Match Stats/Report - Becker vs Wheaton, Wimbledon semi-final, 1991

[Waspsting]

Boris Becker beat David Wheaton 6-4, 7-6(4), 7-5 in the Wimbledon semi-final, 1991 on grass

Becker would go onto lose the final to Michael Stich. Wheaton was unseeded and had beaten Ivan Lendl and Andre Agassi among others en route to his sole Slam semi-final

Becker won 112 points, Wheaton 103

Both players serve-volleyed off all serves

(Note: I’m missing 2 Wheaton service points, both of which he won
Missing points - Set 2, Game 1, Points 1 & 3
Per presented stats, neither were aces)

Serve Stats
Becker...
- 1st serve percentage (70/112) 63%
- 1st serve points won (61/70) 87%
- 2nd serve points won (21/42) 50%
- Aces 14 (1 not clean), Service Winners 2
- Double Faults 5
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (44/112) 39%

Wheaton...
- 1st serve percentage (70/101) 69%
- 1st serve points won (53/70) 76%
- 2nd serve points won (18/31) 58%
- ?? serve points won (2/2)
- Aces 10 (1 not clean, 2 second serve), Service Winners 1
- Double Faults 3
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (41/101) 41%

Serve Patterns
Becker served...
- to FH 33%
- to BH 59%
- to Body 8%

Wheaton served...
- to FH 46%
- to BH 41%
- to Body 13%

Return Stats
Becker made...
- 57 (29 FH, 28 BH), including 4 runaround FHs
- 6 Winners (5 FH, 1 BH)
- 30 Errors, all forced...
- 30 Forced (14 FH, 16 BH)
- Return Rate (57/98) 58%

Wheaton made...
- 63 (20 FH, 43 BH)
- 8 Winners (5 FH, 3 BH)
- 28 Errors, all forced...
- 28 Forced (12 FH, 16 BH)
- Return Rate (63/107) 59%

Break Points
Becker 2/4 (3 games)
Wheaton 0/10 (3 games)

Winners (including returns, excluding serves)
Becker 38 (9 FH, 5 BH, 11 FHV, 7 BHV, 6 OH)
Wheaton 32 (9 FH, 6 BH, 6 FHV, 8 BHV, 3 OH)

Becker had 24 from serve-volley points -
- 11 first 'volleys' (7 FHV, 1 BHV, 2 OH, 1 FH at net)... 1 OH was on the bounce
- 8 second volleys (1 FHV, 5 BHV, 2 OH)
- 3 third volleys (2 FHV, 1 OH)
- 1 fourth volley (1 BHV)
- 1 re-approach volley (1 OH)... an OH on the bounce

- 12 passes - 6 returns (5 FH, 1 BH) & 6 regular (2 FH, 4 BH)
- FH returns - 4 cc, 1 inside-out
- BH return - 1 inside-out
- regular FHs - 1 dtl, 1 inside-out
- regular BHs - 1 cc, 2 dtl, 1 running-down-drop-shot at net cc

- regular FH - 1 cc

Wheaton had 18 from serve-volley points -
- 12 first 'volleys' (5 FHV, 5 BHV, 1 OH, 1 FH at net)
- 6 second volleys (1 FHV, 3 BHV, 2 OH)

- 13 passes - 8 returns (5 FH, 3 BH) & 5 regular (3 FH, 2 BH)
- FH returns - 2 cc, 1 inside-out, 2 inside-in
- BH return - 2 inside-out, 2 inside-in
- regular FHs - 2 cc, 1 inside-out
- regular BHs - 1 cc, 1 dtl

Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Becker 23
- 5 Unforced (2 FHV, 3 BHV)
- 18 Forced (8 FH, 4 BH, 3 FHV, 1 BHV, 2 BH1/2V)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 54

Wheaton 27
- 8 Unforced (1 BH, 4 FHV, 3 BHV)... with 1 BH pass attempt
- 19 Forced (2 FH, 10 BH, 1 FHV, 4 BHV, 1 BH1/2V, 1 Tweener)... with 1 BH at net pass attempt
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 57.5

(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
Becker was...
- 70/97 (72%) at net, including...
- 66/91 (73%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 45/54 (83%) off 1st serve and...
- 21/37 (57%) off 2nd serve
---
- 2/2 forced back/retreated

Wheaton was...
- 62/94 (66%) at net, including...
- 62/90 (69%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 43/60 (72%) off 1st serve and...
- 17/28 (61%) off 2nd serve
- 2/2 off ?? serve
---
- 0/2 forced back

Match Report
Strong serving, serve-volleying, point here, point there match. Virtually nothing between the two players

If you have to put the result down to something, call it chokey from Wheaton. He has lapses at end of sets to lose them (as opposed to Boris raising is game to win them). Where Boris is concerned, this is particularly worth noting because its common for him to snatch sets at the end with a striking return game, after having done little on return for the set

Both players win same number of points they serve (Boris 112, Wheaton 101)
Break points - Boris 2/4 (3 games), Wheaton 0/10 (3 games)

Just what it looks like; Boris coming away with holds when in tough spot, Wheaton not. Amidst all that, Wheaton if anything has slightly better of things (as in, holds more readily during match staple both-players-holding routinely trend)

Both breaks by Boris and almost every failure to break by Wheaton though sees the loser falter some

End of first set, having lost 2 points for 4 holds, Wheaton gets himself broken. From deuce, misses putaway easy FHV and then panic-ily retreats to baseline after hitting a good, deep half-volley first ‘volley’ that would have left him in great position to stay at net commandingly and loses point when Boris takes net
Loses serve for second and last time with a couple of easy volley misses

In all cases, kinds of errors he wasn’t making

And to be clear, Boris’ contribution to the breaks isn’t inconsiderable, but 2 helping hands from opponent isn’t something one would want to count on in the semi finals, particularly from someone who keeps both hands in pocket rest of the time

Wheaton also has Boris down 0-40 twice. Boris gets himself into hole first time and serves his way out. Wheaton digs the hole second time and Boris does find first serves for rest of game, though they’re not great ones and Wheaton happens to miss the makeable returns

Both players serve-volley 100% of the time. Powerful first serves from both, with Boris able to get the wide ones off more often (also, Wheaton not great at moving wide to cover them). Not bad second serving from either either

First serve in - Boris 63%, Wheaton 69%
First serve won - Boris 87%, Wheaton 76%
Second serve won - Boris 50%, Wheaton 58%

Just looking at that, would fancy Wheaton as being more likely winner

Both delivering 70 first serves, Boris with 16 aces/service winners from them, Wheaton 11
Boris does have better first serve, but sans those wide aces, usually doesn’t get them out of reach so the ace rate not best indicator of quality of serve here

Returning is choppy from both players, even by grass standards. Plenty of mishits, still more un-clean hits. A truly clean hit return stands out. A perfect, flat bullet BH inside-out winner from a slight push from Wheaton stands out here - and brings home the general lack of clean returning

For Boris, just not a great return day. Wheaton with 58% second serve points won isn’t great from his point of view. Wheaton doesn’t move well for returns. Early on in particular, he moves around fair bit while returning, much to Boris’ ludicrous dismay who complains about it both to the Chair and then later Wheaton himself directly. Not just complains, but expressly tells him not to do it (earlier having asked the Chair to relay the same message), before turning tail and walking off as Wheaton moves to net to have a conversation

In 1985 final, Boris had moved around as his opponent was about to serve more than anyone I’ve seen
He’s either not all there mentally (he’d be even more erratic of behaviour in the final), or a master of gamesmanship. It works, and in time, Wheaton moves around less

Occasional, powerful return from both players that tends to get down low. No subtlety to any of it - bang and powerful, amidst not clean returning in general

Dumb move from Wheaton to serve 46% to FH, 41% to BH
Boris has 5 FH return winners, just 1 BH and 14 FH returns errors to 16 BH. Unless one has very good reason to serve majority to FH, it rarely has any benefits - and Boris Becker is one of the last players against whom its likely to be good move

Good move by Wheaton to temper his serve to tune of getting 69% first serves in. Boris isn't slow on the return and more capable of getting powerful returns off against first serves than Wheaton is. Still, Wheaton’s done dandily winning 61% second serve-volley points (Boris 57%), while double faulting less (10% to Boris’ 12%) and serving a second serve ace. If it hasn’t proved necessary, its wise pre-emptive play

Unreturned serves Boris 39%, Wheaton 41%, with Boris double faulting more often and both players returning choppily leaves Wheaton with advantage going into volley-pass contest

 

[Waspsting]

On the ‘volley’ -
Winners - Boris 25, Wheaton 18
UEs - Boris 5, Wheaton 7
FEs - both 6

On the pass -
Winners - Boris 12, Wheaton 14
Errors - Boris 12, Wheaton 13 (1 UE for Wheaton)

Good passing numbers. Both players, when they draw weak volley good at drilling the follow up pass. That’s minority of course, with most returns leaving comfy or easy volleys, so not good look passes
Excluding returns, Boris 6 passing winners, Wheaton 5, both with about double the passing errors

The routine volleying isn’t particularly good though. Net high volleys often aren’t putaway and leave reasonable passing chances. Look at Boris with winners from a fourth volley, 3 from third volleys to go with 11 first ‘volleys’ and 8 second volleys. This isn’t him making tough volleys well to keep from losing point until he can win it, its him not being decisive on normal volleys around net high. Putsaway what’s there to putaway, but middling on the net high volley, placing it not far from Wheaton. But neither player is able to capitilize much and passing winners comes from good looks after drawing weak volley, not fair look chances that both players’ net-high volleying presents. Wheaton’s more up and down - sometimes putting away the routine volleying superbly, at others, leaving them where they can be reached (more importantly, missing more and most importantly, doing so at bad times)

Boris moves better at net. Wheaton struggles some against wide balls. Difficult volleying is largely coping with power and there aren’t a lot of shoelace volleys to be made. Boris does better at making them, so for volleying FEs to be equal, Wheaton must have got a few more powerful passes off

In all, Boris winning 73% serve-volleying points to Wheaton’s 68%, which seems more favourable to Boris than action looks
First serve-volleying, Boris leads 83% to 72%
Second serve-volleying, Wheaton leads 61% to 57%

If Wheaton’s done well to balance force of serve with in-count, Boris has the same. 63% in is very high for him (he’s typically around 55%), while winning 87% of those points. Noting Wheaton’s inability to return healthy first serves better (as in, getting good return off higher lot of time); Do-able, if not easy - this isn’t a full blown bombing serve showing from Boris

Gist - close to even, Boris volleying a little better in making difficult volleys against powerful returns and the odd low one, passing and returning about the same. Enough to cancel out his slight handicap in freebies and double faults? Just about

Ergo, both players winning same number of points they serve
Just a point here, point there fixes the result - Boris getting some first serves in (not necessarily particularly good ones) when in trouble, Wheaton faltering on volleys when he’s in danger. More the latter.

Match Progression
Wheaton has better of early part of match. Starts the match with 2 aces (1 second serve, 1 first) and holds to love. Boris by contrast misses couple of routine volleys and knocks ordinary volleys in play in his first hold, which lasts 14 points. Just 1 break point on which Wheaton mishits a second return. Couple of good volleys from Boris too - difficult ones to come away with a fourth volley BHV winner and a lovely angled first BHV winner near the end

Wheaton responds with another love hold

At 4-4, Wheaton’s lost 2 service points, Boris 10. He’s forced into couple BH1/2V errors in one of the games where he’s down 15-30

And then the break. From 40-15 down, Boris strikes couple of powerful, low returns to get to deuce. Wheaton misses easiest of FHVs to go down break point. On it, he makes a good (or lucky) half-volley deep down the middle but foolishly retreats to baseline. Boris gathers himself and takes net to seal the break

2 double faults from Boris sees him down 15-30 on the serve-out. He bizarrely directs Wheaton to stop moving about while Boris is about to serve, having earlier told the Chair to give the same instruction. Wheaton starts approaching net to have the conversation Boris has started and Boris walks away. Boris wins next 3 points to seal the set. He elects to move back to baseline after a back-pedalling OH on the last point, and knocks away a FH cc winner from there

Wheaton has better of second set too

He’s got 0-40 in game 4 from 2 more double faults and striking a FH cc passing winner after drawing first half-volley. Aces and a good second serve to body gets Boris to deuce and he goes on to hold

Wheaton faces 2 break points following game, with some good powerful returns from Boris. Pick of his shots is a finely played, running-down-drop-volley BH cc at net passing winner. Also misses couple of decent look passes and Wheaton draws return errors on the break points before going on to hold

Boris holds from 15-40 down for 4-4, brought up by a pair of BH inside-in return pass winners. He lets out a shout when saving second break point with a FHV winner that could reasonably have been called for hindrance, though Wheaton had no chance to retrieve the shot. Pity it wasn’t - kind of mood Boris is in, his reaction might have matched famous outbursts like “you can’t be serious”

Routine holds to tiebreak and a very interesting one it proves. Just the 1 mini-break in it, a powerful return from Boris hard forces a BH1/2V error for 3-2. Soft second serve from him point after but Wheaton misses the return

Other that that - Boris makes couple of tough volleys to stay in points in he eventually wins, leaves a ball that lands in for a winner, a bad call that allows a Boris ace, the Chair calling a let to what would have been another ace that Boris is angry about (not because he disagrees with call, but because if net chord judge didn’t’ call it, why did the Chair? reasoning)... lot happening in just 11 points

Wheaton has chances in opening game of third set. At 30-30, he’s got an easy, lined up pass that he knocks wide before Boris holds
Blistering, flat BH inside-out return-pass winner by Wheaton next go around is probably hardest hit shot of the match. By this stage, Wheaton isn’t moving around much when returning

Routine holds to 4-4 when Wheaton unleashes with 3 passing winners (FH cc after drawing first 1/2volley, BH cc after powerful return draws soft volley and FH cc return) to reach 0-40. Misses next 5 returns. Only the first of them is a second serve, which he misses wide. The others aren’t overwhelming serves and would fancy getting at least 1 or 2 back in play

In due time, Wheaton’s broken to end the match. Terrible BHV miss early and a comfy second volley miss along with a Boris FH cc return-pass winner raises break/match point, on which Boris nails another return-pass winner, this time FH inside-out. 2 second serves directed to FH, both getting walloped for winners in the game

Summing up, point-here,-point-there match. If anything, the loser Wheaton has edge in match overall, but chokes a little to lose sets and to lesser extent, not move ahead

Both players with healthy serves, Becker able to get them troublingly wide more often
Both returning choppily, with a lot of mishits and un-clean strikes. Wheaton’s movements on the return aren’t too good and he’s at his best when moving around as opponent is about to serve
Decent volleying by both. Becker isn’t too decisive on net high volleys, but is better at making the difficult ones (powerful and/or low), Wheaton’s volleying quality to regulation stuff varies
Both passing well after drawing weak first volley, but neither able to make many good passes from normal look passes (which the routine volleying of both players leaves a fair few off)

Just about even. At key moments, Wheaton falters, Becker is solid

Stats for the final between Michael Stich and Becker - Match Stats/Report - Stich vs Becker, Wimbledon final, 1991 | Talk Tennis (tennis-warehouse.com)

 

[jrepac]

A distant memory....I recall being impressed with Wheaton beating both Lendl and Agassi. Figured he had a good shot vs. Boris. I recall seeing a bit of this one (maybe more) and feeling like he gagged a bit. Perhaps toppling Boris was one win too many to expect? But, he got to QF also, didn't he, versus Washington? Or maybe I'm thinking of someone else.

 

[Waspsting]

A distant memory....I recall being impressed with Wheaton beating both Lendl and Agassi. Figured he had a good shot vs. Boris. I recall seeing a bit of this one (maybe more) and feeling like he gagged a bit. Perhaps toppling Boris was one win too many to expect? But, he got to QF also, didn't he, versus Washington? Or maybe I'm thinking of someone else.

Grass matches are strange

You can get exact same scoreline for 2 matches and 1 of them looks like winner is 2 leagues better than the loser, the other they're virtually equal

This one struck me as virtually equal

In light of this nature of grass matches, especially serve-volley ones, I would have hypothesized there'd be a lot of upsets. Someone like Wheaton - who hasn't done much in his career, neck and neck with the great Boris Becker

Reality? Wimbledon has seen the clearest dominance by a single player over given periods - be it Borg, Sampras, Federer, Djokovic with likes of Becker and McEnroe not far behind
I suppose one has to attribute it to mental factors, like gagging and clutching. What else is there?

 

[HBK4life]

I wish this had been Agassi. I remember he was up 2 sets to 1 against Wheaton and had to have his thigh wrapped at one point.

 

[NedStark]

I wish this had been Agassi. I remember he was up 2 sets to 1 against Wheaton and had to have his thigh wrapped at one point.

I think Boris would have edged out, since Agassi was worse and Becker was better than their Wimbledon 1992 versions.

 

[HBK4life]

I think Boris would have edged out, since Agassi was worse and Becker was better than their Wimbledon 1992 versions.

Idk. Boris ego might have tripped him up.

 

[dryeagle]

Wheaton hung around Wimby and joined the NBC booth for a portion of the Becker-Stich final on Sunday. He intimated he was the better player in this match given all the break point opportunities. Thought it was weird.

 

[HBK4life]

Wheaton hung around Wimby and joined the NBC booth for a portion of the Becker-Stich final on Sunday. He intimated he was the better player in this match given all the break point opportunities. Thought it was weird.

I remember reading people thought he had a high opinion of himself.