off 1st serves and...
- 1/4 (25%) off 2nd serve
---
- 0/1 return-approaching
- 0/1 retreated
Match Report
Something’s wrong with Corretja and he’s sluggish of movement even at start and eventually quits. Comfily outplayed from baseline, he serve-volleys more and more until its almost all the time by the end, including more often off second serves, which doesn’t go well either
Not sure what’s wrong with him. Looks more like he’s just physically weak, the way a person gets when they have a fever, more than any specific injury. He doesn’t give chase to gettable balls from early in the match and is slow in moving
Footworks not bad and neither is his hitting. And to be clear, he’s not a standing duck, he does move, just not quickly
Breaks once and has break points in 4/8 return games. Including the last game of the match, after which, during change-over, he pulls the plug
Harmless serve from Costa, so making the return is easy and Cor able to win decent chunk of the slow rallies that follow. “Slow” as in normal, loopy clay stuff
Cor’s appetite for those isn’t big and he looks to rally to net. Not desperately and not in a mad rush, but sooner or later, when there’s a chance. Which, were he healthy, he’ d probably forego to trade a few more groundies
Costa likes his FHs, and moves over to play them most of the time. Inside-in is his best weapon and he gets a few good dtl shots off too. Shots that would normally yield a testing running FH that a good clay courter like Cor puts in play defensively more often than not
Here, they go for winners, with Cor not moving for them
Unretunred serves - Costa 14%, Cor 8%
Costa’s serve is point starter with no demons to it. He draws a few aggressive return errors. In his first service game, Cor serves considerably stronger (though still not too troubling), but eases back to Costa levels. Including when he’s serve-volleying
Baseline action is FH oriented, with that side having combined 22 UEs to just 9 BHs. Costa moving over to play them without strain to balls on his BH too
Off the FH -
Costa has match high 15 winners - more than Cor’s total of 14
Cor has match high 14 UEs - more than Costa’s total of 12
Tells you all you need to know about baseline contest
Some nice shots from Costa. dtl has most winners with 4, followed by inside-in with 3. He’s obviously a big FH preferring player, but doesn’t seem to be an inside-out guy. He likes to hit into open court aggressively (which with Cor’s movements leads to winners), not look to beat-down or hit through Cor. Same type of thing in his ‘96 Monte Carlo final with Thomas Muster, who most definitely wasn’t injured/sick or easy meat for shot-making
Lacking Costa’s shot-making and not being powerful, Cor looks for net to finish. He doesn’t manufacture approaches, he comes in after gaining advantage from back
Rallying to net - Cor 10/14, Costa 7/8
Those net points for Cor correspond to Costa’s FH shot-making and winners. Like some old Lendl-Wilander matches
Also takes to serve-volleying more and more. By the end, he’s serve-volleyed a full 50% of the time off first serves. For that matter, 4/22 times off second serves, when that figure would usually be 0
Serve is weak, Costa has time to put the return wide, Cor isn’t too good on the volley (3 UEs) and it doesn’t go well for him. Just 38% serve-volleying points won
Does about as well serve-volleying as not. Off first serves, Cor wins 5/12 serve-volleying and 6/12 not - and 1 of the latter is a ‘delayed’ serve-volley (coming in off third ball, after seeing the return is weak). And obviously, not well doing either
Match Progression
After Costa holds to love to open, there’s a FH shoot out in Cor’s first game - UEs, wide FEs, winners - but all FHs and FH play, with Costa edging ahead. Its net play that gets Cor through to hold. His first serve-volley gets him return-passed FH cc (why serve-volley to the FH out wide to the guy who obviously loves his wide FHs?), next one comes away with a first OH winner
Lovely, wide BH cc to set up another trip to net, another OH winner and he holds with a delayed, third ball approach FHV winner
Costa holds to love again, and Cor’s broken quickly missing attacking FHs. But breaks right back for 2-3, with Cost missing FHs
And that’s that for Cor. Loses next 10 games before retiring
Its not as bad as it could be, given the above. He remains competitive, gets into return games, doesn’t roll over in service ones either
Lovely, sharpy angled BH cc winner from Costa next game is pick of game. He finishes with blistering FH dtl winner and slicing BH dtl return pass one to break
Missed FHs see him down break point next game, and he serve-volleys for only time in match to save it with a BHV winner, before wrapping with another pair of FH winners (drop shot and third ball inside-in). Another return pass winner brings up break/set point next game - again, FH cc from deuce court. Cor might need serve-out wide to give him better chance to make a winning first volley, but out to Costa’s FH with that serve is just daft. Cor misses FH dtl winner attempt to give up the set
More and more net play and serve-volleying from Cor as second set goes on. He doesn’t look much worse than he did earlier in terms of health, but is getting slower and is barely at service line following a light serve when serve-volleying. With normal movement, he would be perfectly at net - though its doubtful that would do him any good, with Costa having comfy time to pick his spot with the return
Couple of lovely drop shot winners from Cor, but they’re little gems amidst a lot of dirt. He has 2 break points in game 5 (brought up by Costa missing a sitter BH pass from near service line). Lovely BH lob winner against return-approach wipes away the first, and a winning BH dtl does for the next
Despite his preference and proficiency for the the FH, Costa has a lovely BH. Its not tested much, but is good of form and also capable of shot-making
BH dtl winner brings up set/break point awhile later, on which Cor’s forced into FH1/2V error serve-volleying
Cor has a break point in opening game of the third, which Costa takes net to FHV winner away. He ends the game, again, with a pair of FH winners - FH cc and after running Cor about, FH inside-in
Cor decides at the change-over enough is enough and calls it quits
Summing, up, easy match with Corretja very out of sorts but not short of entertainment value. Cost isn’t pressured, but displays some beautiful FH shot-making, while moving over to play FHs regularly. Despite that, his BH is graceful, steady and also capable of finding spots where the slow Corretja isn’t
Corretja is sluggish of movement and not tough to get errors from. Turns to net play and serve-volleying to shorten points, but serve is soft and his movement to net no better than around baseline, allowing Costa time to pass him without much trouble
