Match Stats/Report - Forget vs Sampras, Stockholm semi-final, 1992

[Waspsting]

Guy Forget beat Pete Sampras 7-6(11), 7-6(4) in the Stockholm semi-final, 1992 on carpet

Forget would go onto lose in the final to Goran Ivanisevic. Sampras had recently beaten Forget in 5 sets at the US Open

Forget won 81 points, Sampras 81

Sampras serve-volleyed off all first serves, Forget all but 5

Serve Stats
Forget...
- 1st serve percentage (51/88) 58%
- 1st serve points won (43/51) 84%
- 2nd serve points won (24/37) 65%
- Aces 16 (1 possibly not clean)
- Double Faults 1
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (41/88) 47%

Sampras...
- 1st serve percentage (48/74) 65%
- 1st serve points won (42/48) 88%
- 2nd serve points won (18/26) 69%
- Aces 14 (1 second serve)
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (37/74) 50%

Serve Patterns
Forget served...
- to FH 29%
- to BH 59%
- to Body 13%

Sampras served...
- to FH 31%
- to BH 69%

Return Stats
Forget made...
- 37 (7 FH, 30 BH), including 2 return-approaches
- 1 Winner (1 BH)
- 23 Errors, comprising...
- 4 Unforced (3 FH, 1 BH)
- 19 Forced (5 FH, 14 BH)
- Return Rate (37/74) 50%

Sampras made...
- 46 (16 FH, 30 BH), including 5 runaround FHs & 2 return-approaches
- 3 Winners (3 BH)
- 25 Errors, comprising...
- 7 Unforced (5 FH, 2 BH), including 2 runaround FHs
- 18 Forced (7 FH, 11 BH)
- Return Rate (46/87) 53%

Break Points
Forget 0
Sampras 0/4 (2 games)

Winners (including returns, excluding serves)
Forget 14 (3 FH, 3 BH, 3 FHV, 4 BHV, 1 OH)
Sampras 27 (5 FH, 8 BH, 2 FHV, 6 BHV, 6 OH)

Forget had 7 from serve-volley points
- 4 first volleys (3 FHV, 1 BHV)
- 3 second volleys (2 BHV, 1 OH)

- FHs - 2 inside-out (1 pass) and 1 lob
- BHs (all passes) - 2 cc and 1 inside-out return

Sampras had 8 from serve-volley points
- 4 first volleys (2 FHV, 1 BHV, 1 OH)... the OH can reasonably be called a FHV
- 4 second volleys (1 BHV, 3 OH)

- 1 from a return-approach point, a BHV

- FH passes - 2 cc, 1 dtl and 1 longline
- regular FH - 1 dtl
- BH passes - 1 cc, 2 dtl (1 return) and 1 inside-in return
- regular BHs - 2 cc, 1 dtl and 1 inside-out return

Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Forget 16
- 5 Unforced (4 FH, 1 BH)
- 11 Forced (5 FH, 5 BH, 1 FH1/2V)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 44

Sampras 26
- 17 Unforced (8 FH, 6 BH, 2 BHV, 1 OH)
- 9 Forced (3 FH, 4 BH, 1 FHV, 1 BH1/2V)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 48.8

(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
Forget was...
- 28/38 (74%) at net, including...
- 24/31 (77%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 24/30 (80%) off 1st serve and...
- 1/1 off 2nd serve
---
- 0/2 return-approaching
- 0/1 forced back

Sampras was...
- 41/51 (80%) at net, including...
- 30/36 (83%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 29/35 (83%) off 1st serve and...
- 1/1 off 2nd serve
---
- 2/2 return-approaching

Match Report
Two big servers, serve-volleying on a fast court and absolutely nothing between them. Result is determined by a point here and there in two tiebreaks

First set is as even as even can be. 0 break points, 0 deuces. For a grand total of 2 points does returner lead in a game (Forget leads 15-30 and 0-15 in two separate games). Forget serves 43 points, Sampras 41. Both players win 42 points in the set. The extended tiebreak is decided when a Forget FH lob is called in... if it actually was in, ball must've caught the very outside of the line. I though it was out but its absolutely impossible to tell for sure

Sampras has the first set point in the tiebreak and 2 in total. Forget has 5

Sampras has the better of the second set. He serves 33 points to hold 6 times, to Forget's 45 and has 4 break points across 2 games (Forget again doesn't have any). Every one is snuffed out with an ace. This time though, Forget does command tiebreak and leads it 5-1 with two mini-breaks before ending it 7-4

Statistically, Sampras has thin lead in basic areas and odds would be on him gaining the win
- First serve in - Sampras 65%, Forget 58%
- First serve points won - Sampras 88%, Forget 84%
- Second serve points won - Sampras 69%, Forget 65%
- Unreturned rate - Sampras 50%, Forget 47%
- Double faults - Sampras 0, Forget 1

Serve, Return & Serve-Volley
Big serving from both players, obviously

Forget's is based more on power than placement. Its not completely unreturnable, but Sampras can't get much done against it. Some troublesomely powerful second serves too, with the body serves in particular being tough

In first set, Forget serve-volleys off all 1st serves. Stays back once early in second set only to whack a third ball FH winner. After Sampras places a BH dtl return pass to bring up break and set point later in set, he stays back 4 more times. So some lack of serve-volley spirit shown there by Forget - he wins 24/30 or 80% first serve-volley points but only 3/5 or 60% staying back... discouraged from doing so by just 1 return winner?

Ends up not costing him as he keeps acing his way out of trouble

Not great returning from Sampras. Note the 7 return UEs. Some are just regulation returns. To be clear, Forget serves outstanding and overwhelming credit to him for it, but there is reasonable room for improvement for Sampras on the return also

In first set, quality of Sampras serve is more about placement than power and he's constantly dragging Forget off to sides. In second set, he ups the power while losing little of the placement. 9 of his 14 aces are in that set. Not much Forget - or anyone else - could be expected to do against that calibre serving. And Sampras serve-volleys off all first serves, winning 83% of them

Serve-volley plays overwhelmingly favour the server. Returner usually misses the return, and when he doesn't, leaves easy volleys

Just 1 double fault in the match, despite heavy second serving... great job by both players on that front

 

[Waspsting]

Play - Baseline & Rallying to Net
With both players serve-volleying once each off second serve, there's plenty of points starting baseline -to-baseline

Sampras is the more aggressive, shot maker while Forget looks to rally neutrally. 'Neutrally' here is a relative terms... its the kind of court were firm regulation groundstrokes end points sooner or later (not necessarily sooner... baseline rallies are medium length regularly) and slices stay low

Standout shot would be Forget's BH, particularly the slice. Sampras attacks that side and Forget invariably sticks in the rally. Just 1 BH UE and his slices - whether neutral or pseudo-defensive - are outstanding. Just 4 groundstroke UEs from Forget, while Pete has 14

Flip side of that is Sampras being more damaging. He has 4 baseline-to-baseline winners to Forget's 1, forces more errors and is kept from forcing more by Forget's polished rallying

As with every aspect of this match, overall there's nothing between the two players. Purely from baseline, Sampras is probably more erratic than his attacking play is effective and would likely come out net negative but for manufacturing approaches. He rallies forward 13 times (winning 9) to Forget's 5 times (wins 4). Seeing as Forget served 11 more second serves, that's a good indicator of Pete's greater net hunger

That's as much due to Forget having no interest in taking net in play as Sampras' being keen to come forward

From the baseline, there are a number of BH longline exchanges. Both players - particularly Sampras - prefer to keep ball away from the others danger FH side. Forget is more willing to change up to Pete's FH, which is as more error prone than deadly

Sampras is a bit caviler from the back in return games. He can hang in with Forget neutrally, but goes for the big shots a little too early and unnecessarily without setting up the point

Neither passer can challenge the man at net and not too many difficult volleys to be made. Forget misses just 1 ball (a FH1/2V), Pete misses a few, including missing a 'dunk' smash by a long way. Some beautiful BHV winners from Pete also to low balls

Match Progression
Not a sniff for the returner in set 1.

Forget loses 7 points, Sampras 5 in 6 service games each going into tiebreak

In tiebreak, Forget goes up mini-break with Sampras missing an attacking FH inside-in. Sampras regains it later after a long-ish BH longline exchange. Despite the 13-11 scoreline, tiebreak is also not too dramatic, with set points coming up on return points for both players. Sampras does save 1 set point returning with a lob that forces Forget back

Forget returns the favour with a FH lob to the very corner for a winner that Sampras thought was out to make the score 12-11, before an unreturned serve ends the set. Sampras glares at the line judge. At end of match, he doesn't shake the chair's hand either, which seems excessive

Sampras carries on the good work in second set, losing just 5 points going into tiebreak. Forget though is pushed to hold and endures 8 and 12 point games where he faces 4 break points. He serves aces on all of them

Very good tiebreak from Forget. First point is on Sampras serve and a baseline rally develops. Forget ends it with a strong FH dtl that forces an error... he'd rarely played shots like that all match. Next point, Sampras comes to net but Forget blasts a pass that forces a FHV error, consolidating the mini-break. A BH inside-in return forces a Sampras BH1/2V error to put Forget up 2 mini-breaks. Sampras manages to snatch one back, but Forget keeps his nose in front. He finishes with his 16th ace

Summing up, dead even match, dominated by serve First set is buried and dead even and decided by an unclear call 13-11 in tiebreak. Sampras has the better of second set, but Forget keeps acing his way out of trouble and proceeds to command the tiebreak

Forget has more powerful serve, but Sampras' is better placed. Neither can do much with the return. In play, Sampras takes initiative while Forget plays solid in polished fashion with honours about even

Odds would have ever so slightly favoured Sampras to come out ahead but its close enough that fortune and who-plays-big-points-better settle the matter Forget's way

Stats for pair's '95 Queen's Club final - https://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/ind...s-club-finals-1994-1995.664201/#post-14138619
Stat for '92 Paris second round match between Sampras and Henri Leconte - https://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/ind...te-vs-sampras-paris-second-round-1992.682367/