Match Stats/Report - Lendl vs Emilio Sanchez, Rome final, 1986

[Waspsting]

Ivan Lendl beat Emilio Sanchez 7-5, 4-6, 6-1, 6-1 in the Rome final, 1986 on clay

The win gave Lendl his first title at the venue and he would go onto win the upcoming French Open. Sanchez had beaten Boris Becker and Mats Wilander in the quarters and semis respectively

Lendl won 101 points, Sanchez 79
Lendl won 113 points, Sanchez 79 (Minimum estimate - assuming all missing games were to love, which is very unlikely)

(Note: I'm missing 3 games - 2 served by Sanchez, 1 by Lendl. Lendl won all 3 games

Missing games - Games 3-5, Set 3

All missing games have been excluded from stats unless otherwise stated)

Lendl serve-volleys more often than not off first serve

Serve Stats
Lendl...
- 1st serve percentage (42/92) 46%
- 1st serve points won (37/42) 88%
- 2nd serve points won (26/50) 52%
- Aces 9 (1 second serve)
- Double Faults 3
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (17/92) 18%

Sanchez...
- 1st serve percentage (62/88) 70%
- 1st serve points won (37/62) 60%
- 2nd serve points won (13/26) 50%
- Aces 1
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (15/88) 17%

Serve Patterns
Lendl served...
- to FH 31%
- to BH 66%
- to Body 2%

Sanchez served...
- to FH 18%
- to BH 75%
- to Body 7%

Return Stats
Lendl made...
- 73 (24 FH, 49 BH), including 6 runaround FHs & 1 return-approach
- 2 Winners (2 BH)
- 14 Errors, comprising...
- 2 Unforced (2 FH), including 1 runaround FH
- 12 Forced (1 FH, 11 BH)
- Return Rate (73/88) 83%

Sanchez made...
- 72 (45 FH, 27 BH), including 25 runaround FHs, 3 return-approaches and 1 lob
- 2 Winners (1 FH, 1 BH), including 1 runaround FH lob
- 8 Errors, comprising...
- 2 Unforced (2 FH), including 1 runaround FH
- 6 Forced (1 FH, 5 BH), including 1 lob attempt
- Return Rate (72/89) 81%

Break Points
Lendl 8/15 (9 games)…. including a deduced {2/2 (2 games)}… the points won and number of games are accurate but there may have been more break points
Sanchez 3/3

Winners (including returns, excluding serves)
Lendl 43 (16 FH, 10 BH, 8 FHV, 1 FH1/2V, 5 BHV, 1 BH1/2V, 2 OH)
Sanchez 21 (5 FH, 5 BH, 4 FHV, 2 BHV, 5 OH)

Lendl's FHs - 6 cc (1 pass, 1 at net at extreme angle virtually parallel to net - effectively a drop shot), 1 cc/inside-in, 3 dtl (1 running-down-drop-shot at net), 1 inside-out pass, 1 longline, 2 drop shots and 1 net chord dribbler
- BH passes - 4 cc (1 return, 1 chip), 2 dtl and 1 inside-oout return
- regular BHs - 1 dtl and 1 inside-out

- 13 from serve-volley points -
- 12 first 'volleys' (3 FHV, 1 FH1/2V, 5 BHV, 1 BH1/2V, 1 FH at net, 1 BH at net)… 1 BHV was played net-to-net and 1 was a stop
- 1 second volley (1 OH)

- 2 other FHVs were drops - 1 of them inside-out

Sanchez's FHs - 1 cc, 1 dtl, 1 inside-in and 2 lobs (1 runaround return, 1 which Lendl declined to attempt to run down)
- BHs - 5 dtl (1 return pass, 1 running-down-drop-shot at net and 1 short slice that died before reaching Lendl on the baseline)

- 5 from serve-volley points -
- 4 first volleys (2 FHV, 1 BHV, 1 OH)
- 1 second volley (1 FHV)

- 1 from a return-approach point, a drop BHV
- 1 other FHV was a drop

Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Lendl 40
- 26 Unforced (20 FH, 4 BH, 1 FHV, 1 BHV)
- 14 Forced (4 FH, 7 BH, 2 FHV, 1 BHV)… including 1 FH at net
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 46.9

Sanchez 41
- 20 Unforced (11 FH, 7 BH, 2 BHV)… including 1 FH pass and 1 FH at net
- 21 Forced (11 FH, 7 BH, 1 FHV, 2 BHV)… including 1 FH at net and 1 BH at net
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 47

(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
Lendl was...
- 36/45 (80%) at net, including...
- 22/25 (88%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 18/19 (95%) off 1st serve and...
- 4/6 (67%) off 2nd serve
--
- 0/1 return-approaching

Sanchez was...
- 25/45 (56%) at net, including...
- 12/20 (60%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 10/17 (59%) off 1st serve and...
- 2/3 (67%) off 2nd serve
--
- 1/3 (33%) return-approaching
- 0/2 forced back/retreated

Match Report
Good match and a competitive one for 2 sets before Lendl runs out ahead in the next 2. Fine showing all around from Lendl and its his net play that stands out

80% net points won from a healthy 45 approaches. 88% serve-volleying - 95% off first serves, which I believe is the highest I've come across for anybody with 15+ such plays

If you think that's all about unreturned serves, think again. Only 3 return errors of the 18 points he won serve-volleying off first serves
If you think that's all about easy, putaway first volley winners, think again. Near flawless volleying to anything, including low-ish balls. 2 perfect 1/2volley winners. Not easy volleys slightly under net level are deftly made and placed - including inside-out and longline. good number of stop and drop volleys too

John McEnroe or Stefan Edberg would be proud of Lendl's showing in forecourt in this match

Serve & Return
Lendl dishing out a low 46% first serve in count. Hits the first serve hard for the most part - and serve-volleys of 19/34 or 56% of them. Second serve is quite average... and he's faced with some creative returning

Note the 25 runaround FH returns by Sanchez. Every chance he gets, he runsaround the BH to hit FH returns and with Lendl serving such a low percentage, he gets a lot of chances. When Lendl throws in a slow, change-up first serve, Emilio runaround that too. Lendl misses his first 8 first serves to start the match. Emilio runsaround all 7 that were directed to BH. Deuce court and ad

Its just a matter of time before Lendl goes an ace down the middle in ad court, and he makes it. After that, Emilio cuts back on the runaround FH return on that side of the court

Generally, runaround FH returns are an aggressive move. With Emilio, it just seems a routine thing... and it works. Just 1 error trying. And just 1 overtly powerful return that forces a BH half-volley error off baseline.

Beautiful runaround FH lob return winner from him too. The shot definitely looks deliberate and Lendl throws his racquet to the ground in frustration at it (it was at a very important point). He makes an error on another such attempt which is also probably intentional

Emilio returns better than Lendl serves. Note the high 81% return rate. That's helped by Lendl's low percentage, but its also against a lot of serve-volleying. Its not the return that Emilio down for losing so many such points - he gets a number of balls back that are at least not easy but Lendl's too good on the volley

Emilio's serve is quite ordinary too - and again, there's some funky return stuff going on

Lendl returns serve for most of the match from well behind the baseline. Even second serves about half the time. He's so far back that some serves are dying on him as they reach his hitting point. Emilio's serve doesn't look strong enough that returning from so far back would give any particular advantage... likely, Lendl could return as consistently from orthodox position while pressuring Emilio more (or discouraging serve-volleying)

On one point, Emilio deliberately serves gently, and Lendl has to run forward to reach it before it bounces twice

At times, Lendl also plays the determined-to-take-return-on-FH game in ad court. Against second serves, he stands on edge of doubles alley. Emilio still drags him still wider to make FHs... if he has the accuracy to do that, why not just serve down the T? He does once and gains an error with Lendl running to try to reach the ball

Lendl returns a ball with FH on ad court further out than anything I recall seeing. He's about the width of the doubles alley outside the doubles alley but still manages to hit a FH

Lendl returns against serve-volleying much better when standing in orthodox position. Hits some sledgehammer returns in that situation, including a couple of winners

 

[Waspsting]

Play - Baseline & Net
For all the net play, action is still baseline based. The staple rally is Lendl BH cc vs Sanchez FH inside-out and its an interesting duel

Generally, such rallies are such that the FH player is attacking, the BH player defending. Here, that's not fully true. Its more of a neutral rally... but closer to Emilio attacking/Lendl defending than the other way round. Lendl never looks like overpowering Emilio in them. Emilio, though rarely strong enough to overpower Lendl BH does push him back a bit

Ultimately, most such rallies are stalemates. Emilio usually changes it up with a less angled FH inside-out to Lendl's FH... and Lendl goes FH cc, usually strongly. Also noteworthy is Lendl very rarely attempting an attacking BH dtl in the dynamic... a natural enough shot with Emilio camped out on the other end of the court

Very steady BH from Lendl with just 4 UEs. The FH is surprisingly loose with 20 by far the most error prone shot in the match, though also by far the most damaging. Lendl's quite capable of being that damaging with the FH without the error prone part, but tends to miss routine balls and moderately attacking shots dtl or extra powerful cc's

FH comes out net positive for Lendl though. He forces a bunch of errors and put Emilio on back foot with FH cc's

Strong FH + Rock solid BH should be enough to get the win... but Lendl throws in net approaches too. As noted earlier, his volleying is fantastic all round - top drawer. Doesn't face too many very difficult volleys but deals fluently with not-easy to hard-ish passes - balls under the net or slightly wide.

Even so, he mostly comes in on his service games. On return, he looks to outlast Emilio, or pass him when necessary

Emilio himself volleys well - his touch is particularly a treat to watch and he doesn't miss many of such shot choice, but he's faced with some typical, very powerful passes from Lendl.

Still, in the net contests, Lendl's the better volleyer and the better passer for a clear advantage. Baseline is more ambiguous, but probably Lendl's damaging ability off the FH puts him over here too, though he's more error prone

Some strange shots and shot choices, just as was with the return

A lobbed Lendl turns around and walks back for the next point. He's walked to near the service line when the lob lands, well inside the baseline. Could have easily retrieved it, but doesn't try

Emilio, instead of stretch volleying a ball, tries to take a few quick steps back and play a groundstroke after it bounces. Plays the ball from behind him and nets it. On another point, he's lined up his volley, but seems to just misjudge the height, and the ball passes over his racquet for clean winner. A third misjudgment is to a slow, deep slice that he hops back to at last minute and hits into net... there was plenty of time to get into position and play whatever shot he wanted

Match Progression
But for a slow start and an against run of play run loss of 5 straight games, Lendl's in control, though he doesn't seem to be particularly careful in playing return games

Emilio open a 3-0 lead with a break. Its a strange game from Lendl - missing a routine 3rd ball FH and making no effort to retrieve a lob. Emilio hits a nice BH dtl slice that dies before it reaches Lendl - effectively a drop shot and outlasts him in a FH inside-out vs BH cc rally to get the break

Lendl breaks back soon enough, with a powerful BH dtl winner and an even harder hit FH inside-out pass and from thereon, has the better of play. He breaks again with some powerful passes and an error forcing hard FH inside-in return. He serves out the set beautifully - there's a stop BHV winner from under the net and a perfect BH1/2V one on set point

Lendl breaks to start the second, opening with a thundering FH cc pass and blasting BH dtl winner to end a FH inside-out vs BH cc rally. Break point is another perfect, low FHV - drop inside-out this time

Play continues on serve with Lendl up 4-2... and he loses the next 5 games. The break back comes in a poor game from Lendl with 4 errors. He's broken to love to give up the second in a bold one from Emilio, who dashes to net to win the opening point, strikes a rare lob return winner and smacks an OH after Lendl brings him in with drop shot

Set 3 starts with flurry of winners from both players. Unfortunately, I'm missing games 3-5 (2 breaks and a hold by Lendl), which would be the turning point one imagines. Up 5-1, Lendl breaks again with 2 superb winners against serve-volleys - the first a guided BH inside-out return, the second a soft BH cc chip - to take the set

Set 4 is one way traffic. Lendl has 13 winners in it. Both players take to net aplenty. When Lendl comes in, he volleys winners. When Emilio comes in, Lendl passes winners

Few notable points. A by now desperate Emilio chip-charges a second serve, but the serve-volleying Lendl elegantly glides away a BHV winner anyway. There's a stunning, running FH cc winner to the corner. And finally, a first 'volley' FH1/2V winner to go with the BH1/2V earlier

Summing up, impressive showing from Lendl. His BH locks down baseline points, he goes to town with the FH - with less than overwhelming success - and most of all, he volleys almost flawlessly. Some interesting returning and shot choices from Emilio Sanchez, but with his FH inside-out not able to win points regularly, he doesn't seem to have much to hurt his opponent with

 

[ChrisG]

Awesome breakdown ! Arantxa older brother was a great clay court player, just not on the level of Lendl and co. I still think he should have done better at RG.
He was a awesome double player (with Casal) so it’s not a surprise to see his chip and charge on 2nd serve returns haha

 

[Waspsting]

Awesome breakdown ! Arantxa older brother was a great clay court player, just not on the level of Lendl and co. I still think he should have done better at RG.
He was a awesome double player (with Casal) so it’s not a surprise to see his chip and charge on 2nd serve returns haha

I always liked Emilio's game and service action. The latter is just as I remember it and the former is FH inside-out based in line with my memory too

But I don't see any great consistency in his groundstrokes or particularly good movement - the two hallmarks of quality clay court play

Chip-charges were a bit desperate, I think. He won the first point he tried it in the third set with a beautiful drop BHV... then pulled out 2 in a row after getting crushed in third set

Lendl was serve-volleying on the first and hit a winner and forced a volleying error on the second

 

[nono30]

Ivan Lendl beat Emilio Sanchez 7-5, 4-6, 6-1, 6-1 in the Rome final, 1986 on clay

The win gave Lendl his first title at the venue and he would go onto win the upcoming French Open. Sanchez had beaten Boris Becker and Mats Wilander in the quarters and semis respectively

Lendl won 101 points, Sanchez 79
Lendl won 113 points, Sanchez 79 (Minimum estimate - assuming all missing games were to love, which is very unlikely)

(Note: I'm missing 3 games - 2 served by Sanchez, 1 by Lendl. Lendl won all 3 games

Missing games - Games 3-5, Set 3

All missing games have been excluded from stats unless otherwise stated)

Lendl serve-volleys more often than not off first serve

Serve Stats
Lendl...
- 1st serve percentage (42/92) 46%
- 1st serve points won (37/42) 88%
- 2nd serve points won (26/50) 52%
- Aces 9 (1 second serve)
- Double Faults 3
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (17/92) 18%

Sanchez...
- 1st serve percentage (62/88) 70%
- 1st serve points won (37/62) 60%
- 2nd serve points won (13/26) 50%
- Aces 1
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (15/88) 17%

Serve Patterns
Lendl served...
- to FH 31%
- to BH 66%
- to Body 2%

Sanchez served...
- to FH 18%
- to BH 75%
- to Body 7%

Return Stats
Lendl made...
- 73 (24 FH, 49 BH), including 6 runaround FHs & 1 return-approach
- 2 Winners (2 BH)
- 14 Errors, comprising...
- 2 Unforced (2 FH), including 1 runaround FH
- 12 Forced (1 FH, 11 BH)
- Return Rate (73/88) 83%

Sanchez made...
- 72 (45 FH, 27 BH), including 25 runaround FHs, 3 return-approaches and 1 lob
- 2 Winners (1 FH, 1 BH), including 1 runaround FH lob
- 8 Errors, comprising...
- 2 Unforced (2 FH), including 1 runaround FH
- 6 Forced (1 FH, 5 BH), including 1 lob attempt
- Return Rate (72/89) 81%

Break Points
Lendl 8/15 (9 games)…. including a deduced {2/2 (2 games)}… the points won and number of games are accurate but there may have been more break points
Sanchez 3/3

Winners (including returns, excluding serves)
Lendl 43 (16 FH, 10 BH, 8 FHV, 1 FH1/2V, 5 BHV, 1 BH1/2V, 2 OH)
Sanchez 21 (5 FH, 5 BH, 4 FHV, 2 BHV, 5 OH)

Lendl's FHs - 6 cc (1 pass, 1 at net at extreme angle virtually parallel to net - effectively a drop shot), 1 cc/inside-in, 3 dtl (1 running-down-drop-shot at net), 1 inside-out pass, 1 longline, 2 drop shots and 1 net chord dribbler
- BH passes - 4 cc (1 return, 1 chip), 2 dtl and 1 inside-oout return
- regular BHs - 1 dtl and 1 inside-out

- 13 from serve-volley points -
- 12 first 'volleys' (3 FHV, 1 FH1/2V, 5 BHV, 1 BH1/2V, 1 FH at net, 1 BH at net)… 1 BHV was played net-to-net and 1 was a stop
- 1 second volley (1 OH)

- 2 other FHVs were drops - 1 of them inside-out

Sanchez's FHs - 1 cc, 1 dtl, 1 inside-in and 2 lobs (1 runaround return, 1 which Lendl declined to attempt to run down)
- BHs - 5 dtl (1 return pass, 1 running-down-drop-shot at net and 1 short slice that died before reaching Lendl on the baseline)

- 5 from serve-volley points -
- 4 first volleys (2 FHV, 1 BHV, 1 OH)
- 1 second volley (1 FHV)

- 1 from a return-approach point, a drop BHV
- 1 other FHV was a drop

Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Lendl 40
- 26 Unforced (20 FH, 4 BH, 1 FHV, 1 BHV)
- 14 Forced (4 FH, 7 BH, 2 FHV, 1 BHV)… including 1 FH at net
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 46.9

Sanchez 41
- 20 Unforced (11 FH, 7 BH, 2 BHV)… including 1 FH pass and 1 FH at net
- 21 Forced (11 FH, 7 BH, 1 FHV, 2 BHV)… including 1 FH at net and 1 BH at net
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 47

(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
Lendl was...
- 36/45 (80%) at net, including...
- 22/25 (88%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 18/19 (95%) off 1st serve and...
- 4/6 (67%) off 2nd serve
--
- 0/1 return-approaching

Sanchez was...
- 25/45 (56%) at net, including...
- 12/20 (60%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 10/17 (59%) off 1st serve and...
- 2/3 (67%) off 2nd serve
--
- 1/3 (33%) return-approaching
- 0/2 forced back/retreated

Match Report
Good match and a competitive one for 2 sets before Lendl runs out ahead in the next 2. Fine showing all around from Lendl and its his net play that stands out

80% net points won from a healthy 45 approaches. 88% serve-volleying - 95% off first serves, which I believe is the highest I've come across for anybody with 15+ such plays

If you think that's all about unreturned serves, think again. Only 3 return errors of the 18 points he won serve-volleying off first serves
If you think that's all about easy, putaway first volley winners, think again. Near flawless volleying to anything, including low-ish balls. 2 perfect 1/2volley winners. Not easy volleys slightly under net level are deftly made and placed - including inside-out and longline. good number of stop and drop volleys too

John McEnroe or Stefan Edberg would be proud of Lendl's showing in forecourt in this match

Serve & Return
Lendl dishing out a low 46% first serve in count. Hits the first serve hard for the most part - and serve-volleys of 19/34 or 56% of them. Second serve is quite average... and he's faced with some creative returning

Note the 25 runaround FH returns by Sanchez. Every chance he gets, he runsaround the BH to hit FH returns and with Lendl serving such a low percentage, he gets a lot of chances. When Lendl throws in a slow, change-up first serve, Emilio runaround that too. Lendl misses his first 8 first serves to start the match. Emilio runsaround all 7 that were directed to BH. Deuce court and ad

Its just a matter of time before Lendl goes an ace down the middle in ad court, and he makes it. After that, Emilio cuts back on the runaround FH return on that side of the court

Generally, runaround FH returns are an aggressive move. With Emilio, it just seems a routine thing... and it works. Just 1 error trying. And just 1 overtly powerful return that forces a BH half-volley error off baseline.

Beautiful runaround FH lob return winner from him too. The shot definitely looks deliberate and Lendl throws his racquet to the ground in frustration at it (it was at a very important point). He makes an error on another such attempt which is also probably intentional

Emilio returns better than Lendl serves. Note the high 81% return rate. That's helped by Lendl's low percentage, but its also against a lot of serve-volleying. Its not the return that Emilio down for losing so many such points - he gets a number of balls back that are at least not easy but Lendl's too good on the volley

Emilio's serve is quite ordinary too - and again, there's some funky return stuff going on

Lendl returns serve for most of the match from well behind the baseline. Even second serves about half the time. He's so far back that some serves are dying on him as they reach his hitting point. Emilio's serve doesn't look strong enough that returning from so far back would give any particular advantage... likely, Lendl could return as consistently from orthodox position while pressuring Emilio more (or discouraging serve-volleying)

On one point, Emilio deliberately serves gently, and Lendl has to run forward to reach it before it bounces twice

Parfois, Lendl joue également le jeu déterminé à prendre le retour sur FH devant le tribunal publicitaire. Contre les deuxièmes services, il se tient au bord de l'allée des doubles. Emilio le traîne encore plus large pour faire des FH... s'il a la précision pour le faire, pourquoi ne pas simplement servir le T ? Il le fait une fois et commet une erreur avec Lendl courant pour essayer d'atteindre le ballon

Lendl renvoie une balle avec FH sur le terrain publicitaire plus loin que tout ce que je me souviens avoir vu. Il est à peu près de la largeur de l'allée des doubles à l'extérieur de l'allée des doubles mais parvient toujours à frapper un FH

Lendl revient beaucoup mieux contre la volée de service lorsqu'il se tient en position orthodoxe. Frappe quelques retours de masse dans cette situation, y compris quelques gagnants
[/CITATION]
bonjour le 1/4 lendl/Leconte 86 existe t’il merci bruno