Match Stats/Report - Lendl vs Ivanisevic, Tokyo Indoor quarter-final, 1992

[Waspsting]

Ivan Lendl beat Goran Ivanisevic 6-3, 6-4 in the Tokyo Indoor quarter-final, 1992 on carpet

Lendl would go onto win the title, beating Henrik Holm in the final. The two had recently met at Wimbledon where Ivaniseivc had won. This was the last time the two played, with Lendl leading the head-to-head 5-1. Ivanisevic would shortly after win Stockholm, beating Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg among others along the way

Lendl won 63 points, Ivanisevic 47

Lendl serve-volleyed off most first serves, Ivanisevic off all first serves and half off second serves

Serve Stats
Lendl...
- 1st serve percentage (33/53) 62%
- 1st serve points won (29/33) 88%
- 2nd serve points won (13/20) 65%
- Aces 6
- Double Faults 1
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (24/53) 45%

Ivanisevic...
- 1st serve percentage (36/57) 63%
- 1st serve points won (26/36) 72%
- 2nd serve points won (10/21) 48%
- Aces 11
- Double Faults 1
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (24/57) 42%

Serve Patterns
Lendl served...
- to FH 38%
- to BH 62%

Ivanisevic served...
- to FH 30%
- to BH 68%
- to Body 2%

Return Stats
Lendl made...
- 32 (8 FH, 24 BH)
- 2 Winners (1 FH, 1 BH)
- 13 Errors, comprising...
- 2 Unforced (2 BH)
- 11 Forced (4 FH, 7 BH)
- Return Rate (32/56) 57%

Ivanisevic made...
- 28 (9 FH, 19 BH)
- 3 Winners (3 BH)
- 18 Errors, comprising...
- 6 Unforced (2 FH, 4 BH)
- 12 Forced (4 FH, 8 BH)
- Return Rate (28/52) 54%

Break Points
Lendl 2/8 (5 games)
Ivanisevic 0

Winners (including returns, excluding serves)
Lendl 13 (5 FH, 3 BH, 1 FHV, 4 BHV)
Ivanisevic 8 (1 FH, 3 BH, 1 FHV, 2 BHV, 1 BH1/2V)

Lendl had 4 from serve-volley points (1 FHV, 3 BHV), all first volleys

- FHs - 4 dtl (1 return, 1 pass), 1 inside-out pass
- BH passes - 1 cc at net, 1 dtl, 1 inside-in return

Ivanisevic had 3 from serve-volley points (2 BHV, 1 BH1/2V), all first 'volleys'

- FH - 1 inside-out/dtl
- BH returns - 1 dtl pass, 1 inside-out pass, 1 inside-in

Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Lendl 14
- 3 Unforced (2 FH, 1 BH)... with FH at net
- 11 Forced (5 FH, 3 BH, 2 FHV, 1 BHV)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 50

Ivanisevic 25
- 15 Unforced (1 FH, 7 BH, 5 FHV, 2 BHV)... with 1 BH pass attempt
- 10 Forced (2 FH, 2 BH, 2 FHV, 1 FH1/2V, 3 BHV)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 52.7

(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
Lendl was...
- 20/25 (80%) at net, including...
- 15/17 (88%) serve-volleying, all 1st serves

Ivanisevic was...
- 23/41 (56%) at net, including...
- 19/35 (54%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 15/25 (60%) off 1st serve and...
- 4/10 (40%) off 2nd serve

Match Report
Strongly solid from Lendl is all areas, so nothing particularly stands out. He serve-volleys a lot, thumps returns and power hits in baseline rallies. Ivanisevic volleys quite badly, his returning has room for improvement but is otherwise just outdone. Court is fast

1 break per set, as Lendl manages, is about best, reasonable expectation against Goran on a fast indoor court. But he has some fall-back cushion. Lendl conjures break points in 5/9 return games, which is top notch against Goran serving at 63% first serves in.

Goran serve-volleys of all first serves and half his seconds. And he’s got 7 volley UEs from 41 net points (Lendl technically has 0 from 25). With about a third of those 41 net points being unreturned serves where he doesn’t have to volley (Lendl also has a lot of freebies)

Its not why he loses. In the 2 games he’s actually broken, he has just 1 volley UE.. It is why he’s down break point in 5/9 service games though

So despite the general bad volleying from Goran, credit Lendl for result. He earns his breaks with strong return-passing, with Goran’s sloppiness academic to the result

Which leaves the matter of holding. Strong serve from Lendl too, though of course, not as big as Goran. He also serve-volleys plenty. Goran thumps returns, missing quite a lot. Lendl does the needful on the volley without facing many. And Lendl dominates baseline rallies (particularly on his serve), which are hard hitting from both players

Similar and high freebies (Lendl 45%, Goran 42%), negligible double faults (1 each, from virtually same number of second serves)
When return is made, Lendl wins 64% service points and 63% return points. Both figures including serve-volleying and baseline rallies. Good gauge of his superiority

First serve in - Lendl 62%, Goran 63%
First serve ace rate - Lendl 18%, Goran 31%

Good (and same) in counts for both. Good ace rate for Lendl, typical one from Goran. So far, Goran with advantage

First serve-volley frequency - Lendl 71%, Goran 100%
First serve-volley won - Lendl 88%, Goran 60%
First stay back won - Lendl 80%

 

[Waspsting]

Advantage shifting to Lendl. That’s relatively low first serve-volley points won for Goran
He wins 4/10 second serve-volley points to go with it - and his second serve is certainly good enough to be confidently coming in behind

Goran on the ‘volley’ has just 4 winners, 7 UEs and 6 FEs
Lendl has just 1 return-pass winner against 35 serve-volleys points and on follow-up pass 4 winners (2 FH, 2 BH), 8 FEs (4 FH, 3 BH)

Bad volleying from Goran, though that’s not very unusual for him
- bad on the routine/easy volley. He’s not even too aggressive on them - 4 of his UEs are attacking, 3 winner attempts. The ones he makes are of decent quality, leaving Lendl below-average look on pass - but on these kinds of volleys, that’s minimum of decent

- comparatively, better on the tough, low ones. He probably makes a couple fewer than he misses. Way he plays the routine stuff, would expect him to miss almost all the shoelace ones

Lendl thumps returns-passes. For a good volleyer, that’d actually be helpful in dismissing routine volleys. He does get enough in low to be taxing. Not bad on follow up pass, though given fair looks, there’s room for improvement there

Lendl on the ‘volley’ has 5 winners, 1 UE, 3 FEs
Both of Goran’s pass winners are returns and on the follow up, he has 2 FEs, 1 UE (all BHs)

With Lendl snagging 45% freebies, rate of finding return winners isn’t likely to be threatening. In fact, Lendl wins 15/15 serve-volley points where Goran doesn’t hit a return-winner
Lendl not too comfy looking at net, not fluent in the tricky or not-easy volley. But most importantly, making them
Like Lendl, Goran thumping returns and passes, so no excess time for Lendl in forecourt. And Goran missing a few more returns so doing than Lendl does

Return UEs - Lendl 2, Goran 6 (that is, returns errors on non serve-volley points)
Lendl’s 2 are in his last return game of the match, where he’s up a break. Not too important and he has a break point in that game anyway
6 UEs for Goran, with Lendl just serving 19 live second serves is again, poor. Normal second serve from Lendl, Goran looking to thump it same way he does return-passes (he has 1 normal return winner, same as Lendl). 'Good' misses, but a few too many misses to be good

Baseline rallies -
- Winners - Lendl 3, Goran 2
- Errors forced - Lendl 2, Goran 1
- UEs - Lendl 2, Goran 7

Pressuringly hard hitting action off both wings from both players. Lendl only occasionally slicing or chipping the BH
Goran’s BH falters with 6 UEs
All of Lendl’s winners are FH dtl (1 return) and the FH has just 1 UE

Win for Lendl and it’s in power hitting dynamic and Goran not sloppy. Worse yes, sloppy no. Lendl’s movements are tasked too with occasional, wide enough to be attacking BH cc by Goran. He’s upto it, usually countering with FH dtl. 5/7 Goran UEs are attacking shots, with Lendl counter-hitting against similar shots that land in

Rallying to net - Lendl 5/8, Goran 4/6
No pointed attempt by either to find net. And it’d have to be pointed against the kind of hitting on show, which is far from being an invitation to come in

Match Progression
An eventful start as Lendl holds to 30. Couple of volley winners from him, a FH at net miss also. Goran with a return winner and 2 return UEs (1 against a first serve)

And he breaks at once for 2-0
BH inside-in return pass winner against a second serve to start the game
Goran missing easy FHV for 0-30
And a couple of shoelace returns drawing weak ‘volleys’ that Lendl goes on to strike passing winners to (FH inside-out and BH cc at net).With a couple of unreturned serves thrown in

Just 1 hairy service game for Lendl for rest of set when he’s down 0-30. He goes on to hold in 8 points, with all 3 of his serve-volleys drawing return errors
Goran also holds with ease - he doesn’t lose a point in his last 2 holds, with 7/8 serves not coming back (the exception is a first volley winner)

In time, Lendl serves out to love in a full serve-volley game. Goran misses an easy lined up BH pass on one of the points

In second set, Goran faces break points in 4/5 games, while winning more than 1 point in a return game in just one game

A double fault and 2 FHV UEs (1 not too easy) sets him down 15-40 in the opener. It’s a surprise that he’s able to make a difficult first ‘volley’ BH1/2V winenr to save the second break point
Lendl delivers 3 straight aces in game 2

Things get competitive after a pair of easy holds
Goran survives 2 break points and number of powerful low returns to hold for 3-2
Lendl’s taken to deuce to level at 3-3

Lendl breaks for 4-3. Another bunch of blistering shoelace returns does the job, with a bad drop shot at net from Goran only blemish from the server

Goran’s in trouble next go around too, with Lendl scoring with a brilliant running FH dtl pass winner and Goran making a a couple of UEs (a third ball BH and a routine BHV). Lendl not too haggled though and he misses couple of second returns with Goran in baseline in the game too

And Lendl serves out to 15. Goran wallops a FH from center of court for winner to start the game, but Lendl wins the next 4 point. Couple of first volley winners (1 FHV, 1 wrong footing line BHV), and couple of unreturned serves - the last, an ace

Summing up, simple win for Lendl and a strong showing, but with deceptive stats
With servers like this (especially Ivanisevic), on a court like this, would look for one break a set amidst general server domination to gain result

Lendl wins with 1 break a set, but not in an obvious way
He’s in return games regularly (unusual), due largely to opponent faltering on routine volleys, but the breaks he actually gets are on back of his own strong return-passing

Powerful from Lendl in all areas - the serve, returns, groundies and passes. With a lot of serve-volleying thrown in
Ivanisevic plays a similar all-areas-power game as the winner - with a bigger, better serve and more serve-volleying. He’s pretty bad on the volley (though that’s not why he loses), and returning is less than good too, but powerful as it is, is liable to sooner or later score a break. Too late for this match though

 

[WCT]

Very high unreturned rate from Lendl. How much of it was his serving vs the quality of Goran's returning? I believe you have done stats for a bunch of his matches now. Overall, how do you grade Goran as a volleyer?

 

[Waspsting]

Very high unreturned rate from Lendl. How much of it was his serving vs the quality of Goran's returning?

Bit of both
Strong serving, lots of serve-volleying support from Lendl

Bit sloppy on second return by Goran

That is his way though. He likes to smack returns with initiative grabbing force and can be hit and miss with it. A bit like Agassi of style
He does make the returns he makes count, and Lendl just outplaying him despite that in this one

Overall, how do you grade Goran as a volleyer?

Not good

misses relatively high lot of easy and routine volleys, including first groundstrokes at net
Misses more tough ones than he makes. As in this match, it more comes as surprise when he makes shoelace volley than anything
Quality of routine/easy volleys he makes is fine... doesn't suffer in comparison to Becker or Sampras

Unrelated, got a beauty coming up for you

 

[WCT]

Bit of both
Strong serving, lots of serve-volleying support from Lendl

Bit sloppy on second return by Goran

That is his way though. He likes to smack returns with initiative grabbing force and can be hit and miss with it. A bit like Agassi of style
He does make the returns he makes count, and Lendl just outplaying him despite that in this one



Not good

misses relatively high lot of easy and routine volleys, including first groundstrokes at net
Misses more tough ones than he makes. As in this match, it more comes as surprise when he makes shoelace volley than anything
Quality of routine/easy volleys he makes is fine... doesn't suffer in comparison to Becker or Sampras

Unrelated, got a beauty coming up for you

At the risk of being exacting, by not good do you mean average or outright poor?
The reason I ask is you have him s/v so much in many of the matches you did. IIRC, on grass, every serve. And on many of the indoor matches almost all of them. Maybe not on a few 2nd serves.

That is a lot to s/v if you are not even average on the volley. Obviously, his serve is a huge deal. When you routinely have unreturned serves 40 to 50% of the points that would be a huge assist in holding serve no matter what else you have going on.
Still, you s/v on every serve against Agassi, as he did in 92 Wimbledon, seems to me you are going to have a reasonable amount of difficult volleys to make.

The analogy I draw is Tanner. I have seen his volleys critiqued. In my mind, though, he was a good volleyer. Not below average, not average, but good. Certainly not great, IMO. He would play Connors and come in behind every serve. That is hard to do, with any success, if you aren't at least good on the volley. However, I don't remember Tanner consistently having unreturned serve rates in the 40 to 50% range.