Match Stats/Report - A. Medvedev vs Mantilla, Hamburg final, 1997

[Waspsting]

Andrei Medvedev beat Felix Mantilla 6-0, 6-4, 6-2 in the Hamburg final, 1997 on clay

It was unseeded Medvedev’s third title at the event and the first of 2 Masters finals for Mantilla, who would win Rome in 2003

Medvedev won 94 points, Mantilla 64

Serve Stats
Medvedev...
- 1st serve percentage (42/74) 57%
- 1st serve points won (32/42) 76%
- 2nd serve points won (20/32) 63%
- Aces 6
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (16/74) 22%

Mantilla...
- 1st serve percentage (65/84) 77%
- 1st serve points won (30/65) 46%
- 2nd serve points won (12/19) 63%
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (9/84) 11%

Serve Patterns
Medvedev served...
- to FH 49%
- to BH 51%

Mantilla served...
- to FH 27%
- to BH 61%
- to Body 12%

Return Stats
Medvedev made...
- 75 (27 FH, 48 BH), including 5 runaround FHs & 3 return-approaches
- 5 Winners (2 FH, 3 BH)
- 9 Errors, comprising...
- 7 Unforced (4 FH, 3 BH)
- 2 Forced (2 BH)
- Return Rate (75/84) 89%

Mantilla made...
- 58 (36 FH, 22 BH), including 4 runaround FHs
- 10 Errors, comprising...
- 4 Unforced (2 FH, 2 BH), including 1 runaround FH
- 6 Forced (3 FH, 3 BH)
- Return Rate (58/74) 78%

Break Points
Medvedev 7/9 (8 games)
Mantilla 1/9 (4 games)

Winners (including returns, excluding serves)
Medvedev 39 (20 FH, 10 BH, 3 FHV, 4 BHV, 2 OH)
Mantilla 6 (3 FH, 2 BH, 1 BHV)

Medvedev's FHs - 7 cc (1 return, 1 at net), 3 dtl (1 pass), 1 dtl/inside-out, 3 inside-out, 1 inside-out/dtl, 2 inside-in (1 return), 3 drop shots (1 net chord roll over)
- BHs - 4 dtl (3 returns), 2 dtl/inside-out (1 at net), 2 inside-out (1 pass), 1 drop shot, 1 net chord dribbler

- 2 from return-approach points (1 FHV, 1 BHV)
- 1 other BHV was a non-net pass

Mantilla's FHs - 2 cc (1 at net - not clean), 1 dtl
- BHs - 1 dtl, 1 drop shot

Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Medvedev 49
- 37 Unforced (10 FH, 22 BH, 3 BHV, 2 OH)... with 1 BH running-down-drop-shot at net & 1 non-net OH
- 12 Forced (5 FH, 5 BH, 2 BHV)... with 2 BH running-down-drop-shot at net & 1 baseline BHV (a pass attempt)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 50.8

Mantilla 39
- 22 Unforced (14 FH, 6 BH, 1 FHV, 1 OH)
- 17 Forced (9 FH, 8 BH)... with 2 FH running-down-drop-shot at net & 1 BH running-down-drop-shot at net
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 47.3

(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 are keyed on 4 categories - 20 defensive, 40 neutral, 50 attacking and 60 winner attempt)

Net Points & Serve-Volley
Medvedev was...
- 21/30 (70%) at net, including...
- 2/2 serve-volleying, both 1st serves
---
- 2/3 (67%) return-approaching
- 1/2 forced back

Mantilla was 10/18 (56%) at net

Match Report
Scarily brutal display from Medvedev as he bashes, thrashes, hammers and pounds a steady Mantilla out. Court is probably quick for clay. It sure looks it the way the winner plays

Medvedev stands tall and pounds the ball. FHs, BHs, the return, into corners for winners, wide for winners or to open the court, even not far from his opponent pegging him back. There are drop shots too. And net play

39 winners from Med at 1.63 per game. Felix has 6

Probably the highest winner hitting rate I’ve come across on clay, particularly in a baseline encounter. The discrepancy in winners is up there among the highest celebrated serve-volley showings like the ‘83 Wimby final or the ‘90 Aus semi between Edberg and Wilander

First set takes 17 and half minutes

He’s got break point for 5-0 in second set before the red-hot zoning cools, Med misses a few balls and Felix snags a few games

Scarcely a drop after that. Third set alone would qualify as a bashing and thrashing (it’s the first and early second that warrants the excess hammering and pounding mentioned earlier for a the overall picture)

And Felix? He’s steady. Not even flat. His sin is he’s not hard hitting enough to keep Med from taking action by scruff of neck. Felix’ showing could be half of a classic clay grindfest worthy of final of Hamburg

Instead, he’s little less of a spectator than the Chair Umpire

Its amusing that break points read Med 7/9, Felix 1/9. Could be an extreme case of one player taking all his chances, the other being thwarted or messing them up, a close match. Instead of the dream come true for someone who’s created caption of “utter thrashing” and looking for a picture to put to it

Med wins 59% of the points, serving 47% of them

Serve & Return
Med’s returning is standout, though the serves strongly too

Felix with 2 ‘second’ serves. Point starter first serve. 1997 is getting late in the day for that to be normal (and this match wouldn’t have slowed that clock down), but not radically unusual for player not to be looking to do much with first serve. He’d serve the same way in winning Rome 6 years later

Med takes it to to the cleaners. Stands tall, steps up and whacks the returns. He’s got 5 winners. 4 of them against first serves (not there’s much difference between Felix’ 2 serves). Plenty more similarly taken early and whacked wide (particularly BH line)

89% return rate, while smacking them early, hard and wide enough to end point far more often than norm. Top-notch. Guga wouldn’t’ return like this. Even Agassi wouldn’t or couldn’t

Some big serving from Med too, and his only having 22% freebies is sign that court is still very much clay, and Felix solid enough on the return. Not hint of Felix trying to do the things Med does on return, but that’s expected

Normal, stock returning from Felix against a good serve. It looks inadequate because of whats going on at other end
What’s going on at other end is exceptional, though imaginable. Takes some moxie and Med has it in spades

0 double faults in the match. And very curiously, Felix winning 63% second serve points (he wins just 46% first serve ones). No reason for it. His 2 serves are about the same and Med looks to return them the same big way

Relatively small number of second serves (he serves 77% first serves), but also not insignificant 19 second serve points
Its like the break point figures. Amusingly deceptive

 

[Waspsting]

Play - Baseline & Net
Med’s assault starts as soon as possible. Third ball when serving, fourth when returning are assaulted. With FH or with BH

He tends to lead with BH. Not going for a winner at once, but pounding it, often wide. Including dtl/inside-out. Seems to be a BH preferring player, rarely moves over to hit FHs when its very do-able and when FH preferring player would do so

Winners - Med 39, Felix 6
Errors Forced - Med 17, Felix 12
UEs - Med 37, Felix 22

Constant BH point-ending is one step beyond Med. His BH has match high 22 UEs. ‘Stock’ BH is powerful enough to be attacking and he goes attackingling wide with it, usually dtl/inside-out and ends up missing fair bit

10 winners, 22 UEs of BH would usually be a good yield - the UEs coming in who-blinks-first exchanges (which opponent has fair lot of too), the winners gravy. Here, Med uses BH almost like most players use FH in aggressive showing

When Med hits a very poor drop shot that lands around service line, Felix struggles to reach it because he’s rattled and and become acclimatized to hammer hits

BH UEs - Felix match low 6, Med match high 22

Should be excellent starting point for Felix, with such a huge advantage on opponents favoured side. Its not because Med’s errors are aggressive ones (contrary to typical BH play). He’s not outlasted or outsteadied in BH cc rallies. He doesn’t even play BH cc rallies… he goes dtl/inside-out from around center of court

Neutral UEs even at 11

Med FH starring with 20 winners, 10 UEs (and 5 FEs). A yield the best of the best FHs would be proud of. And this is effectively his second choice line of attack (though much better one)

Crosscourt is most common FH winner with 5 (not counting a net shot or return). Never a good sign for opponent when so many winners go in most basic direction. Including net shot and return, he’s got 7 FH cc winners - 1 more than all of Felix’ winners

Same drill as BH - hammer and tongs from first shot, with the finishing proving to be better. FH doesn’t look as natural and easy shot as BH. Fat consolation for Felix when it rains down 20 winners, 10 UEs

He drops shots and has 4 winners off it. Done so insouciantly, standing tall. Other than the winners, he’s forced 3 running-down-drop-shot errors too. Hits some bad ones too that Felix can easily reach. Or would be, if he weren’t hammered down and expecting next roundhouse to extent he does

He comes to net and is 21/30 there. Including couple serve-volleys and couple return-approaches. Not great on volley consistency (he has 4 UEs) but finishing is A-ok.

And Felix? Counter-punches as can. Usually overwhelmed. He’s not powerful off shot, but he’s not weak either. As stated earlier, his showing could be part of a good, who-blinks-first clay match

Finally, in third set, he starts going for a few shots. Not too good at it - 5 winner attempt UEs to go with 6 winners. His first winner doesn’t come ‘til Game 5, Set 2 and it’s a drop shot. Med has 22 by that stage
Not bad from Felix, but thoroughly overwhelmed

Match Progression
First set takes 17 minutes, 30 seconds, with Med losing 1 point on serve (drop shot error) and Felix extending a service game to 10 points

Felix wins first 2 points of the match through Med missing aggressive BHs. His power shots land in for rest of game, and it’s a break to 30
2 aces in consolidating to love and 3 winners (drop FHV, BH dtl, BH net chord dribbler) to break again
3 unreturned serves and a not obviously there for the shot third ball FH cc winner to consolidate
3 return winners and a volleying one to break for third time
Serve out to love - starting with a third ball FH drop shot winner

17 minutes, 30 seconds

First game of the second set takes half as long as the first set, but result doesn’t change. 7 winners from Med in the 16 pointer, including a fourth ball FH cc to end it
Hold to love, and then breaks again, again finishing with return winner

Triple bagel and some kind of world record for winners looks on the cards

Finally, Med’s zoning cools and he misses a bunch of shots, including a back-pedalling smash and a FH cc winner attempt to go down 0-40. Still manages to hold and he’s got break point for 5-0 game after that

Instead, Felix gets on the board, and even snags a break back with Med serving for set at 5-3. Hammers a FH inside-out to draw error to get the break

Med’s down break point when serving for set the second time too in a game where he makes just 1/10 first serves. Good risk taken by Felix to go for BH dtl return winner on the break point, but he just misses and Med wraps up set with back-away FH inside-in third ball winner

By his standard, Felix is raging in the third set. By a normal standard, still on passive side. By Med’s standard for the match, sleeping. Jokes aside, Felix plays a few shots, going for dtl winners occasionally and makes effort to come to net

He’s got 3 winners in the set - BHV, BH dtl and FH cc set up by a strong return
Med hits 4 winners in a row to gain his second break - and 9 more besides. This is closest two players are of aggression all match

Med breaks for 2-1 in error riddled game, with Felix missing a putaway OH/high volley
Two trade deuce holds in moving from 3-1 to 4-2
Down 0-15, Med smacks 4 winners to break again - FH dtl pass, FH dtl from routine position, smash and a FHV flowing out of a big return
He’s down 15-40 on the serve-out, but sees it through, finishing with a well made FH dtl/inside-out winner

Summing up, as monumental and brutal a thrashing as ever seen on a tennis court. Medvedev hammers FHs, hammers BHs, cc, dtl, inside-out, insouciantly putsaway drop shots, comes to net, serve-volleys, return-approaches… what doesn’t he do? BH inside-in. No BH inside-ins

Consistent finishing off the BH is half a bridge too far, and its his less favoured FH that’s chief executioner, but BH isn’t wanting for power and variety either

Mantilla keeps ball in court, so Medvedev can do all the things he does. Neither powerful, nor weak but massively overpowered. Its like a tank running over… something, you can’t remember what because only the tank matters