Jimmy Connors beat Roscoe Tanner 6-4, 6-1, 6-4 in the Wimbledon semi-final, 1975 on grass
Connors, the defending champion, would go onto lose the final to Arthur Ashe. The following year, Tanner would beat Connors in the quarter-final - the only Slam out of 12 from 1974-1978 that Connors did not at least reach the final
Connors won 91 points, Tanner 66
Connors serve-volleyed most of the time off first serves and regularly off seconds. Tanner serve-volleyed off all serves
Serve Stats
Connors...
- 1st serve percentage (47/70) 67%
- 1st serve points won (37/47) 79%
- 2nd serve points won (16/23) 70%
- Aces 4
- Double Faults 1
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (22/70) 31%
Tanner...
- 1st serve percentage (44/87) 51%
- 1st serve points won (34/44) 77%
- 2nd serve points won (15/43) 35%
- Aces 12 (1 second serve), Service Winners 2 (1 second serve)
- Double Faults 3
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (30/87) 34%
Serve Patterns
Connors served...
- to FH 55%
- to BH 42%
- to Body 3%
Tanner served...
- to FH 52%
- to BH 45%
- to Body 2%
Return Stats
Connors made...
- 54 (29 FH, 25 BH)
- 5 Winners (5 FH)
- 16 Errors, all forced...
- 16 Forced (11 FH, 5 BH)
- Return Rate (54/84) 64%
Tanner made...
- 47 (22 FH, 25 BH), including 1 return-approach
- 18 Errors, comprising...
- 3 Unforced (2 FH, 1 BH)
- 15 Forced (11 FH, 4 BH), including 1 runaround FH
- Return Rate (47/69) 68%
Break Points
Connors 5/12 (5 games)
Tanner 1/1
Winners (including returns, excluding serves)
Connors 30 (10 FH, 8 BH, 5 FHV, 3 BHV, 4 OH)
Tanner 17 (3 FH, 1 BH, 5 FHV, 3 BHV, 5 OH)
Connors' had 7 from serve-volley points
- 2 first volleys (2 FHV)
- 5 second volleys (1 FHV, 1 BHV, 3 OH)
- FHs (all passes) - 3 cc (2 returns), 3 dtl (2 returns, 1 at net), 1 inside-out, 1 inside-in return and 2 lobs
- BHs (all passes) - 4 cc (1 net chord clipper, 1 turnaround retrieval), 2 dtl (1 turnaround retrieval) and 1 inside-out
Tanner had 12 from serve-volley points
- 3 first volleys (1 FHV, 2 BHV)
- 8 second volleys (3 FHV, 1 BHV, 4 OH)
- 1 third volley (1 FHV)
- 1 OH from a return-approach point
- FHs (all passes) - 2 inside-out and 1 lob
- BH - 1 dtl pass
Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Connors 18
- 5 Unforced (3 BH, 2 BHV)
- 13 Forced (4 FH, 4 BH, 3 FHV, 2 BHV)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 46
Tanner 36
- 7 Unforced (1 BH, 3 FHV, 1 BHV, 2 OH)… including 1 BH at net and 1 OH from baseline
- 29 Forced (7 FH, 10 BH, 5 FHV, 6 BHV, 1 BH1/2V)… including 1 FH running-down-drop-shot at net and 1 BH at net
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 54.3
(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
Connors was...
- 45/56 (80%) at net, including...
- 24/42 (81%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 27/33 (82%) off 1st serve and...
- 7/9 (78%) off 2nd serve
--
- 2/2 forced back
Tanner was...
- 37/77 (48%) at net, including...
- 35/70 (50%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 22/32 (69%) off 1st serve and...
- 13/38 (34%) off 2nd serve
--
- 1/1 return-approaching
- 0/2 forced back/retreated
Match Report
Masterclass from Jimmy Connors, especially on the return and pass while on the volley, he's merely top class. Tanner serves huge and otherwise plays as well as he's allowed to - and gets stomped like a grape
Tanner has his huge serve and serve-volleys 100% of the time. Connors' serve is also strong and he's at net on almost all his service points too with a combination of serve-volleying and coming in very early in rallies, usually the third ball. Playing so, match goes comfortably on serve til game 7, when Tanner breaks with style
Couple of good returns draws still decent volleys, but not strong enough that Tanner has a shot on the pass. And he makes both, FH inside-out for winners. On break point, he hits a perfect running FH lob for another winner. Perfect in that its just high enough that Connors doesn't even try smashing but also hard hit enough that it reaches the other end like a almost like a normal groundstroke
And that's the last bit of good news for Tanner. The closest he comes to another break is reaching 15-30 once. Connors wins the next 6 games and cruises to victory
Play
Strong serving from Jimbo. Very good 67% first serves in, and the serve is strong and well placed. Decent second serve too. 31% unreturned rate is a good indicator of quality of his serve... there's nothing overly bad about Tanners' return
In fact, Tanners' return and passing are good. Lots of low and low-ish first volleys for Jimbo to make. He makes them exceptionally well. Note just the 2 first volley winners and both of those come in the last game of the match. This is down to his having faced difficult first volleys in general which didn't lend themselves to being putaway. Note also 5 volleying FEs to 2 UEs... another sign of quality of Tanners' passes
Jimbo makes the tough volleys regularly, and usually attacking placement and power and is very sure in killing points after drawing weaker pass with previous volleys. In particular his smashing stands out... some awkward, back pedalling ones, but he doesn't mess around with the OH and 'smash' is an adjective to describe the way he deals with them as well as a noun
Just the 1 approach shot error too, which tends to be a weakness in his game. Not this day. Note 0 FH UEs to 3 on the BH... a day where the usual weak points are strong
And he is fast in covering the court, both scampering to cope with Tanners' volleys and his passes. Some good, running volleys... another sign Tanners passed well
Impressive as all that is, the it pales in comparison to the exhibition of returning and passing Jimbo puts on
Tanner of course has humongous first serve. 12 aces and 2 service winners (Jimbo has 4 aces) is testament to that. 1 of each is a second serve is testament to how big even his second serve is. About as strong as weak servers first serve. In this match, Connors first serve is stronger than Tanners second, but I'd say Tanners second serve is at least as strong as most of Connors first serve showings from 1977 onward
Connors treats it like target practice. When he's not pounding winners, he's giving Tanner nothing but first volleys to the feet. Powerfully struck balls about net high are the easiest volleys Tanner gets... its hard to even give him a mark for finishing ability on the volley because he gets so few that are there for him to finish. In all, he volleys well.... snapping away the very small number of balls comfortably over the net he faces (he doesn't get more than 3-4 all match). 35% second serve points won by Tanner is key stat of the match - and that's all down to Connors' strong play, not weak from Roscoe
Most of the 14 forecourt FEs are very difficult to near impossible balls - low and powerful and sometimes wide. Leaving aside the matter of 18 Connors passing winners. Even the 6 UEs (1 OH was hit from the baseline) are on the difficult side, with above average power to cope with
Not all power precision from Jimbo either. His 2 lob winners are among the best shots he hits. 1 in particular is hit to a deep, wide ball on the stretch. When on defence, he tends to go for the lob. Usually not successfully, with Tanner whacking 5 OH winners. He's as brutal in putting away the OH as Connors was, but also makes a couple of errors. A terrible, weak OH leaves him to be passed in set 3 to bring up break point, on which he double faults
Tanners doesn't look an athlete. Big boned but more chubby than powerfully built, though there's some of the latter in him too. His movements are good enough though
The crowd laughs in first set as Jimmy takes up a return position about 10 feet behind baseline. He doesn't keep that position for too long, but I thought it was a move worth exploring against the ridiculously powerful Tanners first serve
The pick of shots of the match are 2 Connors turnaround passes. Forced back by lobs that Tanner follows to net, twice Jimbo unleashes turnaround BH passes - 1 cc, 1 dtl - and both go for winners. His best volleys are reasonably attacking ones to low balls, some forcing errors, others setting up a less challenging pass that he can volley more decisively, though more often than not to force an error (as opposed to for a winner). The passing errors Tanner makes are on the strong side of being forced... he's typically on the move or/and dealing with a deep ball when missing passes
Summing up, top class performance from Connors on return and pass in particular and his net game isn't far behind. Decent enough from Tanner... he's just overwhelmed by a zoning showing
Connors, the defending champion, would go onto lose the final to Arthur Ashe. The following year, Tanner would beat Connors in the quarter-final - the only Slam out of 12 from 1974-1978 that Connors did not at least reach the final
Connors won 91 points, Tanner 66
Connors serve-volleyed most of the time off first serves and regularly off seconds. Tanner serve-volleyed off all serves
Serve Stats
Connors...
- 1st serve percentage (47/70) 67%
- 1st serve points won (37/47) 79%
- 2nd serve points won (16/23) 70%
- Aces 4
- Double Faults 1
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (22/70) 31%
Tanner...
- 1st serve percentage (44/87) 51%
- 1st serve points won (34/44) 77%
- 2nd serve points won (15/43) 35%
- Aces 12 (1 second serve), Service Winners 2 (1 second serve)
- Double Faults 3
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (30/87) 34%
Serve Patterns
Connors served...
- to FH 55%
- to BH 42%
- to Body 3%
Tanner served...
- to FH 52%
- to BH 45%
- to Body 2%
Return Stats
Connors made...
- 54 (29 FH, 25 BH)
- 5 Winners (5 FH)
- 16 Errors, all forced...
- 16 Forced (11 FH, 5 BH)
- Return Rate (54/84) 64%
Tanner made...
- 47 (22 FH, 25 BH), including 1 return-approach
- 18 Errors, comprising...
- 3 Unforced (2 FH, 1 BH)
- 15 Forced (11 FH, 4 BH), including 1 runaround FH
- Return Rate (47/69) 68%
Break Points
Connors 5/12 (5 games)
Tanner 1/1
Winners (including returns, excluding serves)
Connors 30 (10 FH, 8 BH, 5 FHV, 3 BHV, 4 OH)
Tanner 17 (3 FH, 1 BH, 5 FHV, 3 BHV, 5 OH)
Connors' had 7 from serve-volley points
- 2 first volleys (2 FHV)
- 5 second volleys (1 FHV, 1 BHV, 3 OH)
- FHs (all passes) - 3 cc (2 returns), 3 dtl (2 returns, 1 at net), 1 inside-out, 1 inside-in return and 2 lobs
- BHs (all passes) - 4 cc (1 net chord clipper, 1 turnaround retrieval), 2 dtl (1 turnaround retrieval) and 1 inside-out
Tanner had 12 from serve-volley points
- 3 first volleys (1 FHV, 2 BHV)
- 8 second volleys (3 FHV, 1 BHV, 4 OH)
- 1 third volley (1 FHV)
- 1 OH from a return-approach point
- FHs (all passes) - 2 inside-out and 1 lob
- BH - 1 dtl pass
Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Connors 18
- 5 Unforced (3 BH, 2 BHV)
- 13 Forced (4 FH, 4 BH, 3 FHV, 2 BHV)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 46
Tanner 36
- 7 Unforced (1 BH, 3 FHV, 1 BHV, 2 OH)… including 1 BH at net and 1 OH from baseline
- 29 Forced (7 FH, 10 BH, 5 FHV, 6 BHV, 1 BH1/2V)… including 1 FH running-down-drop-shot at net and 1 BH at net
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 54.3
(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
Connors was...
- 45/56 (80%) at net, including...
- 24/42 (81%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 27/33 (82%) off 1st serve and...
- 7/9 (78%) off 2nd serve
--
- 2/2 forced back
Tanner was...
- 37/77 (48%) at net, including...
- 35/70 (50%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 22/32 (69%) off 1st serve and...
- 13/38 (34%) off 2nd serve
--
- 1/1 return-approaching
- 0/2 forced back/retreated
Match Report
Masterclass from Jimmy Connors, especially on the return and pass while on the volley, he's merely top class. Tanner serves huge and otherwise plays as well as he's allowed to - and gets stomped like a grape
Tanner has his huge serve and serve-volleys 100% of the time. Connors' serve is also strong and he's at net on almost all his service points too with a combination of serve-volleying and coming in very early in rallies, usually the third ball. Playing so, match goes comfortably on serve til game 7, when Tanner breaks with style
Couple of good returns draws still decent volleys, but not strong enough that Tanner has a shot on the pass. And he makes both, FH inside-out for winners. On break point, he hits a perfect running FH lob for another winner. Perfect in that its just high enough that Connors doesn't even try smashing but also hard hit enough that it reaches the other end like a almost like a normal groundstroke
And that's the last bit of good news for Tanner. The closest he comes to another break is reaching 15-30 once. Connors wins the next 6 games and cruises to victory
Play
Strong serving from Jimbo. Very good 67% first serves in, and the serve is strong and well placed. Decent second serve too. 31% unreturned rate is a good indicator of quality of his serve... there's nothing overly bad about Tanners' return
In fact, Tanners' return and passing are good. Lots of low and low-ish first volleys for Jimbo to make. He makes them exceptionally well. Note just the 2 first volley winners and both of those come in the last game of the match. This is down to his having faced difficult first volleys in general which didn't lend themselves to being putaway. Note also 5 volleying FEs to 2 UEs... another sign of quality of Tanners' passes
Jimbo makes the tough volleys regularly, and usually attacking placement and power and is very sure in killing points after drawing weaker pass with previous volleys. In particular his smashing stands out... some awkward, back pedalling ones, but he doesn't mess around with the OH and 'smash' is an adjective to describe the way he deals with them as well as a noun
Just the 1 approach shot error too, which tends to be a weakness in his game. Not this day. Note 0 FH UEs to 3 on the BH... a day where the usual weak points are strong
And he is fast in covering the court, both scampering to cope with Tanners' volleys and his passes. Some good, running volleys... another sign Tanners passed well
Impressive as all that is, the it pales in comparison to the exhibition of returning and passing Jimbo puts on
Tanner of course has humongous first serve. 12 aces and 2 service winners (Jimbo has 4 aces) is testament to that. 1 of each is a second serve is testament to how big even his second serve is. About as strong as weak servers first serve. In this match, Connors first serve is stronger than Tanners second, but I'd say Tanners second serve is at least as strong as most of Connors first serve showings from 1977 onward
Connors treats it like target practice. When he's not pounding winners, he's giving Tanner nothing but first volleys to the feet. Powerfully struck balls about net high are the easiest volleys Tanner gets... its hard to even give him a mark for finishing ability on the volley because he gets so few that are there for him to finish. In all, he volleys well.... snapping away the very small number of balls comfortably over the net he faces (he doesn't get more than 3-4 all match). 35% second serve points won by Tanner is key stat of the match - and that's all down to Connors' strong play, not weak from Roscoe
Most of the 14 forecourt FEs are very difficult to near impossible balls - low and powerful and sometimes wide. Leaving aside the matter of 18 Connors passing winners. Even the 6 UEs (1 OH was hit from the baseline) are on the difficult side, with above average power to cope with
Not all power precision from Jimbo either. His 2 lob winners are among the best shots he hits. 1 in particular is hit to a deep, wide ball on the stretch. When on defence, he tends to go for the lob. Usually not successfully, with Tanner whacking 5 OH winners. He's as brutal in putting away the OH as Connors was, but also makes a couple of errors. A terrible, weak OH leaves him to be passed in set 3 to bring up break point, on which he double faults
Tanners doesn't look an athlete. Big boned but more chubby than powerfully built, though there's some of the latter in him too. His movements are good enough though
The crowd laughs in first set as Jimmy takes up a return position about 10 feet behind baseline. He doesn't keep that position for too long, but I thought it was a move worth exploring against the ridiculously powerful Tanners first serve
The pick of shots of the match are 2 Connors turnaround passes. Forced back by lobs that Tanner follows to net, twice Jimbo unleashes turnaround BH passes - 1 cc, 1 dtl - and both go for winners. His best volleys are reasonably attacking ones to low balls, some forcing errors, others setting up a less challenging pass that he can volley more decisively, though more often than not to force an error (as opposed to for a winner). The passing errors Tanner makes are on the strong side of being forced... he's typically on the move or/and dealing with a deep ball when missing passes
Summing up, top class performance from Connors on return and pass in particular and his net game isn't far behind. Decent enough from Tanner... he's just overwhelmed by a zoning showing
Last edited:
