Match Stats/Report - Agassi vs Ivanisevic, Wimbledon final, 1992

[Waspsting]

Andre Agassi beat Goran Ivanisevic 6-7(8), 6-4, 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 in the Wimbledon final, 1992 on grass

Agassi was playing his 4th Slam final, Ivanisevic his first and both were looking for their first Slam title. Agassi was seeded 12th and had beaten John McEnroe and Boris Becker among others en route to the final. Ivanisevic was seeded 8th and had beaten Pete Sampras, Stefan Edberg and Ivan Lendl among others on his way to the final

Agassi won 163 points, Ivanisevic 159

Ivanisevic serve-volleyed off all serves, bar 1 second serve

(Note: I've guessed serve type for a couple of points)

Serve Stats
Agassi...
- 1st serve percentage (90/156) 58%
- 1st serve points won (69/90) 77%
- 2nd serve points won (42/66) 64%
- Aces 9
- Double Faults 1
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (40/156) 26%

Ivanisevic...
- 1st serve percentage (96/166) 58%
- 1st serve points won (79/96) 82%
- 2nd serve points won (35/70) 50%
- Aces 38 (1 whiff, 5 second serves - 1 not clean), Service Winners 4
- Double Faults 7
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (81/166) 49%

Serve Patterns
Agassi served...
- to FH 40%
- to BH 59%
- to Body 1%

Ivanisevic served...
- to FH 33%
- to BH 62%
- to Body 5%

Return Stats
Agassi made...
- 78 (29 FH, 49 BH)
- 9 Winners (1 FH, 8 BH)
- 39 Errors, all forced...
- 39 Forced (12 FH, 27 BH)
- Return Rate (78/159) 49%

Ivanisevic made...
- 115 (45 FH, 70 BH), including 4 runaround FHs & 7 return-approaches
- 5 Winners (3 FH, 2 BH), including 1 runaround FH
- 31 Errors, comprising...
- 22 Unforced (9 FH, 13 BH), including 1 return-approach attempt
- 9 Forced (6 FH, 3 BH)
- Return Rate (115/155) 74%

Break Points
Agassi 3/16 (9 games)
Ivanisevic 2/5 (5 games)

Winners (including returns, excluding serves)
Agassi 49 (12 FH, 26 BH, 3 FHV, 4 BHV, 4 OH)
Ivanisevic 39 (10 FH, 5 BH, 7 FHV, 1 FH1/2V, 13 BHV, 3 OH)

Agassi had 36 passes - 27 regular (11 FH, 15 BH, 1 FHV) and 9 returns (1 FH, 8 BH)
- FH returns - 1 dtl
- BH returns - 2 cc, 3 dtl, 1 inside-out, 1 inside-in and 1 longline
- regular FHs - 4 cc (2 at net), 3 dtl, 3 inside-out and 1 inside-out/dtl
- regular BHs - 8 cc (1 at net that hits Ivanisevic), 3 dtl, 2 inside-out (1 at net) and 2 running-down-drop-shot cc at net
- regular BHV - a non-net swinging shot

- non-pass BHs - 1 cc and 2 dtl

- 2 from serve-volley points (1 FHV, 1 BHV), both first volleys

Ivanisevic had 22 from serve-volley points
- 17 first 'volleys' (5 FHV, 10 BHV, 1 OH, 1 FH at net)
- 5 second volleys (2 FHV, 1 BHV, 2 OH)

- 1 from a return-approach point (1 FH1/2V)

- FHs - 2 cc (1 return, 1 pass), 4 dtl (1 pass, 2 returns - 1 a runaround return) and 1 net chord dribber return
- BHs - 2 cc (1 pass), 1 dtl return pass and 2 inside-out (1 return, 1 pass)

- 3 first volleys from serve-volley points (2 FHV, 1 BHV)

Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Agassi 38
- 17 Unforced (8 FH, 7 BH, 2 FHV)... with 1 FH pass & 1 BH at net
- 21 Forced (5 FH, 14 BH, 1 FHV, 1 BHV)... with 1 FH running-down-drop-shot at net & 1 non-net, swinging BHV pass attempt
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 48.2

Ivanisevic 67
- 45 Unforced (17 FH, 15 BH, 7 FHV, 6 BHV)... with 1 FH at net, 1 FH pass attempt and 1 FHV can reasonably be called an OH
- 22 Forced (6 FH, 5 BH, 5 FHV, 4 FH1/2V, 1 BH1/2V, 1 Sky Hook)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 49.6

(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...
- 30/40 (75%) at net, including...
- 10/12 (83%) serve-volleying, all 1st serves
---
- 1/1 retreated

Ivanisevic was...
- 82/143 (57%) at net, including...
- 71/116 (61%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 42/59 (71%) off 1st serve and...
- 29/57 (51%) off 2nd serve
---
- 2/7 (29%) return-approaching

Match Report
A great and tense match, up there with the best Wimbledon finals. Ivanisevic's serving, Agassi's returning and passing in play are all at top most levels. Beyond that, Ivanisevic's volleying (slightly surprisingly) proves to be good - both in combating a flurry of powerful, low returns and in dealing with regulation, net high balls. To complete action, both Agassi's serve and Ivanisevic's return is below average and the baseline battles are a mismatch in Agassi's favour

Goran serve-volleys off all but 1 serve for the match, making his service games all about serve-volleying vs return-pass play. His serve is as ever, overwhelming and he wins bulk of points on the strength of it alone. Agassi though is able to find relatively large amount of counter-play through first rate returning - and regularly threatens to break

Agassi stays on baseline on his service games, making those games all about baseline rallies. Neither player looks to come in much from those rallies. Play is neutral - Agassi hitting firmly, consistently and drawing errors out Goran, who isn't able to keep up. Not much hitting winners or forcing errors going on

Nature of play and who it favours and why fluctuates across the match. More often than not, its Agassi with better of it. For the finale 5th set though, matters are up in the air: Agassi isn't able to return effectively enough to threaten to break. Goran is more steady from the baseline than at any other stage of the match (though he still trails in that duel substantially), helped by Agassi's worst serving of the match (which isn't too important, as Agassi's dominated his 2nd serve points all match)

Both players serve at 58% match long. In final set, Agassi has his lowest in count of 13/34 or 38%. Goran has his highest at 18/27 or 67%... prospective advantage, Goran

Agassi endures 1 tough, 14 point hold, facing and saving just 1 break point by coming in and dispatching a FHV winner. Otherwise holds comfortably. Goran holds comfortably til the last game, which he opens with consecutive double faults (he has just 5 for rest of match - despite huge second serving, including 5 aces), and ends by missing a regulation BHV into open court

In short, poor game from Goran decides it. He'd volleyed well for all but the first set and hadn't gotten into double fault trouble, which is one of the most impressive things about his serving. By contrast, he had 9 doubles in the first set of the '98 final (and no 2nd serve aces)

Somewhat bland, who-blinks-first ending to the match then. Most of the rest is high end though

Irresistible serving from Goran at start of match. Agassi does what he can without taking a backward step to return. Some poor volleying and missing routine or easy volleys + the odd power return gives Agassi chances and he has 6 break points across 2 games. Agassi meanwhile serves averagely, Goran returns regularly and baseline rallies favour the server. Lots of BH slicing by Goran and trying to keep it in middle of court, but Agassi's able to break down his BH with firm FH cc shots. The odd, surprise serve-volley from Agassi too. Goran has 2 break points across 2 games... both players survive an additional deuce game where they don't face break points

No breaks going into tiebreak. One of Agassi's stronger serves thwarts Goran's first set point and Goran misses a routine return to give Agassi his first. Goran sends down a 2nd serve ace right on the line to erase that and follows up with a service winner. He takes it a couple points later to go up 1 set to love

Some incredible returning and passing from Agassi for the next set and a half is the high point of the match and Goran is regularly under the gun to hold. He breaks to open the 2nd set with 4 passing winners, split up by another 2nd serve ace. He seems to be reading the serve, and is quick to step aside to wallop body serves. Goran's volleying is tested severely with a lot of low first volleys and half-volleys. He does well to get so many back, though leaving a lined up pass afterwards - and Agassi barely misses from that position, seemingly hitting a winner every time. Goran's regulation volleying improves too, and anything above net is placed well away from Agassi and deep. Not much success for Agassi on the running pass, but he gets his fill from passes he can line up

The 1 break does for the set and Agassi opens the 3rd with another break. Some strong returning passing starts the game, but it ends with Goran making 2 volley UEs. Soon after, Agassi's zoning return-passing closes down (for good, as it turns out). To be clear, Agassi still gets the odd strong return off, Goran usually handles the tough volley... this is is still relatively good from Agassi's point of view. What he was doing for a set and half before it was mind-blowingly good

It doesn't matter much because Agassi holds even easier than Goran, who appears to be rattled and is making a mess of things from the back of the court. Agassi holds to love 4/5 games and has a 15 serve points winning streak extending into the 4th set.

Good game from Goran to break early in 4th, forcefully winning both points Agassi's at net for (1 return pass winner, 1 error forcing pass) and throwing in another return winner against a 2nd serve. He consolidates against power returning, saving a break point and handling tough volleys on last 2 points to hold. The second break is a product of poor errors from Agassi... its possible he tanks the game

Agassi serves at just 40% in the 4th set and lower still in the 5th, as noted earlier. In the decider, Goran's groundgame improves and he's able to hang in in rallies more and return more consistently - he's at his best for the match in both areas. Still, Agassi remains better and wins 67% second serve points

 

[Waspsting]

Agassi's serve game
Mundane stuff

- below average serving from Agassi. Most of his first serves are unforceful, and easy to put back in play. Not much difference with the 2nd serves. In this light, 58% in isn't too good.

- below average returning from Goran. Returns at just 74%. Aiming for basic consistency on the return, 80-85% is possible against this serve. Going for particular aggression, 75% would be a good number
Goran doesn't return with 'particular aggression'. He goes for the odd big cut return (he has 5 winners - 1 a pass, 1 a net chord dribbler) and usually misses but largely sticks to just putting return in play

Baseline rallies typically start with 50-50 prospects. Agassi is vastly the superior from the back. He doesn't go for too much, hits firmly and consistently but short of attackingly off both wings. Goran is reactive partner in the rallies, short of defending

Initially, Goran looks to play a lot of slices around the center of the court to deaden the point. Ball stays low and its not an easy ball to attack. Agassi isn't particularly looking to attack and just hits slightly less firm FH cc's back without undue trouble. Its a typical 90s grass court with slices staying close to ankle high and Goran's are a test for Agassi's technique against such low ball. No problem for Agassi

Most points end with UEs and the final counts reflect nature of play
- Agassi BH 7
- Agassi FH 8
- Goran FH 17
- Goran BH 15

Just 3 bona fida baseline-to-baseline winners from Agassi and same number from Goran. He's apt to go for the big, point ending groundstroke to a greater degree. It'd be hard to do so to a lesser one because Agassi is rarely that aggressive, content to keep the ball in play neutrally and wait for the error. Though Goran's success rate at the big point ending shot from the back is small, he'd probably have done well to go for more. What does he have to lose, with the UE rate being what they are?

To the moderate extent Agassi moves Goran about, Goran shows very good movement to race down balls

As stronger player from back, Agassi has scope to come in to finish points. He does so moderately, winning 20/28 rallying to net (small chunk of which are forced approaches against Goran's drop volleys) and in timely way. When in a spot of bother, he tends to hit a strong shot, come in and finish with authority at net

Goran's forays forward are rarer and less successful. He struggles to win net points where he has to make a volley behind his huge serves so it'd be unreasonable to expect him to win good lot from manufacturing approach shots. Just 9/20 rallying to net and 2/7 chip-charge returning. That's down to Agassi's superb passing and Goran not having luxury of coming in behind strong approaches

Near even success of both serves for Agassi, winning 77% first serve points and 64% second.
Sans aces and his 1 double fault, that shifts to 74% off first serve and 65% off second
Sans his very successful 10/12 serve-volleying, that shifts to 72% off 1st and 65% second. This includes Goran's return-approach points, but is essentially an indicator of how the 2 stack up from the baseline

In nutshell, ordinary serving and returning. Agassi's vastly superior from the back - hitting firmly and consistently. Play is more outlasting than beat down of nature.

Ivanisevic's serve game
Extraordinary stuff

- Typical, monster serving from Goran. Both serves. He's got 5 second serve aces, 38 aces overall and 4 service winners... that's more unreturnable serves at 42 then Agassi's total unreturned serves of 40

- Just 7 double faults to go with that kind of serving is a great feat in itself. 2 in what turns out to be last game of match cost him dearly and go against the form he shows in the match. On other hand, its surprising that he has so few as he big as he serves the 2nd delivery. Most of his 2nd serves would be forceful even sans serve-volleying

- With 49% unreturned rate, Goran's likely to - and does - hold on strength of the serve alone.

- Agassi returns superbly on the whole, and about as well as humanly possible for about 1.5-2 sets. Not much can be done against Goran's best serves, but he smacks anything in reach powerfully

Inevitably, there are weak returns that can be putaway. Goran obliges and 17/22 of his winners from serve-volleying are first volleys. Almost all are easy. He also has 13 UEs on the volley. In first set, he's poor in missing regulation or even easy volleys or not doing much with the volley. Thereafter, he deals with regulation volley well, putting it well away from Agassi and dispatching the genuinely easy ones

The fun is in the strong returns Agassi gets off. He's got 9 return winners and gives Goran a lot of first 'volley's to the feet or/and wide. Goran is surprisingly good at making these, but has little control in where they go. When Agassi can line up the pass, he's almost flawless in drilling it through for the winner

- on the 'volley', Goran has 14 UEs (1 is a FH at net) to just 11 FEs. That's a product of Agassi hitting clean winners rather than forcing errors with his passes and to much lesser extent, Goran resisting being forced into error

Agassi's numbers on the pass are extraordinary. He's got 27 passing winners in play (i.e. sans returns) to 19 groundstroke FEs (virtually all passes). In fact, got more groundstroke winners (38) than total groundstroke errors (34)... these kinds of numbers are almost unprecedented and a fair reflection of how superb Agassi is against the at net Goran

Matches with very high unreturned rates tend to lead to having more winners than total errors. In Agassi's case, high return rates are often a product of his low-percentage returning style, where he's willing to miss makeable returns in order to return with authority. Here though, he doesn't have much say in how to return... Goran's serve is just too strong

In nutshell, highest calibre serving from Goran, the same for Agassi on the return and the pass. Some good volleying from Goran too - on both the tough volley and the regulation one
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Summing up, top top class contest between Ivanisevic's irresistible force serving and Agassi somehow pounding powerful returns against it anyway. Ivanisevic handles difficult volleys quite well, but Agassi's follow-up passing that he can line up is as good as it gets - he barely misses and usually hits a winner that leaves the man at net no chance. This is against back drop of Ivanisevic holding on back off huge serving and good volleying to anything ordinary, most of the time... but as good as possible return & passing from Agassi against a near unplayable serve

On flip side, ordinary serving from Agassi, the same calibre returning from Ivanisevic and Agassi vastly the better hitter and more consistent player off the ground

All that leads to a 5th set where anything can happen. Its Goran that throws in a poor game to get broken and put Agassi just over. Great match all around

Stats for Agassi's semi with John McEnroe - (12) Match Stats/Report - Agassi vs McEnroe, Wimbledon semi-final, 1992 | Talk Tennis (tennis-warehouse.com)