Stefan Edberg beat Mats Wilander 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 in the Australian Open final, 1985 on grass
Edberg was 19 years old, ranked 6th in the world and this was his first Slam title. He'd apparently saved 2 match points in beating Wally Masur earlier in the 4th round and also come through another 5 setter in beating Ivan Lendl in the semis. Wilander had been going for his third straight Australian Open title, having beaten Edberg in the quarters en route to the title the previous year
Edberg won 95 points, Wilander 75
Edberg serve-volleyed off all first serves and all but three seconds. Wilander serve-volleyed off most first serves and once off second
Serve Stats
Edberg...
- 1st serve percentage (44/74) 59%
- 1st serve points won (39/44) 89%
- 2nd serve points won (18/30) 60%
- Aces 5
- Double Faults 2
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (28/74) 38%
Wilander...
- 1st serve percentage (57/96) 59%
- 1st serve points won (41/57) 72%
- 2nd serve points won (17/39) 44%
- Aces 10, Service Winners 1
- Double Faults 2
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (27/96) 28%
Serve Patterns
Edberg served...
- to FH 50%
- to BH 43%
- to Body 7%
Wilander served...
- to FH 34%
- to BH 55%
- to Body 10%
Return Stats
Edberg made...
- 67 (28 FH, 39 BH), including 5 runaround FHs, 10 return-approaches & 1 drop return
- 2 Winners (1 FH, 1 BH), including 1 BH drop return
- 16 Errors, comprising...
- 6 Unforced (1 FH, 5 BH), including 1 return-approach & (likely) 1 drop attempt
- 10 Forced (6 FH, 4 BH)
- Return Rate (67/94) 71%
Wilander made...
- 44 (22 FH, 22 BH), including 1 runaround FH
- 3 Winners (3 FH)
- 23 Errors, all forced...
- 23 Forced (15 FH, 8 BH)
- Return Rate (44/72) 61%
Break Points
Edberg 4/14 (5 games)
Wilander 0/2 (1 game)
Winners (including returns, excluding serves)
Edberg 39 (5 FH, 8 BH, 8 FHV, 10 BHV, 8 OH)
Wilander 23 (7 FH, 5 BH, 4 FHV, 4 BHV, 3 OH)
Edberg had 21 from serve-volley points -
- 15 first volleys (5 FHV, 8 BHV, 2 OH)
- 5 second volleys (2 FHV, 3 OH)
- 1 third volley (1 OH)
- 4 from return-approach point (1 FHV, 2 BHV, 1 OH)
- FHs (all passes) - 3 cc (1 return), 1 dtl and 1 inside-out
- BHs - 5 cc (4 passes), 2 dtl passes and 1 drop return
Wilander had 10 from serve-volley points -
- 5 first volleys (2 FHV, 2 BHV, 1 OH)
- 5 second 'volleys' (1 FHV, 2 BHV, 1 OH, 1 FH at net)
- 1 other FHV was played net to net
- FH passes - 3 dtl (1 return), 1 inside-out return and 1 inside-in return
- regular FH - 1 cc
- BHs (all passes) - 2 cc, 2 dtl and 1 inside-out
Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Edberg 23
- 10 Unforced (4 FH, 2 BH, 1 FHV, 3 BHV)
- 13 Forced (4 FH, 6 BH, 2 FHV, 1 BHV)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 47
Wilander 26
- 7 Unforced (4 FH, 1 BHV, 1 OH)
- 19 Forced (7 FH, 7 BH, 2 FHV, 2 BHV, 1 BH1/2V)
- 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 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...
- 62/81 (77%) at net, including...
- 50/64 (78%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 34/39 (87%) off 1st serve and...
- 16/25 (64%) off 2nd serve
--
- 7/10 (70%) return-approaching
Wilander was...
- 30/52 (58%) at net, including...
- 26/39 (67%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 25/38 (66%) off 1st serve and...
- 1/1 off 2nd serve
Match Report
Beautiful and silky from Edberg - one of his typical high quality showings where he makes serve-volleying look ridiculously easy. Its only when you see his opponent doing it that you realize its a lot harder than he Edberg makes it seem
No one seems to have given Edberg a chance going into this match. Commentators - Carillo, Drysdale and Stolle - uniformly favour Wilander to win, and one says Edberg winning the first set is a shock to at least 70% of the fans in attendance. I find the extent of how unfavoured Edberg seems to be to be a bit strange - though just shy of 20 years of age and in his first Slam final (in fact, this had been his first semi), Edberg was ranked 6th in the world and seeded 5th (Jimmy Connors is the higher ranked player who was absent from the tournament, I think), while Wilander was ranked and seeded 3rd. And his natural game is obviously more suited to grass than Wilander's
Nor are the commentators unaware of Edberg's game, though Stolle initially errs in calling him a clay courter but is instantly corrected. Carillo calls him a serve-volleyer who likes faster surfaces and they all seem aware of his supposed FH weakness and the BH being his stronger wing. Commentators spend much of the match talking about Wilander not playing well and focusing on what Wilander isn't doing - and not nearly enough noticing Edberg's near flawless play
Carillo, who's positioned court side, remarkably goes off to seek the trainer to ask if an arm injury Wilander has had all tournament (his right arm is taped up from biceps/triceps to mid-forearm) has been acting up, presumably to try to explain what she perceives to be Wilander's poor play. She comes back with the answer that Mats hasn't sought treatment out of the ordinary recently. Then Carillo speculates the arm bothering him has resulted in Mats experimenting with looser string tension and that's the cause of action being one sided
I doubt Mats changed string tension just prior to final and at least, played the entire tournament with whatever string condition he was playing with. When Drysdale asks when he changed string tension, Carillo vaguely claims 'just the other day', though conceding he played his semi with same condition
Towards the end when its clear who'll win, Stolle praises Edberg mildly adding that Mats made too many unforced errors. I have him with 9 - including 2 double faults
In short, I found the perceptions of commentators to be off. Presumably, they have no personal favouritism for or against either player. Mats is a known top player, Edberg not so well known is about the only reason for skewed perceptions from seeing things mostly from Mats' point of view. In a way, its a great compliment to Edberg.... his play is sublime but also highly grooved so as not to stand out particularly.
Edberg virtually serve-volleys 100% (staying back on just 3 second serves), while Wilander does so 38/46 or 82% of time off first serve and just once of 2nd. So action is mostly man at net vs man on baseline, with Wilander's second serve points making up almost the entirety of points starting baseline-to-baseline
Edberg skates through his service games all match. He doesn't face break point or even go to deuce 'til his last service game. A lot of unreturned serves (38%) and a lot of first volley winners (15). From end of first set to middle of second, he wins 25 successive first serve points. In the same stretch, he wins 14 service points in a row. Suffice to say, Edberg cruises on serve all match
His game - particularly on return - gets stronger and bolder as the match goes on.
In his first service game, he loses both second serve volley points with UEs at net (which means he staggeringly only made 2 more volleying UEs for the rest of the match). And hee stays back on 2 second serves in in his second game (which means he only did so once more in rest of the match)
Initially, he's fairly conservative returning and plays along in passive baseline exchanges. By the end, he's kniefing chip-charge returns and coming in from baseline rallies
Wilander holds almost as easily in first set. He hasn't faced break point, though serving a 10 point game, when he steps up to prolong the set at 4-5. Edberg pounces on a short ball FH cc and comes in to force an error on first point and then Mats double faults. A pair of BH dtl passes - 1 winner and 1 forcing a stretched volleying error - gives him the break and the set. Given how conservatively he'd played and averagely passed upto this point, the game stands out sharply
Edberg pushes Mats early in the second, having 3 break points in his first return game. 2 are saved with strong passes, 1 is missed with an attempted too-cute a volley. Edberg's even stronger in the next return game. Mats drags him wide with the serve and volleys short to the opposite side, but Edberg runs all the way to well outside the court and makes a strong shot at an extreme angle for the winner to open the game and next point, Edberg BH drop returns a winner and then force a 1/2volley error. Mats gets out of the 0-40 hole, but is broken 2 points later - a chip-charge return point and a powerful, low BH cc pass getting the job done for Edberg. Rest of the set is easy holds - 1 point goes against serve in remaining 5 games
Third set, Edberg's on the attack again with chip-charges and other approaches. Mats survives first game (14 points) without facing break point but is broken next time. Great game from Edberg to break - 2 BH cc passing winners and 2 chip-charge returns - the second of which is finished with a whipping BHV winner
Mats has his only break points in game 8. Both are erased with unreturned first serves. And Edberg breaks again to wrap up the match, finishing with a BH dtl pass
Edberg was 19 years old, ranked 6th in the world and this was his first Slam title. He'd apparently saved 2 match points in beating Wally Masur earlier in the 4th round and also come through another 5 setter in beating Ivan Lendl in the semis. Wilander had been going for his third straight Australian Open title, having beaten Edberg in the quarters en route to the title the previous year
Edberg won 95 points, Wilander 75
Edberg serve-volleyed off all first serves and all but three seconds. Wilander serve-volleyed off most first serves and once off second
Serve Stats
Edberg...
- 1st serve percentage (44/74) 59%
- 1st serve points won (39/44) 89%
- 2nd serve points won (18/30) 60%
- Aces 5
- Double Faults 2
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (28/74) 38%
Wilander...
- 1st serve percentage (57/96) 59%
- 1st serve points won (41/57) 72%
- 2nd serve points won (17/39) 44%
- Aces 10, Service Winners 1
- Double Faults 2
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (27/96) 28%
Serve Patterns
Edberg served...
- to FH 50%
- to BH 43%
- to Body 7%
Wilander served...
- to FH 34%
- to BH 55%
- to Body 10%
Return Stats
Edberg made...
- 67 (28 FH, 39 BH), including 5 runaround FHs, 10 return-approaches & 1 drop return
- 2 Winners (1 FH, 1 BH), including 1 BH drop return
- 16 Errors, comprising...
- 6 Unforced (1 FH, 5 BH), including 1 return-approach & (likely) 1 drop attempt
- 10 Forced (6 FH, 4 BH)
- Return Rate (67/94) 71%
Wilander made...
- 44 (22 FH, 22 BH), including 1 runaround FH
- 3 Winners (3 FH)
- 23 Errors, all forced...
- 23 Forced (15 FH, 8 BH)
- Return Rate (44/72) 61%
Break Points
Edberg 4/14 (5 games)
Wilander 0/2 (1 game)
Winners (including returns, excluding serves)
Edberg 39 (5 FH, 8 BH, 8 FHV, 10 BHV, 8 OH)
Wilander 23 (7 FH, 5 BH, 4 FHV, 4 BHV, 3 OH)
Edberg had 21 from serve-volley points -
- 15 first volleys (5 FHV, 8 BHV, 2 OH)
- 5 second volleys (2 FHV, 3 OH)
- 1 third volley (1 OH)
- 4 from return-approach point (1 FHV, 2 BHV, 1 OH)
- FHs (all passes) - 3 cc (1 return), 1 dtl and 1 inside-out
- BHs - 5 cc (4 passes), 2 dtl passes and 1 drop return
Wilander had 10 from serve-volley points -
- 5 first volleys (2 FHV, 2 BHV, 1 OH)
- 5 second 'volleys' (1 FHV, 2 BHV, 1 OH, 1 FH at net)
- 1 other FHV was played net to net
- FH passes - 3 dtl (1 return), 1 inside-out return and 1 inside-in return
- regular FH - 1 cc
- BHs (all passes) - 2 cc, 2 dtl and 1 inside-out
Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Edberg 23
- 10 Unforced (4 FH, 2 BH, 1 FHV, 3 BHV)
- 13 Forced (4 FH, 6 BH, 2 FHV, 1 BHV)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 47
Wilander 26
- 7 Unforced (4 FH, 1 BHV, 1 OH)
- 19 Forced (7 FH, 7 BH, 2 FHV, 2 BHV, 1 BH1/2V)
- 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 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...
- 62/81 (77%) at net, including...
- 50/64 (78%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 34/39 (87%) off 1st serve and...
- 16/25 (64%) off 2nd serve
--
- 7/10 (70%) return-approaching
Wilander was...
- 30/52 (58%) at net, including...
- 26/39 (67%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 25/38 (66%) off 1st serve and...
- 1/1 off 2nd serve
Match Report
Beautiful and silky from Edberg - one of his typical high quality showings where he makes serve-volleying look ridiculously easy. Its only when you see his opponent doing it that you realize its a lot harder than he Edberg makes it seem
No one seems to have given Edberg a chance going into this match. Commentators - Carillo, Drysdale and Stolle - uniformly favour Wilander to win, and one says Edberg winning the first set is a shock to at least 70% of the fans in attendance. I find the extent of how unfavoured Edberg seems to be to be a bit strange - though just shy of 20 years of age and in his first Slam final (in fact, this had been his first semi), Edberg was ranked 6th in the world and seeded 5th (Jimmy Connors is the higher ranked player who was absent from the tournament, I think), while Wilander was ranked and seeded 3rd. And his natural game is obviously more suited to grass than Wilander's
Nor are the commentators unaware of Edberg's game, though Stolle initially errs in calling him a clay courter but is instantly corrected. Carillo calls him a serve-volleyer who likes faster surfaces and they all seem aware of his supposed FH weakness and the BH being his stronger wing. Commentators spend much of the match talking about Wilander not playing well and focusing on what Wilander isn't doing - and not nearly enough noticing Edberg's near flawless play
Carillo, who's positioned court side, remarkably goes off to seek the trainer to ask if an arm injury Wilander has had all tournament (his right arm is taped up from biceps/triceps to mid-forearm) has been acting up, presumably to try to explain what she perceives to be Wilander's poor play. She comes back with the answer that Mats hasn't sought treatment out of the ordinary recently. Then Carillo speculates the arm bothering him has resulted in Mats experimenting with looser string tension and that's the cause of action being one sided
I doubt Mats changed string tension just prior to final and at least, played the entire tournament with whatever string condition he was playing with. When Drysdale asks when he changed string tension, Carillo vaguely claims 'just the other day', though conceding he played his semi with same condition
Towards the end when its clear who'll win, Stolle praises Edberg mildly adding that Mats made too many unforced errors. I have him with 9 - including 2 double faults
In short, I found the perceptions of commentators to be off. Presumably, they have no personal favouritism for or against either player. Mats is a known top player, Edberg not so well known is about the only reason for skewed perceptions from seeing things mostly from Mats' point of view. In a way, its a great compliment to Edberg.... his play is sublime but also highly grooved so as not to stand out particularly.
Edberg virtually serve-volleys 100% (staying back on just 3 second serves), while Wilander does so 38/46 or 82% of time off first serve and just once of 2nd. So action is mostly man at net vs man on baseline, with Wilander's second serve points making up almost the entirety of points starting baseline-to-baseline
Edberg skates through his service games all match. He doesn't face break point or even go to deuce 'til his last service game. A lot of unreturned serves (38%) and a lot of first volley winners (15). From end of first set to middle of second, he wins 25 successive first serve points. In the same stretch, he wins 14 service points in a row. Suffice to say, Edberg cruises on serve all match
His game - particularly on return - gets stronger and bolder as the match goes on.
In his first service game, he loses both second serve volley points with UEs at net (which means he staggeringly only made 2 more volleying UEs for the rest of the match). And hee stays back on 2 second serves in in his second game (which means he only did so once more in rest of the match)
Initially, he's fairly conservative returning and plays along in passive baseline exchanges. By the end, he's kniefing chip-charge returns and coming in from baseline rallies
Wilander holds almost as easily in first set. He hasn't faced break point, though serving a 10 point game, when he steps up to prolong the set at 4-5. Edberg pounces on a short ball FH cc and comes in to force an error on first point and then Mats double faults. A pair of BH dtl passes - 1 winner and 1 forcing a stretched volleying error - gives him the break and the set. Given how conservatively he'd played and averagely passed upto this point, the game stands out sharply
Edberg pushes Mats early in the second, having 3 break points in his first return game. 2 are saved with strong passes, 1 is missed with an attempted too-cute a volley. Edberg's even stronger in the next return game. Mats drags him wide with the serve and volleys short to the opposite side, but Edberg runs all the way to well outside the court and makes a strong shot at an extreme angle for the winner to open the game and next point, Edberg BH drop returns a winner and then force a 1/2volley error. Mats gets out of the 0-40 hole, but is broken 2 points later - a chip-charge return point and a powerful, low BH cc pass getting the job done for Edberg. Rest of the set is easy holds - 1 point goes against serve in remaining 5 games
Third set, Edberg's on the attack again with chip-charges and other approaches. Mats survives first game (14 points) without facing break point but is broken next time. Great game from Edberg to break - 2 BH cc passing winners and 2 chip-charge returns - the second of which is finished with a whipping BHV winner
Mats has his only break points in game 8. Both are erased with unreturned first serves. And Edberg breaks again to wrap up the match, finishing with a BH dtl pass
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