Match Stats/Report - Agassi vs Courier, French Open fourth found, 1990

[Waspsting]

Andre Agassi beat Jim Courier 6-7(8), 6-1, 6-4, 6-0 in the French Open fourth round, 1990 on clay

Agassi would go onto reach his first Slam final where he would lose to Andres Gomez. The two had played each other the previous years third round and would go onto meet in the following years final and the semis the year after that, with Courier winning all of those matches

Agassi won 142 points, Courier 108

Serve Stats
Agassi...
- 1st serve percentage (83/125) 66%
- 1st serve points won (63/83) 76%
- 2nd serve points won (24/42) 57%
- Aces 3 (1 second serve)
- Double Faults 1
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (27/125) 22%

Courier...
- 1st serve percentage (83/125) 66%
- 1st serve points won (46/83) 55%
- 2nd serve points won (24/42) 57%
- Aces 3 (2 second serves), Service Winners 1
- Double Faults 2
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (33/125) 26%

Serve Patterns
Agassi served...
- to FH 37%
- to BH 61%
- to Body 2%

Courier served...
- to FH 49%
- to BH 48%
- to Body 3%

Return Stats
Agassi made...
- 90 (51 FH, 39 BH), including 8 runaround FHs
- 1 Winner (1 FH), a runaround FH
- 29 Errors, comprising...
- 19 Unforced (11 FH, 8 BH), including 1 runaround FH
- 10 Forced (5 FH, 5 BH)
- Return Rate (90/123) 73%

Courier made...
- 97 (32 FH, 64 BH, 1 ??), including 3 runaround FHs, 3 return-approaches & 1 drop-return
- 1 Winner (1 BH)
- 24 Errors, comprising...
- 14 Unforced (8 FH, 6 BH), including 1 runaround FH
- 10 Forced (8 FH, 2 BH)
- Return Rate (97/124) 78%

Break Points
Agassi 6/15 (9 games)
Courier 0/6 (3 games)

Winners (including returns, excluding serves)
Agassi 45 (25 FH, 13 BH, 2 FHV, 3 BHV, 2 OH)
Courier 23 (7 FH, 11 BH, 1 FHV, 4 OH)

Agassi's FHs - 7 cc (1 runaround return, 4 passes - 1 a turnaround shot), 1 cc/inside-in, 4 dtl (1 at net), 5 inside-out (1 left by Courier), 1 inside-out/longline, 5 inside-in, 1 inside-in/cc and 1 lob
- BHs - 2 cc, 6 dtl (2 passes - 1 at net), 1 longline/inside-out, 2 drop shots and 2 running-down-drop-shot at net (1 cc, 1 net chord dribbler)

- 1 FHV was a swinging shot
- 2 non-net OHs on the bounce (1 from no-man's land, 1 from just behind service line)

Courier's FHs - 2 cc (1 at net), 1 cc/inside-in, 1 dtl at net, 2 inside-out and 1 lob
- BHs - 1 cc (with Agassi having fallen to the ground), 6 dtl (2 passes, 1 at net - a 1 handed shot), 1 inside-out return, 2 drop shots and 1 lob

- 1 OH was from a return-approach point

Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Agassi 51
- 35 Unforced (10 FH, 22 BH, 1 FHV, 2 BHV)... with 1 BH at net, 1 swinging FHV & 1 non-net BHV
- 16 Forced (5 FH, 10 BH, 1 FHV)... with 3 BH running-down-drop-shot at net
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 47.1

Courier 68
- 47 Unforced (22 FH, 22 BH, 3 FHV)... with 1 FH at net
- 21 Forced (9 FH, 9 BH, 3 BHV)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 45.7

(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
Agassi was...
- 17/27 (63%) at net, with...
- 1/1 forced back

Courier was...
- 17/31 (55%) at net, with...
- 2/3 (67%) return-approaching
- 1/1 retreated

Match Report
Fun, lively match of attacking baseline tennis. Agassi dominates the back of the court by moving around to take big cut FHs, Courier is outmatched on power though playing a hard hitting game himself on a normal clay court

Stats have come out perfectly for easy comparison
- 1st serve in - both 83/125 @ 66%
- 2nd serve points won - both 24/42 @ 57%
.... leaving just 1 difference to look at - 1st serve point won - Agassi 63/83 @ 76%, Courier 46/83 @ 57%

Neither player has damaging serve. Courier's is noticeably stronger. He gets it up to 'hefty' considerable amount of time, and throws in a few second serves about as strong. Agassi's norm is just above being a point starter, if not a rolled in one and his seconds are a normal step down from it. On clay, nothing too worrying about either players serve

Both with 3 aces - and 3 of total 6 are second serves, that catch returner moving the wrong way. Courier has 2 of them, as Agassi is more apt to be moving around to look for a big cut return. Both with negligible double faults (Agassi 1, Courier 2)

Courier leading unreturned rate 26% to 22% due to having stronger serve and Agassi going for thumping deep returns to a greater extent. Agassi serving fairly well is reflected in his forcing a greater proportion of return errors
- Return FEs - both 10
- Return UEs - Agassi 19, Courier 14

Agassi's UEs are a bit harder than Couriers - regulation returns in swing zone, but against Courier's faster serve. But good job by Agassi to force 10 errors out of Courier. He has advantage of his occasional strong serve having element of surprise that catches Courier out. By contrast, Courier serves the same way all the time. Agassi has luxury of not needing to do much with the serve because of his superiority in play. Another reason for Agassi missing a few more is his going for more on the shot

Both take returns early, Agassi more so. Agassi biffs the ball firmly to neutralize or take initiative of rally. Courier returns firmly and also early without being able to do so. Late in match, he turns to some fancy stuff - 3 return-approaches and an exquisite drop-return that strongly forces an error. No trouble for Jim on the high BH return

Courier winning more 2nd serve points than 1sts (57% to 55%) is indicator of Agassi being able to return both serves to same extent. That Courier's still safely winning bulk speaks to his having played well too, though he's handily outplayed by an excellent Agassi

Agassi's large difference in 1st serve points won over 2nd (76% to 57%) is indicator or how ordinary his 2nd serve is. Essentially, his rallies coming out of his 1st serve points have near 50-50 prospects (say, 55-45)... and his coasting to tune of 76% is a reflection of his superiority in play. Also, willingness to take charge. Agassi usually goes on attack early, but to balls that aren't obviously there to be attacked

Agassi's FH is the super-star on show with top drawer 25 winner, 10 UEs... that high a ratio is extremely rare for any surface, doubly so for clay. And that's with Courier defending ably. He leans over on BH court, and looks to move around to hit FHs inside-out and inside-in. A bit like Rafael Nadal, though the stroke production is very different. Agassi slaps balls going for pace and to lesser extent, depth. Most of his shots are designed to end points, not merely making Courier run. He's got 7 inside-out based winners and same number of inside-in based ones. On BH, he hits cc firmly on the up and isn't slow to go for the dtl winner either

Lots of 1-2 court opener - hit into it play from Agassi off both sides. The first shot goes quite wide cc and the next 1 dtl. Courier's able to defend quite well against it, but it has its success too. He's sloppy at times with the set up BH cc, missing by going too wide

 

[Waspsting]

Groundstroke UEs read -
- Agassi FH 10
- all other shots (Agassi BH, Courier FH & BH) 22

Courier's UEs tend to be on hard side, with a good lot on the move. The Agassi BH figure is higher than it need be. As attacking as he is in moving Courier about, its understandable, but room for improvement in the BH play for Agassi. The extra few inches he goes wide on the BH cc for a set-up shot to make him move a bit more for the first shot and more still for the next one that Agassi will hit the other way isn't worth the errors

BH-BH, Courier holds about even. Agassi looks commanding and compact in taking ball early and close to body, Courier looks the opposite in flaying at the ball, but there's not much in the rallies. Agassi's cleaner and more controlled off shot... some discredit to Agassi for the unnecessary sloppy errors. Courier is willing to slice when he's pushed back a bit, and he's pushed back a bit quite often. There's scope for Agassi outlasting Courier regularly off the BH... but he's a) sloppy at times with the unnecessary wide miss BH cc's and b) he's more looking to finish points with aggressive FHs and BH play is secondary line of play

Courier hits firmly off FH, but is outmatched to the point of being relegated to counter-punching. With Agassi stronger hitter, Courier doesn't have time to move around to hit runaround FHs. Not bad from Courier, but much better from Agassi. The gap between FH hitting the following year between the two would be smaller, though still lightly in Agassi's favour. Here, Courier's FH looks a bit under-developed from what it would become, though far more credit to Agassi for being outstanding on that side

Particularly early on, Agassi throws in good number of drop shots. He's got a couple of winners and isn't unsuccessful with the ploy, but again, it doesn't seems necessary or worth the risk of the quick Courier running it down. Nor is played with much attention to situation. Even with Courier on or near baseline, Agassi just throws in the drops shot. Not good shot choices, particularly since he has better of neutral hitting, and Courier's regularly able to run down and hit orthodox groundstrokes to the drop shots. Agassi largely drops drop shotting as match goes on. Courier goes the opposite route, hitting more drop shots as match goes on and his are superb. He he has 2 winners and strongly forces 3 errors, including with a sublime return. Agassi is even quicker than Courier and more apt to be on baseline, so the shot has to be perfect to be work. Unlike Agassi, Courier needs the trick, since neutral rallying or counter-punching isn't working so well for him

Finally, Agassi in particular is very quick in covering the court. He's not far off Michael Chang calibre of speed and getting errors out of him on the move is difficult. What's more, he tends to hit counter-attacking, deep shots on the run rather than defensive shots. Though Courier is made to do more of the running, Agassi is faster still. And Courier's good too - and has to be to cope with Agassi's 1-2s

Not much net play involved and what there is is behind strong approach shots or drop shot related. Courier occasionally looks to come in a bit (just a bit, mind you). He wins just 55% of his 31 approaches with Agassi hammering groundstrokes and some of the point he wins being running down ordinary drop shots. Agassi's in slightly less at 27 times... a high lot of them against drop shots. He's content to finish points by banging groundies from the back, not coming in

Match Progression
Play is at its liveliest in opening set and near even, with both striking the ball cleanly from the back. Agassi has slightly better of play, but Courier's serve is good enough to give him enough of an edge to keep holding

Going into tiebreak, Agassi's had 3 break points across 3 games to Courier with just 1. He also has edge in the tiebreak itself, has the first 3 set points and is ahead all the way to 8-7. On that, his third set point, Agassi slips and is on the ground as Courier puts winner into court. A BH dtl winner later, Courier has his first set point. Its the only one he needs, with Agassi missing a third ball, BH dtl winner attempt

For rest of match, Agassi gets a better grip on the return. He still misses a fair few, but regularly throws down deep returns that keep Courier in check. The second and third sets are more conventional, less lively of action with more slugging rallies that end with errors. Agassi takes the second very comfortably 6-1 and outhits/grinds Courier 6-4 in the third

Despite the bagel in the 4th set, play doesn't change much there either. Agassi gets bigger chunk of the tough rallies to the point that Courier looks for alternatives to baseline slugging, like drop shots and the odd approach, including off the return. Agassi's greater weight of shot and depth are decisive though

Summing up, good and lively match of baseline play with plenty of moving-opponent-around play from both and attacking hitting from Agassi

Agassi at least dictates and more often, commands play from baseline. He leans on BH side to hit attacking combinations of FH inside-out and inside-in, hits a spate of winners doing so and otherwise runs Courier about. On the BH, he has hitting advantage but is prone to loose runs of missing regulation shots going too wide. Courier looks to play a toned down version of the same game, but his FH isn't strong enough to command and BH is pushed into slightly reactive position in neutral rallies. Both players cover court superbly - Agassi more so, Courier needing to do so more

Very strong from Agassi, pretty good from Courier too but he finds himself outmatched

Stats for the final between Agassi and Andres Gomez - (3) Match Stats/Report - Gomez vs Agassi, French Open final, 1990 | Talk Tennis (tennis-warehouse.com)
Stats for the pair's '91 final - (3) Match Stats/Report - Courier vs Agassi, French Open final, 1991 | Talk Tennis (tennis-warehouse.com)
Stats for the pair's '92 semi-final - (3) Match Stats/Report - Courier vs Agassi, French Open semi-final, 1992 | Talk Tennis (tennis-warehouse.com)