Match Stats/Report - Becker vs Chang, Year End Championship finals, 1995

Waspsting

Hall of Fame
Boris Becker beat Michael Chang 7-6(3), 6-0, 7-6(5) in the Year End Championship final, 1995 on carpet in Frankfurt, Germany

It was Becker's third and last title at the event. He would also beat Chang at the next Australian Open final for his last Slam title

Becker won 112 points, Chang 87

Becker serve-volleyed off all first serves and less than half the time off second

Serve Stats
Becker...
- 1st serve percentage (56/96) 58%
- 1st serve points won (51/56) 91%
- 2nd serve points won (19/40) 46%
- Aces 25 (1 not clean), Service Winners 5
- Double Faults 6
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (48/96) 50%

Chang...
- 1st serve percentage (55/103) 53%
- 1st serve points won (41/55) 75%
- 2nd serve points won (20/48) 42%
- Aces 8, Service Winners 1
- Double Faults 3
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (30/103) 29%

Serve Patterns
Becker served...
- to FH 42%
- to BH 52%
- to Body 6%

Chang served....
- to FH 40%
- to BH 60%

Return Stats
Becker made...
- 70 (33 FH, 37 BH), including 6 runaround FHs and 9 return-approaches
- 5 Winners (1 FH, 4 BH), including 1 runaround FH
- 21 Errors, comprising...
- 10 Unforced (6 FH, 4 BH), including 3 runaround FHs and 1 return-approach attempt
- 11 Forced (7 FH, 4 BH)
- Return Rate (70/100) 70%

Chang made...
- 42 (22 FH, 20 BH), including 2 runaround FHs & 4 return-approaches
- 4 Winners (4 FH)
- 18 Errors, comprising...
- 1 Unforced (1 BH)
- 17 Forced (5 FH, 12 BH)
- Return Rate (42/90) 47%

Break Points
Becker 4/5 (4 games)
Chang 1/3 (2 games)

Winners (including returns, excluding serves)
Becker 31 (7 FH, 8 BH, 9 FHV, 3 BHV, 4 OH)
Chang 21 (17 FH, 1 BH, 1 FHV, 2 OH)

Becker had 10 from serve-volley points
- 6 first volleys (4 FHV, 1 BHV, 1 OH)
- 4 second volleys (1 FHV, 1 BHV, 2 OH)

- 1 other FHV was hit from just inside the baseline and was not a net point

- FHs - 4 cc (1 pass), 1 dtl, 1 inside-out and 1 net chord dribbler return
- BHs - 1 cc pass, 5 dtl (3 returns), 1 inside-in return and 1 at net

Chang's FHs -
- 3 cc (1 pass)
- 4 dtl (2 returns - 1 a pass and 1 pass at net)
- 4 inside-out (pass at net)
- 4 inside-in (2 returns - 1 a pass and 1 pass)
- 2 lobs

- BH - 1 cc pass, played with Becker on the ground

- 1 OH was a dunk smash off a return-approach

Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Becker 30
- 16 Unforced (5 FH, 5 BH, 4 FHV, 2 BHV)
- 14 Forced (1 FH, 7 BH, 6 FHV)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 51.3

Chang 30
- 7 Unforced (3 FH, 2 BH, 2 FHV)
- 23 Forced (9 FH, 13 BH, 1 FHV)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 51.4

(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
Becker was...
- 40/63 (63%) at net, including...
- 28/42 (67%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 21/26 (81%) off 1st serve and...
- 7/16 (44%) off 2nd serve
--
- 6/9 (67%) return-approaching
- 0/2 forced back

Chang was...
- 11/15 (73%) at net, with...
- 1/4 (25%) return-approaching

Match Report
A frightening demonstration of power tennis from Boris Becker, especially with the serve but also at times with return. Chang, the consummate counter-puncher is left looking all at sea

Chang is one of the best returners of big serves in the games history. I wonder how often he's had 25 aces put past him? Or been on the receiving end of 50% unreturned serves? These might be career high numbers against Michael Chang

Becker opens the match with a BH dtl winner. Next point, he forces an error with the same shot. Chang however with some powerful baseline shots of his own. And then Chang breaks in a brilliant return game. He squeezes out a BH return off a powerful body serve - it's a wonder he can get that much power from that position - to force a volleying error to start the game. There's a nice FH dtl winner a few points later but the best is yet to come. A splendid BH inside-out return catches the serve-volleying Becker off guard and he can only just get the volley back in play, only for Chang to dispatch a good pass FH inside-out at net. Even that's not the best of it. Break point down, Becker slices a drop shot and takes the net. Chang runs down the ball, sends Boris back to the baseline with a lob at net and smashes the rejoinder to Becker's retrieval.

Set continues normally and Chang steps up to serve for the set at 5-4. Becker breaks with some great attacking play - return-approaching to force a passing error, a FH cc winner and a well constructed net point, where he edges forward a bit with each shot til he's at net and able to OH a winner.

The tiebreak is highlighted by Becker's thundering returns. First point, thundering FH dtl return forces Chang BH error. 4th point, thundering BH cc return forces Chang BH error. 5th point, thundering FH cc return forces Chang FH error. 8th point thundering + well angled FH inside-out return forces Chang BH error.... Chang is not an easy man to force errors out of. Some, if not all of these returns would probably have been winners against most players.

And that's just the warm up. Becker carries on in the same vein throughout the second set. First point of Chang's first service game, thundering FH cc return forces Chang FH error. Next point, Chang manages to get another thundering return back... only for Becker to whack away a FH inside-in winner off the fourth ball. To make up for Chang having the audacity to get the ball in play, Becker whacks back to back return winners next game - 1 inside-in and dtl. In between the whacking returns are improbable return-approaches, good volleying, drawing Chang to net and beating him net-to-net, thrashing groundstrokes, stinging volleys

That's just the return part of things. On serve, Boris is banging down unreturnable serves. 4 aces in the first game. 3 service winners (which would be aces against most) in the next. Just 2 return forced errors in the 3rd - and a couple of volley winners

What a set of tennis. Boris serves like Goran Ivanisevic and returns like Andre Agassi

3rd set is mostly easy holds from both players, Becker continuing to serve up a storm, but not pushing the envelope on return. Chang has his first (and last) break point since the second game of the first set, on the back of 2 Becker doubles. The American plays the point excellent, pounding a first serve hard and coming to net behind it. Becker has to 1/2 volley the third ball, Chang gets a good volley off that, but Becker's anticipated the direction of it and puts away a BHV winner
Becker tries his best to break in game 12, but Chang holds on to take a 10 points game. Shot of the game is Becker FHV'ng a winner from just inside the baseline... the ball would probably have landed on the baseline or an inch or 2 inside if he'd let it bounce

In the tiebreak, Boris serves 3 aces, 2 other serves that don't come back and a double fault. He snatches a return point early with a return-approach and after his double restores parity, a rare Chang mishit gives him the decisive mini-break

Ion Tiriac, Becker's former manager, is in attendance and Mary Carillo is commentating. Noticing him, she comments on how he and Becker had parted ways not pleasantly due to Becker feeling that Tiriac was overbearing. After the parting, Tiriac had commented that Becker was immature and would never grow up. Carillo, says she strongly disagrees with this and thinks Becker has matured greatly over the years and today, is a responsible man in charge of his life. She cites his family stability and the way he manages his finances as evidence of that
 
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Waspsting

Hall of Fame
Play & Stats
Boris' game is based on long-term percentages. He goes for many low percentage plays - winner attempt groundstrokes, approaches, returns and even second serves - probably reasoning he'll win more often than not over the whole match. The outcome of any particular point isn't particularly important

It would be an exaggeration to say everything always comes off. Note the 10 unforced return errors - mostly a product of Becker trying to be very aggressive on the shot... 'good errors'. Note the 16 unforced errors in play... a small price to pay for how damaging Becker's shots were, but his volleying at least, is a bit off. A number of easy volleys missed - small mercy for Chang. Becker's movements are also on the slow side, made to look even more so by Chang whizzing about the court

Both relative drawbacks for Becker are compensated for in other ways. He doesn't have to do much volleying with 50% unreturned serves and his hitting from the baseline is such that he doesn't have to do much running either

I thought Chang played well. He returns strongly - note Becker winning just 44% second serve-volley points won. Against the first serve, Chang tries everything from taking the return from inside the baseline to standing well deep behind it. His returning of second serves (which are powerful in themselves) is very strong and his ability to get a racquet on powerful serves is good also. The court is fast, but not unduly so... just too good from Becker

Note also the 23 errors Becker forces out of Chang. Most of these are not passing attempts - he draws them baseline to baseline and with the return. Again, just too good from Boris

Note Chang's low 7 UEs. He played a solid match. the biggest shortcoming is his service percentage - its 53% for the match and when during periods when it ebbs below that mediocre level, Becker goes to town. Still, far more credit for the way he was able to attack the second serve than discredit to Chang for not serving well

Summing up, fantastic all out attack from Boris Becker. His serving is a performance for the ages and in bursts, the returning is near the same level. Power hitting from the baseline also exceptional and only the volleys are less than tip-top class. Chang plays solidly enough and that even he can do so little returning and thwarting Becker from the back is testament to how well the winner played

Stats for the pairs Australian Open final https://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/ind...r-vs-chang-australian-open-final-1996.645736/
 

Waspsting

Hall of Fame
An example of a lopsided matchup due to styles. Chang’s game doesn’t bother Becker at all.

Technically, I'd have expected Chang to have done better than he did, match up wise

- he's got a great defensive return against strong serve, so can keep Becker's unreturned serves lower than most (even in this match, Becker's serving is just too good though)

- he's got a very good offensive return against not strong serves, so can do damage too (in this match too, does well against Becker's second serve, which isn't exactly "not strong")

- very consistent on the baseline (few UEs) and strong defensively (relatively few FEs) - seems to stack up well against Becker's all out attacking baseline game

Chang's big problem is his serve. low first serve percentages and the second is imminently attackable (and Becker is all about attacking second serves)
---

head to head and scorelines bear out your take

Split hard court matches 1-1, Becker winning 3-0 on carpet (no surprise), 1-0 Becker on clay (surprise, but possibly a one off)

If they'd played a lot... I'd have expected Chang to give as good as he got on hard courts - he was a handful for everyone on those. Carpet, no and clay is neither here nor there for these two. Hypotheticals on grass obviously favouring Becker
 

Moose Malloy

G.O.A.T.
I have their match at 91 RG on tape, Becker pretty much won that match from the baseline. Then Becker tried to do the same vs Agassi in the next round, without much success.
 
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JasonZ

Hall of Fame
Boris Becker beat Michael Chang 7-6(3), 6-0, 7-6(5) in the Year End Championship final, 1995 on carpet in Frankfurt, Germany

It was Becker's third and last title at the event. He would also beat Chang at the next Australian Open final for his last Slam title

Becker won 112 points, Chang 87

Becker serve-volleyed off all first serves and less than half the time off second

Serve Stats
Becker...
- 1st serve percentage (56/96) 58%
- 1st serve points won (51/56) 91%
- 2nd serve points won (19/40) 46%
- Aces 25 (1 not clean), Service Winners 5
- Double Faults 6
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (48/96) 50%

Chang...
- 1st serve percentage (55/103) 53%
- 1st serve points won (41/55) 75%
- 2nd serve points won (20/48) 42%
- Aces 8, Service Winners 1
- Double Faults 3
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (30/103) 29%

Serve Patterns
Becker served...
- to FH 42%
- to BH 52%
- to Body 6%

Chang served....
- to FH 40%
- to BH 60%

Return Stats
Becker made...
- 70 (33 FH, 37 BH), including 6 runaround FHs and 9 return-approaches
- 5 Winners (1 FH, 4 BH), including 1 runaround FH
- 21 Errors, comprising...
- 10 Unforced (6 FH, 4 BH), including 3 runaround FHs and 1 return-approach attempt
- 11 Forced (7 FH, 4 BH)
- Return Rate (70/100) 70%

Chang made...
- 42 (22 FH, 20 BH), including 2 runaround FHs & 4 return-approaches
- 4 Winners (4 FH)
- 18 Errors, comprising...
- 1 Unforced (1 BH)
- 17 Forced (5 FH, 12 BH)
- Return Rate (42/90) 47%

Break Points
Becker 4/5 (4 games)
Chang 1/3 (2 games)

Winners (including returns, excluding serves)
Becker 31 (7 FH, 8 BH, 9 FHV, 3 BHV, 4 OH)
Chang 21 (17 FH, 1 BH, 1 FHV, 2 OH)

Becker had 10 from serve-volley points
- 6 first volleys (4 FHV, 1 BHV, 1 OH)
- 4 second volleys (1 FHV, 1 BHV, 2 OH)

- 1 other FHV was hit from just inside the baseline and was not a net point

- FHs - 4 cc (1 pass), 1 dtl, 1 inside-out and 1 net chord dribbler return
- BHs - 1 cc pass, 5 dtl (3 returns), 1 inside-in return and 1 at net

Chang's FHs -
- 3 cc (1 pass)
- 4 dtl (2 returns - 1 a pass and 1 pass at net)
- 4 inside-out (pass at net)
- 4 inside-in (2 returns - 1 a pass and 1 pass)
- 2 lobs

- BH - 1 cc pass, played with Becker on the ground

- 1 OH was a dunk smash off a return-approach

Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Becker 30
- 16 Unforced (5 FH, 5 BH, 4 FHV, 2 BHV)
- 14 Forced (1 FH, 7 BH, 6 FHV)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 51.3

Chang 30
- 7 Unforced (3 FH, 2 BH, 2 FHV)
- 23 Forced (9 FH, 13 BH, 1 FHV)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 51.4

(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
Becker was...
- 40/63 (63%) at net, including...
- 28/42 (67%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 21/26 (81%) off 1st serve and...
- 7/16 (44%) off 2nd serve
--
- 6/9 (67%) return-approaching
- 0/2 forced back

Chang was...
- 11/15 (73%) at net, with...
- 1/4 (25%) return-approaching

Match Report
A frightening demonstration of power tennis from Boris Becker, especially with the serve but also at times with return. Chang, the consummate counter-puncher is left looking all at sea

Chang is one of the best returners of big serves in the games history. I wonder how often he's had 25 aces put past him? Or been on the receiving end of 50% unreturned serves? These might be career high numbers against Michael Chang

Becker opens the match with a BH dtl winner. Next point, he forces an error with the same shot. Chang however with some powerful baseline shots of his own. And then Chang breaks in a brilliant return game. He squeezes out a BH return off a powerful body serve - it's a wonder he can get that much power from that position - to force a volleying error to start the game. There's a nice FH dtl winner a few points later but the best is yet to come. A splendid BH inside-out return catches the serve-volleying Becker off guard and he can only just get the volley back in play, only for Chang to dispatch a good pass FH inside-out at net. Even that's not the best of it. Break point down, Becker slices a drop shot and takes the net. Chang runs down the ball, sends Boris back to the baseline with a lob at net and smashes the rejoinder to Becker's retrieval.

Set continues normally and Chang steps up to serve for the set at 5-4. Becker breaks with some great attacking play - return-approaching to force a passing error, a FH cc winner and a well constructed net point, where he edges forward a bit with each shot til he's at net and able to OH a winner.

The tiebreak is highlighted by Becker's thundering returns. First point, thundering FH dtl return forces Chang BH error. 4th point, thundering BH cc return forces Chang BH error. 5th point, thundering FH cc return forces Chang FH error. 8th point thundering + well angled FH inside-out return forces Chang BH error.... Chang is not an easy man to force errors out of. Some, if not all of these returns would probably have been winners against most players.

And that's just the warm up. Becker carries on in the same vein throughout the second set. First point of Chang's first service game, thundering FH cc return forces Chang FH error. Next point, Chang manages to get another thundering return back... only for Becker to whack away a FH inside-in winner off the fourth ball. To make up for Chang having the audacity to get the ball in play, Becker whacks back to back return winners next game - 1 inside-in and dtl. In between the whacking returns are improbable return-approaches, good volleying, drawing Chang to net and beating him net-to-net, thrashing groundstrokes, stinging volleys

That's just the return part of things. On serve, Boris is banging down unreturnable serves. 4 aces in the first game. 3 service winners (which would be aces against most) in the next. Just 2 return forced errors in the 3rd - and a couple of volley winners

What a set of tennis. Boris serves like Goran Ivanisevic and returns like Andre Agassi

3rd set is mostly easy holds from both players, Becker continuing to serve up a storm, but not pushing the envelope on return. Chang has his first (and last) break point since the second game of the first set, on the back of 2 Becker doubles. The American plays the point excellent, pounding a first serve hard and coming to net behind it. Becker has to 1/2 volley the third ball, Chang gets a good volley off that, but Becker's anticipated the direction of it and puts away a BHV winner
Becker tries his best to break in game 12, but Chang holds on to take a 10 points game. Shot of the game is Becker FHV'ng a winner from just inside the baseline... the ball would probably have landed on the baseline or an inch or 2 inside if he'd let it bounce

In the tiebreak, Boris serves 3 aces, 2 other serves that don't come back and a double fault. He snatches a return point early with a return-approach and after his double restores parity, a rare Chang mishit gives him the decisive mini-break

Ion Tiriac, Becker's former manager, is in attendance and Mary Carillo is commentating. Noticing him, she comments on how he and Becker had parted ways not pleasantly due to Becker feeling that Tiriac was overbearing. After the parting, Tiriac had commented that Becker was immature and would never grow up. Carillo, says she strongly disagrees with this and thinks Becker has matured greatly over the years and today, is a responsible man in charge of his life. She cites his family stability and the way he manages his finances as evidence of that

Yeag, Becker manages his finances pretty well :)
 
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