Match Stats/Report - Doohan vs Becker, Wimbledon second round, 1987

[Waspsting]

Peter Doohan beat Boris Becker 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 in the Wimbledon second round, 1987 on grass

Doohan would go onto lose in the fourth round to Slobodan Zivojinovic. Becker was the double defending champion and would go onto reach the final in the next 4 years (winning once in 1989). The two had recently met on grass at Queen’s Club, with Becker having won en route to the title there

Doohan won 133 points, Becker 125

Both players serve-volleyed off all serves

Serve Stats
Doohan...
- 1st serve percentage (97/140) 70%
- 1st serve points won (69/97) 71%
- 2nd serve points won (26/43) 60%
- Aces 8 (1 second serve, 1 bad bounce related)
- Double Faults 3
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (51/140) 36%

Becker...
- 1st serve percentage (69/118) 58%
- 1st serve points won (53/69) 77%
- 2nd serve points won (27/49) 55%
- Aces 14 (1 second serve), Service Winners 1
- Double Faults 7
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (37/118) 31%

Serve Patterns
Doohan served...
- to FH 31%
- to BH 38%
- to Body 31%

Becker served....
- to FH 40%
- to BH 52%
- to Body 8%

Return Stats
Doohan made...
- 74 (25 FH, 49 BH), including 4 runaround BHs & 6 return-approaches
- 5 Winners (2 FH, 3 BH)
- 22 Errors, all forced...
- 22 Forced (8 FH, 14 BH)
- Return Rate (74/111) 67%

Becker made...
- 86 (36 FH, 50 BH)
- 7 Winners (6 FH, 1 BH)
- 43 Errors, all forced...
- 43 Forced (20 FH, 23 BH)
- Return Rate (86/137) 63%

Break Points
Doohan 3/5 (3 games)
Becker 1/11 (5 games)

Winners (including returns, excluding serves)
Doohan 41 (4 FH, 8 BH, 10 FHV, 12 BHV, 7 OH)
Becker 44 (19 FH, 4 BH, 3 FHV, 7 BHV, 11 OH)

Doohan had 26 from serve-volley points
- 8 first 'volleys' (2 FHV, 5 BHV, 1 FH at net)
- 17 second volleys (7 FHV, 3 BHV, 7 OH)
- 1 third volley (1 BHV)

- 2 from return-approach points (2 BHV), technically both passes

- 13 passes (3 FH, 8 BH, 1 FHV, 1 BHV) - 5 returns (2 FH, 3 BH) & 8 regular (1 FH, 5 BH, 1 FHV, 1 BHV)
- FH returns - 1 inside-out and 1 inside-in (which Becker left)
- BH returns - 2 dtl and 1 inside-out
- regular FH - 1 cc
- regular BHs - 1 cc and 4 dtl (1 slice)
- both FHV and BHV were swinging, non-net shots

Becker had 23 from serve-volley points
- 14 first 'volleys' (3 FHV, 6 BHV, 3 OH, 2 FH at net)
- 8 second volleys (1 BHV, 7 OH)
- 1 third volley (1 OH)

- 21 passes (17 FH, 4 BH) - 7 returns (6 FH, 1 BH) & 14 regular (11 FH, 3 BH)
- FH returns - 4 dtl and 2 inside-out
- BH return - 1 inside-out
- regular FHs - 1 cc, 3 cc/longline, 4 dtl, 2 dtl/inside-out (1 at net) and 1 longline (that hits Doohan)
- regular BHs - 2 cc and 1 dtl

Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Doohan 41
- 9 Unforced (1 FH, 2 FHV, 6 BHV)
- 32 Forced (5 FH, 12 BH, 4 FHV, 1 FH1/2V, 8 BHV, 2 BH1/2V)... 1 BHV was possibly a BH1/2V & 1 BH1/2V was a non-net pass attempt
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 54.4

Becker 34
- 2 Unforced (2 BHV)
- 32 Forced (4 FH, 14 BH, 1 FHV, 5 FH1/2V, 6 BHV, 1 Sky Hook, 1 Back-to-Net BH)... with 1 FH at net
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 50

(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
Doohan was...
- 91/137 (66%) at net, including...
- 87/129 (67%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 62/90 (69%) off 1st serve and...
- 25/39 (64%) off 2nd serve
---
- 3/6 (50%) return-approaching
- 1/1 forced back

Becker was...
- 66/99 (67%) at net, including...
- 65/96 (68%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 39/55 (71%) off 1st serve and...
- 26/41 (63%) off 2nd serve
---
- 2/3 (67%) forced back/retreated

Match Report
A very fine match and one of the most interesting 100% serve-volley matches I’ve seen. Becker hammers returns. Doohan soft blocks and guides them low without much pace. The two face different kinds of tricky or challenging volleys in line with how the other returns. And Doohan returns better

Statistically, its quite a deceptive match. Of progression, a surprising one given the players statuses.

- Doohan serving 140 points, to Boris’ 118 or 54% of the points doesn’t bode well for Doohan’s chances (Doohan does win 51.6% of the points)
- Doohan with 5 break points, Boris 11. Doohan having 3 games with break points, Boris 5 - same deal as above
- Doesn’t matter. Doohan breaks three times, Boris once, is all that does

Boris with measly 2 UEs on the volley, Doohan 9 (8 volleys and a missed winner attempt with Boris retreating)

Boris with 23 groundstroke winners (19 of them FHs), Doohan 12

Take those two together and it seems very unlikely Doohan wins this

Throw in near equal ‘volley’ FEs (Doohan 15, Boris 14) and ground FEs (Doohan 17, Boris 16) - and Boris wins seems even more likely

Doohan does have more volley/OH winners 29-21. Nowhere near enough to off-set volleying UEs and passing winners handicap

So how does Doohan this match? Statistically -
- higher in-count 70% to 58%
- double faulting less 3 to 7

… and most importantly, unreturned serves advantage of 36% to 31% (which is practical, as well as just statisitical key difference). Given Boris’ stronger serve, it follows logically Doohan returns better. Back to top - Doohan returns better than Boris does, so he wins

Since its 100% serve-volley match, another easy way of looking at match is just the serve-volley figures

- 1st serve-volleying - Doohan wins 69%, Boris 71%

Throw in Boris with more than double lead on aces/service winners 15-7 (both also have a second serve ace), and Boris leads first serve points by healthy 7%

Boris sends down ace/service winner 20% of first serves, Doohan 7%

- 2nd serve-volleying - Doohan wins 64%, Boris 63%

Throw in Boris with more than twice the double faults 7-3, and Doohan leads second serve points won by significant 5%

Boris double faults 14% of second serves, Doohan 7%

All very even. Only Doohan serves at very large 70% to Boris’ 58% - shifting odds his way, though still pretty even

Of progression, match is different than overall stats.

Boris starts by hammering returns to go up 0-40. Looks like your routine pushover. Doohan holds, no more break points in the set. 1 UE for the whole set - and that’s on a return point where Doohan lobs Boris back to net, comes in and misses routine volley, so not too important

Going into ‘breaker, Boris wins 17/18 first serve points. In the ‘breaker, 1/3 - some wonderful clutch returns and passes from Doohan, who takes it 7-4

If ‘expected service’ is Boris dominating, it happens in set 2. Though with just 1 break, Boris dominates, hammering returns and giving Doohan a terrible time on the volley, while holding easily himself

Boris serves 25 points to hold 5 times, Doohan 49 to hold 4 times and be broken once. Doohan surivives 10, 20 and 8 point holds before finally being broken to end the set

Expected service initiated and all ready for 3 & 4 remainder of match

Instead, Doohan breaks to open the next set - couple of Boris doubles help, but other 3 points for the break are all excellently played passing winners, including a chip-charge return BHV net-to-net on break point. Boris isn’t out of set and gives Doo normal problems holding. Fabulous game gets Doo second break near the end - its to love and Boris makes all 4 first serves

Despite 6-2 scoreline, not too big a gap between players, with likely one-off brilliance from Doohan getting him the second break that makes the scoreline look one sided

4th set is different story. Doohan returns beautifully, apparently reading the serve, moving over to play BH returns and chip-charging audaciously and smoothly. Just 22% unreturnd serves for Boris in set (and just 1 double fault) and 3/5 unreturneds are aces. In other words, Doohan makes 30/32 returns he gets racquet on, giving Boris low and low-ish first volleys (without much power), that’d probably stump the champion at best of times.

Throw in lovely guided return winners and chip-charge ones, and Boris does well to keep it being broken just once. 3/5 Doohan return winners and 4/6 return-approaches (wins 2 of them) are in the set. Its a better set then the 6-2 one from him

 

[Waspsting]

Doohan’s serve game
As stated earlier, the two return in drastically different ways - Boris hammering everything, Doohan soft blocking returns low as staple and guiding them wide when he can

Of Doohan serve vs Boris return - Doohan’s variety stands out, both of pace and direction. Its not an obviously good plan - in fact, I’d have backed it fail - but it works

Lots of sliced serves, both out wide and to the body. The odd big one out wide, about as big as Boris’ bigger ones. And lots of body and body-ish serves. Direction of serves -
- 42 to FH
- 52 to BH
- 43 to Body

Boris can reach most serves. Which means he can hit them. Which likely, means trouble for Doohan on the volley. In general, Boris is a fantastic returner of body serves, able to hit with power from right in front of his body. In fact, he prefers getting closer to the line of serve to belt returns than he is to make room to have a fuller swing

Here, Doohan gets better of him. Boris is a bit off on the BH inside-out against body serves, and Doohan can usually comfortably volley when Boris makes that return. His best returns against body serves are moving aside and going FH dtl, where has 4/7 winners

The standout stat here is what isn’t there. Facing majority 38% serves to BH and further 31% to body (more often than not tilted to BH, but close to evenly distributed), just 1 BH return winner from Boris from 50 success returns (he has 6/36 off the FH)

Return rate of 63% against serve-volleying, to be good to threaten breaking, either needs to include substantial lot of damaging returns (winners or very powerful returns wide or/and low) or needs the volleyer to struggle on routine volleys (either missing, or volleying as to leave good passing chances)

Boris’ returning isn’t of necessary damaging quality. Along with low winners - and next to 0 on most important BH - not too many bullets to Doohan’s feet. Boris’ returns typically leave Doohan slighted rushed, net high volleys, with good amount more than slightly rushed. And its rarely persistent - though hit and miss returning is typical of Boris

Briefly, Doohan handles the volleying. He volleys steadily, with depth as key part. Not overly wide and not overly punched through, but Doohan usually gets the volley deep

14 passing winners in play (sans returns) from Boris (excluding his serve-volley winners against Doohan’s chip-charges) is pretty good. Can rarely string them together. Misses too many returns in between

Deep volleying is essentially a two-part volleyers tool (and Boris’ power returning lends itself to two-part volleying), which is how Doohan operates. 18/26 of his serve-volley winners are post-first volley

Gist of Doohan serve vs Boris return and aftermath -

- varied pace and direction of serves by Doohan, with high lot to body
- Boris returning with power, missing a lot too. Missing enough to warrant a small blackmark, with BH return the side to err
- Doohan volleying deep, not missing the powerful net high balls and usually coping with the tougher lower ones well (there are brief exceptions in match).
- Not easy passes for Boris afterwards. He does well to get strong passes off. Doohan’s net coverage is tested (he does very well - the long reach helps) and Boris gets good lot through for the winner too

Most important part - few too many returns missed and secondary, not enough return winners by Boris

 

[Waspsting]

Becker’s serve games
The standout is Doohan’s returning, which has all kinds of interesting things going on with it, including a bluff or two

Skimming over Boris’ usual booming serve, with big seconds, lets key in on Doohan’s returning

From start, he plays a bluff or a double bluff in deuce court. Mostly but not exclusively against second serves, he stands in center of court as Boris is about to serve. I’d think the reason is to tempt Boris to go for the serve out wide to FH, perhaps looking for ace

Then late in Boris’ ball-toss, he shimmies over back to normal position to cover the FH. What’s the purpose?

To get Boris to go to FH, implying preference for taking a FH return? If so, it works, with Boris usually going here. Boris isn’t the sort to be overly influenced by little tricks and generally, sticks to his own game (particularly with the serve). Second serves out wide to FH would be something many players would fancy taking a good cut at. Doohan isn’t at his best at cut returning and isn’t particularly successful at it. Nor does he take ‘big cuts’, but returns these serves fairly normally

‘Fairly normally’ is different from how he returns off BH. He soft blocks returns to get them low without much pace, giving Boris under-net volleys. Even the returns that Boris has to half-volley (and there are plenty of them) are slow enough as to not be too challenging to deal with

The idea seems to be to get Boris to volley up, leaving good passing chances - and if Boris is a bit off, ‘tricky’ errors are likely to come out

Just 2 UEs from Boris, so he misses next to nothing easy. He effectively has 15 ‘volley’ FEs and 5 are FH1/2Vs. He makes about double that many, even placing them with some control

Good volleying by Boris, and Doohan’s 8 passing winners in play has room for improvement (Doohan hits 2 winners chip-charging and meeting Boris net-to-net also)

At odds with the bluffs to tempt a serve to FH, Doohan seems to otherwise prefer BH returning. He’s got 4 runaround BH returns, and otherwise, always moves to take BH return against body serves and virtually never the other way

By fourth set, he seems to have read on Boris serves, and takes to chip-charging returns. Such a play gets him his first break to start third set (upto which point, he’d made no headway on return and hadn’t seen a break point)

He looks to edge forward from baseline as he’s passing. He’s got 2 swinging volley pass winners from close to baseline and makes an error trying something similar. In short, he’s got his bag of return and passing tricks - which stands out next to Boris sledgehammer blunt crash, boom, bang routine

Gist of Boris serve vs Doohan return and aftermath -

- usual booming serving from Boris
- Doohan making a lot of returns, usually blocking them back low with no pace
- Doohan’s best returns are guided wide for winners - doesn’t happen often but about as often as Boris does on other end (who underperforms in this area)
- Doohan with little tricks - moving around, runaround BHs, eventually, chip-charges, moving forward a bit while he’s hitting passes
- Boris tested on low, unpacey volleys, handles them well doesn’t miss much and hardly misses anything routine or easy. Dispatches what’s there to be dispatched, leaves Doohan reasonable looks at the pass when volleying up
- Doohan’s passing in play isn’t as good or powerful as Boris’. Potential to smack more passing winners. Nothing bad, but room for improvement

- - -
Gist of all games combined is type of returning and thus, volleying and passing chances after it is very different, but ultimate results are very close to even. As often the case in 100% serve-volley matches on grass, margin between victory and defeat are slim

Its not too slim. Second set and fourth set go the way of trend of play, the better, more threatening returning winning

First set is a settled by a couple of clutch returns by Doohan in tiebreak

Funnily enough, 6-2 third set is more even of share of play then the 6-4 second and fourth. Top drawer game for Doohan to break second time, while first break to start the set comes out of nowhere and completely out of line with everything that had come before

Match Progression
Boris blasts the first 3 returns of the match to go to 0-40. Rest of set is almost perfect serve-volley tennis, Doohan holding to start it off. 1 volleying UE in the set - and that's on a return point, so not not important. Boris faces a lot of half-volleys and makes almost all of them. Doohan faces low volleys often, and makes almost all of them

Doohan loses 4 service points from the inital 0-40 hold, Boris 5 as the tiebreak begins

Doohan wins both return points to move ahead 3-0 - a perfectly placed, top spun FH cc against a good volley and a BH dtl after drawing a first half-volley both go for passing winners. Boris snatches a mini back in time forcing a wide, very low volley error, but he's still 1 behind as he serves at 4-6

Doohan gets the return wide and very low to force error. Going into 'breaker, Boris had 17/18 first serve point. In the 'breaker, its 1/3. Doohan wins 7/7 second serve points for the set, while serving at 81%. A top drawer set of serve-volley tennis - and clutch passing from Doohan to snatch it

Second set is a furious returning assault from Boris, who hammers return after return. Doohan misses tough volleys slightly more often than not (he hadn't earlier) but he's constantly under the gun. Very intense game 6, that that lasts 20 points and Doohan finally holds. Boris finally does what he's been threatening to all set and breaks to end it. He serves just 25 points (or loses 5 points for 5 holds), while Doohan has to serve 49. Boris wins all 13 first serve poinst for the set

In same vein, Boris advances to 30-0 in set 3 opener. What happens next comes against everything that had come before. Doohan strikes 2 BH pass winners, Boris double faults twice and on his first break point, Doohan chips return low and charges and putsaway Boris' 'up' volley. Where did that come from? - is a question begging to be asked at the time. By matches end, it would be a dumb question

Awhile later, Boris sole BH return winner brings up a break point, that Doohan smashes away before ending game with unreturned serves

Doohan breaks again near end of set to love against, despite Boris making all first serves. Low-ish returns and FH inside-out pass winner and a perfect lob do the trick. Doohan serves out to 30, striking 2 aces from 30-30

Boris is not a happy camper and his mood isn't improved by some artful play from Doohan levelling set 4 opener at deuce from 40-0 down. Low return forces FH1/2V error. Doohan edges forward while passing and smacks a swinging FHV pass winner. And then he passes Boris BH dtl, after a lob forces a defensive BHOH. Boris though, holds

Boris responds by smacking a number of power passes right at Doohan. He hits him with 1 right down the middle and tries to again next point (it goes through for clean winner instead). Boris makes it 3 winners in a row to repeat the favour of getting to deuce from 40-0 down - and Doohan does the same to hold

Thereafter, Doohan returns superbly and his return rate for the set is 27/35 or 77%. Boris' is 17/28 or 61%. Seems to read the serve well, casually moves over to play BH returns, continues getting them in low but now, moves aside to guide returns to open court for potential winners too. If that isn't enough, chip-charge returns too. Pretty good job by Boris to just be broken once in a 10 point game that Doohan return-approaches of 3 times and finishes with consecutive BH return winners (inside-out and dtl). No more big thrills as Doohan holds through to finish

Summing up, fascinating match in the contrast of returning style of the two players against 100% serve-volleying. Doohan soft blocks and guides his returns low and sometimes wide, usually without much pace. Becker smacks every return he can reach and he can reach most with Doohan electing to serve a lot to the body and around it. Both returning styles challenge the server - Becker has to volley low balls, Doohan has to handle powerful hits

On the whole, Becker probably handles what he's up against on the volley slightly better than Doohan does, but the latter plays a clutch tiebreak and a couple of top-drawer return games to get the breaks he needs, while Boris misses a few too many returns, while not getting enough of them away for winners

 

[CHillTennis]

Absolutely brilliant breakdown of this match!

Well done!

Do you think that Doohan was able to win this match because of his higher success-rate with breaking Becker's serve or was it more to do with Becker being a bit off of his game?

 

[urban]

I think, Doohan won it in the very first game. Boris started on a high gear, but Doohan showed resilience and avoided the early break. That dampened Boris` aggressive mind. Boris, despite his several fine comebacks, was always more a frontrunner. You could see in the first games, if he was going into trouble or not. Boris didn't play badly, but Doohan played a very fine match and didn't falter in the clutch. I remember that a couple of years ago, Doohan put a comment by me on the match, given here on this forum, on his own webside, as a poster found out.

 

[dryeagle]

BB blew this match in early 3rd set. After finally breaking serve to win 2nd set, he gets broken the next game to open 3rd after 30-0 lead. BB just couldn’t break serve on this day.

And Peter was the better man that day, good for him. Sad to see he passed away a few years back.

And cut BB some slack for the early round loss. From 84-97 he was QF or better, including 3 Ws, 4 Fs, 2 SFs and 2 QFs. The 3 early round losses were due to 2 injuries (ankle in 84 and wrist in 96) and Doohan. Over a 14 year period, going to have a loss like this.

 

[Waspsting]

Do you think that Doohan was able to win this match because of his higher success-rate with breaking Becker's serve or was it more to do with Becker being a bit off of his game?

I'd fully credit Doohan for the result. Boris might not be at his best - and expecting him to so be for any given match isn't reasonable, but he's well in his norm for "playing well"

Few further thoughts on how each plays, the surface and Boris Becker in general

- what I try to look at is a general trend. if a set is on serve, things are even, but who is more likely to break? who is holding more readily?

Obviously, answer to those questions point to who is more likely to win, but on grass in particular, its not necessarily a certainty and

a) against trend of play runs often turn prospective and theoretical probabilities on there head
b) who has run of play is often very slight, too

and in Boris Becker's case in particular, point a) is particularly pertinent. That's a long term pattern that's come up for him (which I don't know enough about Doohan to have same info). Its very common for him to be getting nowhere on return, only to suddenly come up with a blinder of a return game to break

Here, he serve-volleys beautifully - 2 UEs, can't ask for much more than that
On return, maybe he's a touch off. Doohan serves not far from him and good lot sliced or otherwise, not too powerful. Just as a percentage thing - reasonable expectation would be for Boris to able to spank more return winners and deliver more bullets for Doohan to half-volley against that

He can't do it. returns powerfully, but can't get them wide for winners or low. Net high-ish first volleys for Doohan to make. With power on the return, that means

- reasonable chances for a few Doohan UEs (which come, not too often, but they come now and then)
- not easy to putaway or control first volleys, potentially leaving Boris chances for follow-up pass (which also come and Boris does well on the pass)

good enough volleying by Doohan - keeping the UEs down and keeping the volleys he makes deep - to keep holding - all credit to him

On flip side, some beautiful, low returning from Doohan. His returning in 4th set is about as good as you can ask for against a normal Boris serve showing. 2 breaks are entirely down to him - with 1 needing a bit of help from Boris

Boris does well not to get broken more in the last set

 

[jrepac]

I'd be curious to compare this one with his '91 USO match against Haarhuis. Another big upset.

 

[dryeagle]

I'd be curious to compare this one with his '91 USO match against Haarhuis. Another big upset.

Becker had an injured thigh in that match