Stefan Edberg beat Yannick Noah 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(4) in the Year End Championship (Masters) round robins, 1986 on carpet in New York, USA
Edberg would advance to the semi-final, where he lost to Boris Becker. Noah was eliminated in the round robin stage, losing all 3 matches
Edberg had already won his first match against Andres Gomez, while this was Noah's first match. Eventual winner Ivan Lendl was the fourth player in the group
Edberg won 107 points, Noah 105
Both players serve-volleyed off vast majority of both serves
Serve Stats
Edberg...
- 1st serve percentage (73/114) 64%
- 1st serve points won (51/73) 70%
- 2nd serve points won (22/41) 54%
- Aces 2, Service Winners 1
- Double Faults 2
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (25/114) 22%
Noah...
- 1st serve percentage (48/98) 49%
- 1st serve points won (36/48) 75%
- 2nd serve points won (28/50) 56%
- Aces 10, Service Winners 1
- Double Faults 4
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (38/98) 39%
Serve Patterns
Edberg served...
- to FH 22%
- to BH 63%
- to Body 15%
Noah served...
- to FH 41%
- to BH 49%
- to Body 10%
Return Stats
Edberg made...
- 56 (23 FH, 33 BH), including 1 runaround FH, 1 runaround BH & 1 return-approach
- 6 Winners (5 FH, 1 BH)
- 27 Errors, comprising...
- 2 Unforced (1 FH, 1 BH)
- 25 Forced (8 FH, 7 BH)
- Return Rate (56/94) 60%
Noah made...
- 87 (27 FH, 60 BH), including 4 runaround FHs & 3 return-approaches
- 6 Winners (2 FH, 4 BH)
- 22 Errors, comprising...
- 3 Unforced (2 FH, 1 BH)
- 19 Forced (4 FH, 15 BH)
- Return Rate (87/112) 78%
Break Points
Edberg 3/10 (6 games)
Noah 3/13 (6 games)
Winners (including returns, excluding serves)
Edberg 51 (9 FH, 8 BH, 10 FHV, 16 BHV, 1 BH1/2V, 7 OH)
Noah 27 (4 FH, 11 BH, 4 FHV, 2 BHV, 5 OH, 1 Tweener)
Edberg had 30 from serve-volley points
- 20 first 'volleys' (4 FHV, 14 BHV, 1 BH1/2V, 1 OH)… the OH can reasonably be called a FHV and 1 BHV was not clean
- 7 second volleys (3 FHV, 4 OH)
- 2 third volleys (1 FHV, 1 BHV)
- 1 fourth volley (1 FHV)
- 2 other OHs were on the bounce - 1 at net, 1 from the baseline
- 6 returns, all passes (5 FH, 1 BH)
- FHs - 1 cc, 3 dtl and 1 inside-out
- BH - 1 cc
- 11 regular passes (4 FH, 6 BH, 1 BHV)
- FHs - 2 cc, 1 inside-out and 1 lob
- BHs - 4 cc, 1 dtl and 1 dtl/inside-out
- BHV - was played from near baseline and not a net point
- 1 non-pass BH dtl
Noah had 10 from serve-volley points -
- 2 first volleys (1 FHV, 1 OH)… the OH being a 'dunk'
- 7 second volleys (4 FHV, 1 BHV, 2 OH)… 1 FHV was net-to-net and 1 other was a diving shot
- 1 third volley (1 OH)
- 1 OH from return-approach point, played net-to-net
- 6 returns, all passes (2 FH, 4 BH)
- FHs - 1 cc and 1 inside-out
- BHs - 2 cc, 1 dtl and 1 inside-out
-9 regular passes (2 FH, 6 BH, 1 Tweener)
- FHs - 2 cc (1 net-to-net)
- BHs - 3 cc, 2 dtl and 1 running-down-drop-volley inside-out at net
- the Tweener was from a forced-back-from-net point
- 1 non-pass BH inside-out
Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Edberg 38
- 14 Unforced (4 FH, 4 BH, 2 FHV, 4 BHV)… including 1 FH at net and 1 BH at net
- 24 Forced (2 FH, 11 BH, 4 FHV, 2 FH1/2V, 2 BHV, 3 BH1/2V)*
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 47.9
(*Note: 1 BHV FE was a 'yorker' - where ball, racquet and ground all seem to meet at the same time. Its been marked BHV instead of BH1/2V in line with Edberg's seeming intent to play a volley. Its not wholly clear if certain shots were volleys or half-volleys)
Noah 27
- 5 Unforced (2 FH, 2 FHV, 1 BHV)
- 22 Forced (6 FH, 7 BH, 4 FHV, 4 BHV, 1 OH)… the OH was a pass attempt, an on the bounce baseline shot
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 52
(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
Edberg was...
- 65/102 (64%) at net, including...
- 61/95 (64%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 44/62 (71%) off 1st serve and..
- 17/33 (52%) off 2nd serve
---
- 1/1 return-approaching
- 1/1 forced back
Noah was...
- 49/78 (63%) at net, including...
- 45/73 (62%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 24/35 (69%) off 1st serve and..
- 21/38 (55%) off 2nd serve
---
- 2/3 (67%) return-approaching
- 1/2 forced back
Match Report
A beautiful, great and close as can be match, near enough to a full-on serve-volley encounter on a normal carpet court. It has everything - power serving, good returning, top drawer volleying, good passing - with both elegant touch precision and power on show in all areas. Lots of half-volleys and an incredible tweener winner. Neither player level drops to what can be called low at any point in the match, though both rise on occasions. Just fantastic stuff all round
Its almost a complete serve-volley match. Edberg serve-volleys 89% off first serves and 85% off second serves. Noah does so 95% off first serves and 83% off second serves
To see how close match was, note -
- Points won (Edberg 107, Noah 105)… with Edberg having served 16 more points
- Break point numbers (both with 3 breaks, both having breaks in 6 games)… with Noah having 3 more break points
- Noah leading in both first serve points won (75% to 70%) and second serve points won (56% to 54%)… counterbalanced by Edberg serving at much higher percentage (64% to 49%)
- Noah had match point with Edberg serving to send third set into tiebreak. 2nd serve, serve-volley point... a perfect Edberg first volley, inside-out BHV winner
As for quality, its there throughout
Serve & Return
Of the serve shot - Noah serves very powerfully, though at just 49% first serves in. According to commentators, his fastest serves are in the 120mph range - about the same territory as Boris Becker (who apparently broke 130 the previous day). Assuming those speeds were not calculated at strike point but somewhere on its way down, that'd be about as fast as anything we'll see today
Initially, Edberg can barely get racquet on return, and Noah wins all 11 first serve points in first set. As match wears on, Edberg gets a better grip on it. While naturally still getting short end of the stick against the first serve, Edberg returns it exceptionally well. He doesn't even look particularly rushed against it
Noah's second serve is also strong - and Edberg returns it even better. Noah scarcely has an easy first volley, particularly as the match goes on - and this is without Edberg going overly hard, hit-or-miss with the return but rather being measured in the combination of consistency and damaging intent behind the second shot. Note just 2 first volley winners from Noah - and that's with him volleying well
Every, single Edberg match I watch has commentators refer to his FH weakness and his BH being the stronger side... an opinion that's rarely supported by stats or subjective observation. This match is no different. Note Edberg's returns. Facing 39 serves to his FH and 46 to his BH... he has 8 FH FEs to 17 on the BH. And hits 5 FH winners to 1 on the BH. He does unusually runaround a body serve to hit a BH return and approach of it though (wins the point, forcing a BHV error)
On whole, I think Edberg returns better than Noah serves - though both are good. And it is Noah's serve that keeps him on par with Stefan (he leads unreturned rate 39% to 22%, despite his low percentage)
On the other side of things, while serving at good 64%, Edberg's serve isn't impressive of placement, with a very high body-ish bias. In other words, not a problem for Noah to reach the ball, and though not unforceful, its not strong enough to trouble Noah much.
(This is fairly for Edberg, the body-ish serving. I imagine its due to a combination of 2 things -
a) he's not particularly accurate as a precision server. Generally, he frequently misses serves - first and second - by huge distances. I think he doesn't try to hit lines because he can't
b) he doesn't need to the way other serve-volleyers might. Other than going for aces, main reason for wide serves is to open court for first volley. Most serve-volleyers are helped tremendously by the extra space. Edberg, being a particularly high quality volleyer, doesn't to such an extent. Can hit his winners or leave very difficult running passes against opponents in central position with court closed)
In this match, Noah keeps him to a low 22% unreturned rate. Good, full swing BH returning from Noah. If anything, he tends to be a bit more push-y with the FH
Again, I think Noah returns better than Edberg serves. On a quick court, with both players doing so, it sets things up for a potential cracker of a match, especially since both serve well by a normal standard too
Edberg would advance to the semi-final, where he lost to Boris Becker. Noah was eliminated in the round robin stage, losing all 3 matches
Edberg had already won his first match against Andres Gomez, while this was Noah's first match. Eventual winner Ivan Lendl was the fourth player in the group
Edberg won 107 points, Noah 105
Both players serve-volleyed off vast majority of both serves
Serve Stats
Edberg...
- 1st serve percentage (73/114) 64%
- 1st serve points won (51/73) 70%
- 2nd serve points won (22/41) 54%
- Aces 2, Service Winners 1
- Double Faults 2
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (25/114) 22%
Noah...
- 1st serve percentage (48/98) 49%
- 1st serve points won (36/48) 75%
- 2nd serve points won (28/50) 56%
- Aces 10, Service Winners 1
- Double Faults 4
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (38/98) 39%
Serve Patterns
Edberg served...
- to FH 22%
- to BH 63%
- to Body 15%
Noah served...
- to FH 41%
- to BH 49%
- to Body 10%
Return Stats
Edberg made...
- 56 (23 FH, 33 BH), including 1 runaround FH, 1 runaround BH & 1 return-approach
- 6 Winners (5 FH, 1 BH)
- 27 Errors, comprising...
- 2 Unforced (1 FH, 1 BH)
- 25 Forced (8 FH, 7 BH)
- Return Rate (56/94) 60%
Noah made...
- 87 (27 FH, 60 BH), including 4 runaround FHs & 3 return-approaches
- 6 Winners (2 FH, 4 BH)
- 22 Errors, comprising...
- 3 Unforced (2 FH, 1 BH)
- 19 Forced (4 FH, 15 BH)
- Return Rate (87/112) 78%
Break Points
Edberg 3/10 (6 games)
Noah 3/13 (6 games)
Winners (including returns, excluding serves)
Edberg 51 (9 FH, 8 BH, 10 FHV, 16 BHV, 1 BH1/2V, 7 OH)
Noah 27 (4 FH, 11 BH, 4 FHV, 2 BHV, 5 OH, 1 Tweener)
Edberg had 30 from serve-volley points
- 20 first 'volleys' (4 FHV, 14 BHV, 1 BH1/2V, 1 OH)… the OH can reasonably be called a FHV and 1 BHV was not clean
- 7 second volleys (3 FHV, 4 OH)
- 2 third volleys (1 FHV, 1 BHV)
- 1 fourth volley (1 FHV)
- 2 other OHs were on the bounce - 1 at net, 1 from the baseline
- 6 returns, all passes (5 FH, 1 BH)
- FHs - 1 cc, 3 dtl and 1 inside-out
- BH - 1 cc
- 11 regular passes (4 FH, 6 BH, 1 BHV)
- FHs - 2 cc, 1 inside-out and 1 lob
- BHs - 4 cc, 1 dtl and 1 dtl/inside-out
- BHV - was played from near baseline and not a net point
- 1 non-pass BH dtl
Noah had 10 from serve-volley points -
- 2 first volleys (1 FHV, 1 OH)… the OH being a 'dunk'
- 7 second volleys (4 FHV, 1 BHV, 2 OH)… 1 FHV was net-to-net and 1 other was a diving shot
- 1 third volley (1 OH)
- 1 OH from return-approach point, played net-to-net
- 6 returns, all passes (2 FH, 4 BH)
- FHs - 1 cc and 1 inside-out
- BHs - 2 cc, 1 dtl and 1 inside-out
-9 regular passes (2 FH, 6 BH, 1 Tweener)
- FHs - 2 cc (1 net-to-net)
- BHs - 3 cc, 2 dtl and 1 running-down-drop-volley inside-out at net
- the Tweener was from a forced-back-from-net point
- 1 non-pass BH inside-out
Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Edberg 38
- 14 Unforced (4 FH, 4 BH, 2 FHV, 4 BHV)… including 1 FH at net and 1 BH at net
- 24 Forced (2 FH, 11 BH, 4 FHV, 2 FH1/2V, 2 BHV, 3 BH1/2V)*
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 47.9
(*Note: 1 BHV FE was a 'yorker' - where ball, racquet and ground all seem to meet at the same time. Its been marked BHV instead of BH1/2V in line with Edberg's seeming intent to play a volley. Its not wholly clear if certain shots were volleys or half-volleys)
Noah 27
- 5 Unforced (2 FH, 2 FHV, 1 BHV)
- 22 Forced (6 FH, 7 BH, 4 FHV, 4 BHV, 1 OH)… the OH was a pass attempt, an on the bounce baseline shot
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 52
(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
Edberg was...
- 65/102 (64%) at net, including...
- 61/95 (64%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 44/62 (71%) off 1st serve and..
- 17/33 (52%) off 2nd serve
---
- 1/1 return-approaching
- 1/1 forced back
Noah was...
- 49/78 (63%) at net, including...
- 45/73 (62%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 24/35 (69%) off 1st serve and..
- 21/38 (55%) off 2nd serve
---
- 2/3 (67%) return-approaching
- 1/2 forced back
Match Report
A beautiful, great and close as can be match, near enough to a full-on serve-volley encounter on a normal carpet court. It has everything - power serving, good returning, top drawer volleying, good passing - with both elegant touch precision and power on show in all areas. Lots of half-volleys and an incredible tweener winner. Neither player level drops to what can be called low at any point in the match, though both rise on occasions. Just fantastic stuff all round
Its almost a complete serve-volley match. Edberg serve-volleys 89% off first serves and 85% off second serves. Noah does so 95% off first serves and 83% off second serves
To see how close match was, note -
- Points won (Edberg 107, Noah 105)… with Edberg having served 16 more points
- Break point numbers (both with 3 breaks, both having breaks in 6 games)… with Noah having 3 more break points
- Noah leading in both first serve points won (75% to 70%) and second serve points won (56% to 54%)… counterbalanced by Edberg serving at much higher percentage (64% to 49%)
- Noah had match point with Edberg serving to send third set into tiebreak. 2nd serve, serve-volley point... a perfect Edberg first volley, inside-out BHV winner
As for quality, its there throughout
Serve & Return
Of the serve shot - Noah serves very powerfully, though at just 49% first serves in. According to commentators, his fastest serves are in the 120mph range - about the same territory as Boris Becker (who apparently broke 130 the previous day). Assuming those speeds were not calculated at strike point but somewhere on its way down, that'd be about as fast as anything we'll see today
Initially, Edberg can barely get racquet on return, and Noah wins all 11 first serve points in first set. As match wears on, Edberg gets a better grip on it. While naturally still getting short end of the stick against the first serve, Edberg returns it exceptionally well. He doesn't even look particularly rushed against it
Noah's second serve is also strong - and Edberg returns it even better. Noah scarcely has an easy first volley, particularly as the match goes on - and this is without Edberg going overly hard, hit-or-miss with the return but rather being measured in the combination of consistency and damaging intent behind the second shot. Note just 2 first volley winners from Noah - and that's with him volleying well
Every, single Edberg match I watch has commentators refer to his FH weakness and his BH being the stronger side... an opinion that's rarely supported by stats or subjective observation. This match is no different. Note Edberg's returns. Facing 39 serves to his FH and 46 to his BH... he has 8 FH FEs to 17 on the BH. And hits 5 FH winners to 1 on the BH. He does unusually runaround a body serve to hit a BH return and approach of it though (wins the point, forcing a BHV error)
On whole, I think Edberg returns better than Noah serves - though both are good. And it is Noah's serve that keeps him on par with Stefan (he leads unreturned rate 39% to 22%, despite his low percentage)
On the other side of things, while serving at good 64%, Edberg's serve isn't impressive of placement, with a very high body-ish bias. In other words, not a problem for Noah to reach the ball, and though not unforceful, its not strong enough to trouble Noah much.
(This is fairly for Edberg, the body-ish serving. I imagine its due to a combination of 2 things -
a) he's not particularly accurate as a precision server. Generally, he frequently misses serves - first and second - by huge distances. I think he doesn't try to hit lines because he can't
b) he doesn't need to the way other serve-volleyers might. Other than going for aces, main reason for wide serves is to open court for first volley. Most serve-volleyers are helped tremendously by the extra space. Edberg, being a particularly high quality volleyer, doesn't to such an extent. Can hit his winners or leave very difficult running passes against opponents in central position with court closed)
In this match, Noah keeps him to a low 22% unreturned rate. Good, full swing BH returning from Noah. If anything, he tends to be a bit more push-y with the FH
Again, I think Noah returns better than Edberg serves. On a quick court, with both players doing so, it sets things up for a potential cracker of a match, especially since both serve well by a normal standard too