Match Stats/Report - Carretero vs Corretja, Hamburg final, 1996

[Waspsting]

Roberto Carretero beat Alex Corretja 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 in the Hamburg final, 1996 on clay

Carretero was a qualifier and this is the only tournament he won. Corretja was unseeded and would finish runner-up at the event again in 1998

Carretero won 114 points, Corretja 118

Corretja serve-volleyed about a third off the time off first serves

Serve Stats
Carretero...
- 1st serve percentage (94/110) 85%
- 1st serve points won (54/94) 57%
- 2nd serve points won (12/16) 75%
- Double Faults 1
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (5/110) 5%

Corretja...
- 1st serve percentage (64/122) 52%
- 1st serve points won (46/64) 72%
- 2nd serve points won (28/58) 48%
- Aces 3
- Double Faults 1
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (26/122) 21%

Serve Patterns
Carretero served...
- to FH 8%
- to BH 92%

Corretja served...
- to FH 19%
- to BH 77%
- to Body 4%

Return Stats
Carretero made...
- 95 (58 FH, 37 BH), including 39 runaround FHs & 2 return-approaches
- 4 Winners (4 FH), including 1 runaround FH
- 23 Errors, comprising...
- 12 Unforced (8 FH, 4 BH), including 5 runaround FHs
- 11 Forced (2 FH, 9 BH), including 1 runaround FH & 1 return-approach attempt
- Return Rate (95/121) 79%

Corretja made...
- 104 (29 FH, 75 BH), including 20 runaround FHs
- 2 Winners (1 FH, 1 BH)
- 5 Errors, comprising...
- 2 Unforced (1 FH, 1 BH), including 1 runaround FH
- 3 Forced (3 BH)
- Return Rate (104/109) 95%

Break Points
Carretero 6/13 (8 games)
Corretja 5/9 (6 games)

Winners (including returns, excluding serves)
Carretero 49 (18 FH, 8 BH, 11 FHV, 5 BHV, 7 OH)
Corretja 25 (10 FH, 7 BH, 2 FHV, 2 BHV, 4 OH)

Carretero's FHs - 2 dtl (1 pass), 1 dtl/inside-out, 5 inside-out (2 passes), 10 inside-in (4 returns - 1 runaround, 3 passes)
- BHs - 2 cc passes, 4 dtl, 1 longline pass, 1 drop shot

- 4 from serve-volley points - 3 first volleys (3 FHV) & 1 second volley (1 BHV)

- 1 OH was on the bounce

Corretja's FHs - 5 cc (2 passes - 1 return), 2 dtl (1 at net, 1 pass), 1 inside-out, 1 inside-in, 1 drop shot
- BH passes - 2 cc, 3 dtl (1 return), 1 longline, 1 lob

- 3 from serve-volley points (1 FHV, 1 BHV, 1 OH), all first volleys... the FHV was a net chord trickler

Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Carretero 66
- 48 Unforced (31 FH, 11 BH, 2 FHV, 2 BHV, 2 OH)
- 18 Forced (6 FH, 8 BH, 2 FHV, 1 BHV, 1 BH1/2V)... with 1 FH running-down-drop-shot at net
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 52.1

Corretja 59
- 22 Unforced (12 FH, 9 BH, 1 OH)
- 37 Forced (22 FH, 13 BH, 1 BHV, 1 Sky Hook)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 45.5

(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
Carretero was...
- 47/70 (67%) at net, including...
- 7/11 (64%) serve-volleying, all 1st serves
---
- 2/2 return-approaching
- 1/3 (33%) forced back/retreated

Corretja was...
- 26/39 (67%) at net, including...
- 15/23 (65%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 14/22 (64%) off 1st serves and...
- 1/1 off 2nd serve
---
- 0/1 forced back

Match Report
Fascinating, all-court match. From a foundation of heavy top-spiny groundstrokes, Carratero is the aggressor, with his attacking play increasing with his confidence as match goes on. Back-away FH’ng is the spearhead, and net play is as prominent as baseline point-construction and shot-making in it. Corretja looks to utilize serve as a weapon, serve-volleys liberally and is content to counter-punch from the back. His returning a below-par serve ineffectively shapes action, and is not good

49 winners, 48 UEs from Carratero (hereafter referred to as Rob) is top notch. Throw in 37 errors forced and it goes to extra special, top notch territory

Rob leads winners 49-25 and errors forced 37-18 to come out ahead in aggressively ended points by exactly double 86-43. When attacker-defender dynamics are so clearly set, in competitive matches like this one, its invariably the case that the defender is more solid from the back in just rallying

Neutral UEs - Rob 10, Cor 13

Rob does have more UEs by huge 48-22 amount, but that’s due to aggressive errors. Just rallying, he shades Cor, whose game is so much about being steady. There’s so little just-trading-groundies action going on because Rob seizes it to go on the attack. Without haste. He builds up points with power, weight of shot (heavy spin) and directions until he’s attacking, Cor defending

With consistency thus put on back-burner, contest becomes all about Rob’s attacking efficiency. How many winners he can hit, how many errors he can force - and how many errors he makes trying. He makes a good few, but a considerably less than that double degree advantage he has in aggressively ended points

Whole dynamic sounds like a recipe for a thrashing

Yet Cor ends up winning 4 more points in the match, despite losing 2 more games. That’s a little deceptive in that he also serves 12 more points, but its no thrashing at least. How come?

Unreturneds - Cor 21%, Rob 5%
With servers of this calibre on clay, freebies tend to be unimportant. 1 guy has a little more, 1 a little less and amount isn’t much. Usually under 20%

21% is a nice yield for Cor in that light, and Rob’s beneath-the-ground low 5% makes Cor’s net advantage substantial (21 points, to be exact). In effect, its like a fast court match where one guy has much better serve, one much better court player - to extent of Cor relatively ‘serve-botting’ (21% freebies is far cry from ‘serve-botting’ - but that’s the effect with a 16% advantage)

And yet, Cor’s ineffective returning is heart of the playing dynamics that lead Rob dominating action. With a ludicrous chart-topping 95% returning rate, how can that be?

His returning is soft, and leaves Rob free to dominate rallies. With Rob’s serve being so weak that it’s a big minus to not return it with authority

Potentially, Cor’s returning and follow-up play is good to win. He’s giving Rob lots of room to mess up and beat himself. Normal enough on clay, and probably good to beat a qualifier ranked 143, who’d never win another tournament

He sure doesn’t play like a qualifier ranked 143, who’d never win another tournament. To repeat (because its worth repeating) 49 winners, 48 UEs, 37 errors forced

Who is Roberto Carretero? He won the French Open Junior title in ‘93 beating future Senior winner Albert Costa in the final. He’s a qualifer ranked 143 here (Cor for that matter was ranked 66th and unseeded). This was the only tournament he’d win. He’d lose first round in upcoming French Open. Career win-loss record 23-45

First thing to to notice about him are his thighs. They’re beyond tree-trunk huge, and look more like something might be anatomically wrong with him than anything else. Service motion is similar to Andre Agassi’s, with with little more body turn

And his game? Gentle serve, usually kicked. Likes to runaround to hit FH returns in both courts. Likes to stay in ad court and back-away to play top spinny FHs inside-out and inside-in. Not afraid to take net. 1-handed BH and stays very side-on in playing BH cc’s, to an uncomfortable looking extent, but willing and able to take on aggressive BH dtl’s where he looks much better

Nice form on the volley, better than most clay courters, but misses some very easy ones. Movement is normal, average but for one oddity. Occasionally, he’s very slow to react to normal balls. Not in his movements, but in response. Almost like he hadn’t noticed his opponent making a shot and starting his movements half a second late to get into a jam dealing with

For that matter, Corretja’s game is a little different from what I’ve seen of him too. 20 runaround FHs returns and serve-volleying 36% of the time off first serves aren’t the kind of thing he’d come to be known for. Thorough disinclination to take on BH dtl against FH inside-outs might be unlike his future game too

Basic Stats and Serve & Return
First serve in - Rob 85%, Cor 52%
First serve won - Rob 57%, Cor 72%
Second serve won - Rob 75%, Cor 48%

A little weird

Cor dependent on his first serve is apparent. He goes for bigger and bigger as match goes on, while also serve-volleying more and more

Both winning rate and in-count goes down
First 2 sets, serves at 56%, winning 74%
Next 2 sets, serves at 49%, wins 70%

Winning rate going down slightly can be put down to Rob playing better and better. Its still a lot higher than what Rob can manage. The lowered in count, is bigger problem as his second serve pionts he wins takes a nosedive across halves

First 2 sets, wins 54% second serve points
Next 2, its 44%

Again, product of Rob playing better and better. And Cor’s only response to ‘raise his level’ is serving bigger. Its not a dangerous serve regardless of how big he goes, but that’s all he’s got

Rob’s first serve is best thought of as a second serve. In which light, 57% points won is good
The second serve points being so high is the weird part, and gets at core foundation of action - Cor’s inability to return high ball with authority

Rob kicks most serves, first and second. Kicking the seconds with even safer spin and it bouncing up correspondingly. When ball gets up high, regardless of its pace, Cor returns softly and usually short

 

[Waspsting]

Rob with 85% first serves in, 92% of all serves directed to BH, no aces, 5/110 unreturned. Very predictable stuff - weak serve (in terms of pace), very predictably directed. He serves from wider to get serves from ad court wide to Cor’s BH

Clearly, no trouble making the return for Cor. But short and ineffectively. Serves get up to his chest and even shoulder, he waits to take the BHs at high point and from that height, can’t get any punch on return

Strange habit of Cor’s. He starts almost every return game with a runaround FH return (Rob’s first serve being thus treated is further indicator of how slow it is). Subsequently though, plays BHs to exact same serves in deuce court. Doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to it. He’d do well to runaround more - his runaround FH returns are ok, not leaving invitations to take charge the way his BH returns do. Rob’s not serving anything different first point of the game, so if Cor can runaround for that, he can runaround subsequent ones. But doesn’t

There’s a good reason Rob serves 92% to BH - it’s a feeble return. Shoulder height ball to 1-handed BH is a tough game. This match is perfect illustration of the difficulties of that situation for the returner. 20 runaround FH returns looks like a lot, but Cor would have done well to do even more of it. In ad court, Rob serves from a bigger than normal distance from service line to enhance the angle out wide. Its here that he’s most effective. Serves are still slow, but wide enough that running around would be difficult, and Cor’s punty returns are readily punished with back-away FHs off the bat

Its likely that Cor’s strategy is to just put balls in play and have Rob mess up with errors. Credit Rob for executing as well as he does. Discredit to Cor for not adjusting when that plan is failing. It seems more like he just doesn’t have ability to return better than chooses not to

No BH dtl returns, with that side left largely open by Rob’s wider serving position in ad court. No well-angled BH cc returns to force a first BH. And most certainly, no deep or powerful returns that might curb Rob’s command of third ball

Rob himself returns with good force. His remarkable 39 runaround FH returns showcase his preferance. Does it in both courts - if he can do it to Cor in ad court, Cor not being able to do the same reflects another limitation in Cor’s returning though Rob’s serves tend to be wider on that side. Whacks them more in ad court.

3 FH return-inside-in passing winners. They’re not even really inside-in, more like longline. Of course against first serve, and he just thumps them straight for winners, not far from the serve-volleying Cor

More appropriate to call serve-volleying to Rob’s FH stupid than serve-volleying to his BH wise. Not that BH is wanting for force. Its better than Cor’s, whose serves don’t bounce up quite as much

Lot of subtleties here, but main take-away is Cor’s inability to return with authority. Slow, high bouncing serves to his BH, especially out wide, see him return softly and short. He returns with remarkable consistency and barely misses a return, but would need opponent to mess up to win bulk of points

On flip side, as Rob plays better and better, Cor shifts to looking at his serve more and more as a chief weapon. It’s a better serve than Rob’s, but not the kind of thing one would want to rely on as weapon #1

Play - Baseline & Net
Rob both looks to and does dictate action. Cor shows little inclination or ability to even try

From baseline, his base-hitting is heavy top-spin stuff. Its heavy enough to be uphill task to rally neutrally against. Likes to lean over and play FHs both inside-out and inside-in. Inside-outs are powerful and and have Cor reactively playing BHs back, sometimes pushed further to defending. Little dtl counter-attacking by Cor. From there, Rob does one of 2 things

- FH inside-in for the winning shot. He’s got large 6 winners on that shot alone even without returns (on which he has 4 more). Putting that in perspective, Cor has 10 FH winners and 7 BHs (both yields including everything - returns, net shots, passes - all of it)

More importantly, Cor has massive 22 FH FEs, good lot of them drawn by FH inside-in. Putting that in perspective, Rob has 18 FEs total, Cor 15 non-FH ones

- approach off particularly powerful FH inside-out, which he builds up to. Keeps aiming those loaded inside-outs until drawing weak ball - and then comes in
Rallying to net, Rob is 38/57, and with some serve-volley thrown in, he’s at net 70 times overall., winning 67%. Not what you’d expect from a top-spinny clay courter

Rob has nice form on the volley, with particularly elegant looking BHV and nice touch. Misses some very easy volleys though. He’s got 6 forecourt UEs in all. More than worth it for 23 winners and forcing about 20 passing errors. Willing to serve-volley a bit too for variety, on which he’s 7/11. Not much, but handy option to mix it up a little. It’s a luxury to win that much behind a serve that’s drawn just 5% unreturned and again, points to how ineffective Cor’s returning is. He’s a little awkward looking on the volley when coming in behind the serve, as opposed to over-powering FH inside-outs

Cor doesn’t do much but react. On his baseline first serve points, can keep rallies conventionally cc. Trading FH cc’s is minority rally, with honours about even - with balance of play (as in, whose dictating) more even

Baseline to baseline -
- Winners - Rob 17 (12 FH, 5 BH), Cor 6 (6 FH)
- Errors forced (approximately) - Rob 10-15, Cor negligible
- UEs - Rob 42, Cor 21

With neutral UEs - Rob 10, Cor 13, contest is primarily between Rob and himself; his success rate attacking or how many errors he makes to hit all those winners and force all those errors

Above stats are clear indicator of who back-court aggressor is, and extent to which Cor is passive. Attacking efficiency is best looked at considering all shots (not just baseline-to-baseline), since Rob’s offence weaves net and baseline play so thoroughly

Rob with 18 attacking UEs, to force 37 errors
Cor with 6 attacking UEs to force 18 errors

Rob with 20 winner attempt UEs to hit 49 winners
Cor with 3 winner attempt UEs to hit 25 winners

Good enough from Rob to win. In particular, 18 attacking UEs for forcing 37 errors on clay is excellent
Cor’s ratios are much better, but he’s on offence so rarely its not enough to turn tide of result. His high efficiency is another reason why match is competitive

Does he play passively by choice, trusting Rob to miss going for too much? Or is he incapable of dictating action or at least, keeping Rob from doing so so that he’s forced to leave result in Rob’s hands?

Looks like the latter. Some leading FH play on first serve points is extent of Cor taking charge. And he ends up serve-volleying large 36% of the time - more and more as match goes on - to avoid baseline rallies altogether

Excluding the 3 aces, Cor wins 74% not serve-volleying and 64% serve-volleying. And the bigger serves he goes for when serve-volleying lowers his in count, forcing him to play baseline rallies against the more proactive and powerful Rob

Its not a well judged or played match for Cor - from not adjusting his returning to how he goes about coping with tackling Rob’s game

Not to forget, Cor himself was unseeded and ranked 66 at the time of this match. He plays like someone with those qualifications and its not reasonable to hold him to standard of elite clay courter in light of future success

Carretero meanwhile, plays unbelievably well not only for his ranking, but even more, how little he’d achieve ever afterward. Must be the best of match of his life - and it’d be a jewel in best matches of any clay courter

Comparison with ‘94 French Open final
Playing dynamics invite ready comparison with the French Open final between Sergi Bruguera and Alberto Berasategui

Rob corresponds to Berasategui - looking to attack with FH inside-in and inside-outs from ad court
Cor corresponds to Bruguera - reacting to it

Comparing the matches
- Brug returns with much better force than Cor does, making it harder for opponent to get on the attack and thus, making the attack weaker
- on the FH inside-out vs BH cc exchanges, much of the ‘94 match is neutral rallying while here, its mostly Rob leading or attacking, Cor reacting or defending
- Rob’s BH cc’ng is better than Bers’. Neither look too comfy, but Bers’ more. Rob looks downright good attackign dtl, Bers much less so
- Brug able to counter with BH dtl attackings shots at times. Cor, virtually 0
- Rob parleying power FH inside-outs to take net. Not much net play by Bers by contrast

Interesting 2 matches played in unusual way, with players in different roles being winners of the matches. Brug’s better BH - heavier shot that can stand up to attempts to boss - stand out. And most importantly, the BH return - Brug’s decent, Cor’s on feeble side

Brug’s also a lot more commanding in more orthodox rallies with players in center of court trading cc shots

@I get cramps - you might find this part interesting

 

[Waspsting]

Match Progression
It takes 5 minutes for Rob to announce exactly what he’s all about. After Cor holds to 15 to open, its Rob’s turn

4 points and 4 winners later (FH dtl, and third ball FH inside-in, BH dtl, FH inside-in again), back to Cor. Ro starts that game with another BH dtl winner, before finally missing a FH winner attempt. Adds a drop shot winner from up the court to raise 2 break points and tries another dropper on the first of them. Bad shot, that Cor runs down easily and whacks away for his first winner. Goes on to eventually holds with his first serve-volley, where his volley trickles off the net chord for a winner

That’s action for the whole match. Rob going for it

From 2-2, Cor wins 4 games on the trot. FH misses of all kinds (neutral, attacking and winner attempts) get Rob broken first time. He crowds net game after, but Cor’s up to holding his nerve to hit good passes (along with Rob missing an easy BHV he’d set up with a lovely BH inside-out)

Cor dispatches a FH cc winner of his own from routine position to start next game. Rob serve-volleys and takes net some more, and Cor nails to further FH cc passing winners (1 return, 1 regular) to wrap up the set

Rob has 12 winners (8 of them baseline-to-baseline), 16 UEs for the set. Cor 7 winners (3 passes), 2 UEs. Both force 5 errors. One of those matches - 1 guy storming, other weathering it

Cor raises his own aggression in second set, and Rob continues to unwind and go for his shots. He breaks to start, outlasting a couple of errors from Cor, after dispatching a FH return-pass winner
Cor hits back at once to love, with a nice BH cc pass winner in their

Unusual FHV winner from Rob awhile later against a very powerful struck ball right at his body. He contorts himself to get racquet on ball, which drops in for a winner. Cor blasts the next past just as hard, forcing BH1/2V error

Rob does well to BHOH back-pedalling and shot proves just good enough to win the point as he holds for 4-4

Rob grabs the decisive break right after. 30-15 up, Cor gently pats an OH from no-man’s land to approach and is met with a power pass he can’t handle. Couple of good FH inside-outs from Rob set up a FH inside-in winner after that to raise break point, on which Cor misses his own FH inside-out, a mild shot

Powerful FH plays sees Rob see out set. Odd point where he hits a not good first volley serve-volleying and is retreating to baseline as Cor slaps away a FH cc winner, but a big winning FH dtl ends the set

Getting a set on the board seems to free Rob up some (and he hasn’t exactly been chained before). Starts set in vein of big groundies to take charge early in rallies or series of big ones to hammer down Cor. In second half, switches to coming to net behind big groundies, especially FH inside-outs to finish

Like previous set, trade of breaks to start. 4 winners from Rob in breaking to 30, the last 3 in a row (BHV, BH cc pass and FH inside-out pass). Double fault and attacking errors, including an easy FHV on break point, return the break

Back to back long holds follow. Cor serve-volleys regularly to hold 8 point game. Rob’s in a 0-40 hole after that, having missed 2 FH winner attempts (inside-in and inside-out) and switches to net play after that. He’s at net 5 of remaining 7 points - the exceptions being points he wins with a big FH inside-in and a big FH inside-out miss - as he holds for 2-2

Apparently, he had fun in forecourt, and he’s there 5/5 points to secure his next hold for 3-3

The flurry of aggression seems to have got to Cor, who starts game 7 going for bigger serves. Consequently, lands just 2/8, but 2 draw errors and he’s sitting pretty at 40-15 when he finally lands a first serve that he serve-volleys behind. Gets passes BH longline and Rob goes on to break, finishing up with 2 net points (1 from FH inside-out approach, 1 FH inside-in)

Rob serves out set awhile later to 15 - opening game with BH dtl winner, finishing with a neatly angled drop FHV one

If third set was Rob freed up, what to call him in the fourth? Fully unleashed, maybe
He’s up on the baseline to return, return-approaches a bit, serve-volleys a bit. Uses approaching more than back-court shot-making (though approaches are set up by big power groundies) to attack

Unlike earlier sets, there isn’t much competitive tension as Rob races out to 4-0 lead. Breaks to open, finishing with a runaround, precisely placed looped FH inside-in return winner. Breaks again with winning FHs (inside-in winner set up by series of powerful inside-outs, an inside-out pass winner and a big dtl that sets up a BHV winner)

Cor strikes a purple patch of passing to snag a break back for 2-4, begining and ending the game with BH dtl passing winners. Starts the next game with 1 too, but he has to save a break point later on with a FH inside-in winner. Finally holds the 12 point game with a lovely BH lob winner

Couple of strange shots from Rob next game. Big swinging FHV from baseline wins him a point and he loses one with a queer, pushed dtl attacking FH

Curiously, Rob, who’d traded on net play, resorts to power-baseling to serve out the match. Forces 3 ground winners with such shots, while missing a couple to reach 40-30 and match point. Another big FH inside-in and this time, he follows it to net for only tiem to dispatch a smash to end things

Summing up, awesome display from Carretero. He leads with back-away FHs, which are powerful in both directions but also top spin loaded for control. BHs not in play as much, but is steady cc and damaging dtl. And he augments all the power FH’ng with trips to net to follow - the FH inside-in is good to finish points from the back, the inside-outs enough to come in behind and finish without much fear of a strong pass to face

Corretja looks to keep ball in play and weather the storm. Offensively, he looks to use serve to be damaging and his serve, though not bad, is just not powerful enough to be likely to do that. Hoping his opponent misses is extent of what he’s forced into

Match is also a study in the problems the 1-handed BH has against high, spin loaded ball. Carretero serves without much power but constantly to BH with kick serves. Corretja almost literally returns all of it, but flaccidly, often short, which starts the process of the winner going on the attack. Can’t ask for much more than a 95% return rate, but more is needed against hurricane of Carretero’s showing

If a player is remembered for just 1 match, this is a good one to be it. Carretero is a joy to watch

 

[BauerAlmeida]

Worst player ever to win a big title?

Or at least worst in a long time?

 

[Waspsting]

Worst player ever to win a big title?

Or at least worst in a long time?

must be

23-45 win/loss record, career high ranking 58 (must be after this win here)
Think commentators mention in some other match - probably the '97 Hamburg final, that since the Hamburg title, Carretero won 2 matches over the next year

the only other qualifer to win a masters was Portas. win-loss 142-198, career high ranking 19 (in October, so not after right after his win in Hamburg)

Think the lowest ranked player to win a 'big title' is Edmondson at '76 Australian. He was ranked 212, but had categorically better career than these two

 

[WCT]

I don't ever remember seeing this guy play, but the numbers remind me of some Connors matches. So few unreturned serves yet far more winners otherwise,

 

[Galvermegs]

I don't ever remember seeing this guy play, but the numbers remind me of some Connors matches. So few unreturned serves yet far more winners otherwise,

Does connors even know him??

But seriously i do think the american had the ideal serve to control the point enough... especially at wimbledon.. 6 finals there being pretty impressive for someone not being the tallest on the tour