Match Stats/Report - Lendl vs Mecir, French Open semi-final, 1987

[Waspsting]

Ivan Lendl beat Miloslav Mecir 6-3, 6-3, 7-6(3) in the French Open semi-final, 1987 on clay

Lendl would go onto defend his title and win his third and last French Open, beating Mats Wilander in the final. This would be Mecir’s only semi-final at the event. The two had recently played the final at Hamburg, with Lendl winning

Lendl won 113 points, Mecir 89

Serve Stats
Lendl...
- 1st serve percentage (39/92) 42%
- 1st serve points won (28/39) 72%
- 2nd serve points won (27/53) 51%
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (11/92) 12%

Mecir...
- 1st serve percentage (76/110) 69%
- 1st serve points won (34/76) 45%
- 2nd serve points won (18/34) 53%
- Aces 1
- Double Faults 3
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (8/110) 7%

Serve Patterns
Lendl served...
- to FH 25%
- to BH 64%
- to Body 16%

Mecir served...
- to FH 41%
- to BH 46%
- to Body 13%

Return Stats
Lendl made...
- 99 (52 FH, 47 BH)
- 7 Errors, comprising...
- 5 Unforced (3 FH, 2 BH)
- 2 Forced (1 FH, 1 BH)
- Return Rate (99/107) 93%

Mecir made...
- 81 (25 FH, 56 BH), including 1 return-approach
- 11 Errors, comprising...
- 3 Unforced (1 FH, 2 BH)
- 8 Forced (3 FH, 5 BH)
- Return Rate (81/92) 88%

Break Points
Lendl 8/18 (11 games)
Mecir 5/8 (5 games)

Winners (including returns, excluding serves)
Lendl 19 (7 FH, 11 BH, 1 BHV)
Mecir 25 (5 FH, 10 BH, 7 FHV, 2 BHV, 1 OH)

Lendl's FHs - 3 cc (2 passes, 1 at net), 1 dtl pass, 1 inside-out, 1 inside-in/cc, 1 running-down-drop-shot cc at net
- BHs - 2 cc passes, 9 dtl (5 passes, 1 at net), 1 inside-out

Mecir's FHs - 1 cc, 2 drop shots (1 at net), 2 running-down-drop-shots at net (1 dtl pass, 1 drop shot)
- BHs - 5 cc (1 pass, 1 at net), 3 dtl (1 pass), 1 inside-out, 1 net chord dribbler

Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Lendl 56
- 29 Unforced (9 FH, 20 BH)... with 1 FH at net
- 27 Forced (11 FH, 14 BH, 1 OH, 1 Back-to-Net)... the Back-to-Net was a BH
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 46.2

Mecir 80
- 67 Unforced (26 FH, 37 BH, 2 FHV, 2 BHV)
- 13 Forced (6 FH, 3 BH, 2 FHV, 1 BHV, 1 BH1/2V)... with 1 FH running-down-drop-shot at net & 1 BH running-down-drop-shot at net
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 45.8

(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 are keyed on 4 categories - 20 defensive, 40 neutral, 50 attacking and 60 winner attempt)

Net Points & Serve-Volley
Lendl was 7/13 (54%) at net, with...
- 0/1 forced back

Mecir was 31/49 (63%) at net, with...
- 1/1 return-approaching

Match Report
Routine enough scoreline but the tennis is good - and varied. Slot it under the broad umbrella of ‘Lendl outsteadies Mecir’. And Mecir with some dubious returning choices

Ground UEs - Lendl 28, Mecir 63 is the key stat
Its back cut by Mecir’s 31/49 at net (Lendl’s just 7/13, to compare), but nowhere near enough to turn the result

Action is varied though
In first set, Mecir plays his game of court opening angles and moving Lendl side to side. Plus he uses net. Lendl’s moved around, but remains wall-like and in due time, Mecir gives up the UEs
In second set, there’s a fair amount of moonballing. It doesn’t last forever (the way Lendl-Wilander ones do), with Mecir eventually whacking a ball to try to take charge. Different dish, same result - Lendl remaining wall-like

After 2 sets -
- Ground UEs - Lendl 11 (3 FH, 8 BH), Mec 38 (15 FH, 23 BH)
- Neutral UEs - Lendl 6, Mec 20

Break points - Lendl 5/15 (8 games), Mec 2/3 (2 games)

Third set is straight out who-blinks-first baseline tennis. Though showing no overt signs, there are marks of Lendl tiring and he makes a few simple errors in not long rallies (as opposed to earlier, where it seems every rare UE from him comes after 20+ shot rally)

In that third set -
Ground UEs - Lendl 21 (6 FH, 15 BH), Mec 25 (11 FH, 14 BH)
Neutral UEs - Lend 11, Mec 15

Break points - Lendl 3/3, Mec 3/5 (3 games)

So Mecir manuvering Lendl about, trading safe moonballs or playing who-blinks-first crossed with using net play throughout… but Lendl more secure through it all. That includes defending and running around, not just consistency. Mecir wide angled, court opening play is good enough to potentially toy about with even good opponent, but Lendl upto handling it with poise

First serve in - Lendl 42%, Mecir 69%
First serve won - Lendl 72%, Mecir 45%
Second serve won - Lendl 51%, Mecir 53%

Big advantage Lendl on his first serve points. He’s in full, blast every serve hard as can mode, hence the low in count. By set, its 40%, 46%, 41%. Still doesn’t have an ace (or a double fault), but does force 8 return errors (Mecir has that many unreturned serves total - only 2 of them return FEs)

Other 3 serves, 50-50 deals
In that light, it’s bad strategy by Mec to just put returns in play, which is what he does
So many second serves to look at and they’re average second serves. Not even ‘difficult to attack’, it just needs returner to be looking to attack

He doesn’t do it. At all. Doesn’t even try. Just puts returns back in play. If Lendl were so inclined, he could probably collar third ball on his second serve points. Lendl though is happy to just get into netural rally and keep plugging away, (justifiably) confident that Mec will blink up the error first

Meanwhile, 2 ‘second serves’ from Mec, and Lendl likewise just puts returns in play. Not 1 runaround FH, not 1 attempt to blast a FH return
Unlike Mec, he has no reason to strive for more than average force returning
High return rate of 93%, returning safely does dandily for him, given he’s winning his half of all return points - regardless of how Mecir plays off the ground

Faulty move from Mec to not go after Lendl’s second serve. It’s a risk he needs to take, to compensate for effectively not having a first serve vs Lendl having a booming one. And that’s leaving aside entirely Lendl being better court player - his consistency advantage > whatever offensive advantage Mecir has

And Lendl? Fat first serving aside, he does as little as he needs to
Puts returns back in play like clockwork but without heat
Rallies along as needed - whether Mecir runs him side to side or moonballs or just plays neutral. Keeps FH controlled and under wraps. Next to no attempt to overpower Mecir with it
He leads more with BHs than FHs, though play is dual winged. He’d done the same in Hamburg shortly before this match (Mec made a mess of his attempts to open court with wide angled BH cc’s there) and also Miami on a slow hard court (where Lendl had been loose of the ground)

Typical Lendl; doing as little as possible to win.
- Fat first serve is his free hit. Terrible percentage, but so what? Everything else is (at worst) 50-50 prospect for him - and as he’s better player, he’d back himself to do better than 50-50.

- Passive, very consistent returning. Literally, not 1 big return. Mec’s first serve is collarable, let alone second. Lendl just puts them in play and is ready to baseline rally

- Passive baseline rallying, leading more with BHs. Not-going-to-miss is the game. And he doesn’t. 28 ground UEs to Mec’s 63. Very rarely does he look to even overpower with FH and he’s got just 3 winners in baseline rallies (Mec has 8)

- Comes to net to shake hands. He’s there 13 times, about half of those forced (Mec comes in 49 times)

Serve and return are in his hands (Mec doesn’t serve-volley and return-approaches just once), passive baseline rallying less so. With Mec opening up court with wide angled shots and direction changers, Lendl has to cope. He copes by defending, not counter-attacking with the angles created. And does so extremely well and efficiently, making it look like just an extension of his passive wall game. And he’s forced to pass. He’s not too shabby there either, but Mec at net does a little better than Lendl on the pass

And Mecir?
- 2 second serves, which is about what he’s capable of. Ironically, he has the only ace in match (it happens when Lendl’s probably tiring in third set and the serve itself isn’t too wide, but Lendl offers no shot)

- also passive returning? A big, big mistake. Mec is most capable aggressive returner in general, with move-up power hits especially when coupled with approach. With Lendl serving at 42%, lots of room for him to, but like opponent, he just puts the returns in play. Lendl not having a double fault is another hint of Mec’s returning choices

He does return big first serves quite well
Lendl’s first serve unreturned rate is 10/39 or 26%. Which, given he’s absolutely screaming in virtually every first serve, isn’t too high. Mec stabbing them back anyway, how - and doing so well. Manuel Orantes didn’t serve this big when he drew 40% first freebies from Jimmy Connors in ‘75 US Open final

Given Mecir has total 7% unreturned serves, though, that’s a very handy lead for Lendl to be taking into rallying

- he’s the playmaker of court action (with Lendl’s passive blessing). Does all kinds of things - wide angled shots to open up court, trading neutral UEs, moonballs that he bails on with a sudden extra powerful, slightly wider shot. Utilizing net play via manufacturing approaches and outmanuvering Lendl

 

[Waspsting]

Couple further points. Mec not too proactive early in rally. As passively as Lendl returns even second serves, there’s room for Mec to start his court opening play from third ball. He usually doesn’t. He lets the rally get going before turning to it. Ditto with approaching

Mec is rarely sloppy and it takes good while for the errors to come, but with Lendl walling up at other end, they do (other than third set, when blink rates are near even)

Action is dual winged, leaning more towards BH. Probably both players preference - Mec because his wide cc off that wing is better than off the FH, Lendl because that’s what he’s decided and he shows very little interest in looking to overpower with FH. Lendl had played the same way in Hamburg and Miami. He’s probably baiting the Mec BH. It works, but not easily

In baseline rallies -
- Winners - Lendl 6 (2 FH, 4 BH), Mec 9 (2 FH, 7 BH)
- Errors forced - Lendl 7, Meci 9
- (Aggressively ended points - Lendl 13, Mec 18)
- UEs - Lendl 28, Mec 63

… and UEs by shot -
- FHs - Lendl 8, Mec 26
- BHs - Lendl 20, Mec 37

… and UE types -
- Neutral - Lendl 17, Mec 35
- Attacking - Lendl 6, Mec 24
- Winner attempts - Lendl 5, Mec 4

Above is match long figures. It’s a long, 3 hour match with changing dynamics and balance of play (Lendl dominant first 2 sets, near even third set)

More BH winners than FHs for both players would very clearly tell you BHs see bulk of action and the UEs confirm that. What Lendl wants, what Mec is happy with

Neutral UEs - 2 to 1 advantage for Lendl is underselling things
After 2 sets, its Lendl 5, Mec 20 - so exactly 4 to 1 advantage
In third set, its Lendl 12, Mec 15

Attacking UEs - 4 to 1 advantage for Lendl. He has so few because he rarely attacks. Mec does so in variety of ways. ‘Attacking’ here means with potential to force error or setting up next shot to be potentially point ending shot, and it includes approach shots

Lot of credit to Lendl’s defence, a quiet but crucial part of match. He runs and/or slides down Mec’s wide shots and bunts them back in play so matter-of-factly that he hardly seems he’s on the defensive, but rather, a little behind in a neutral rally. In fact, those are potential point ending shots and Lendl just smothers them

Mec opening court with wide cc shots off both wings. The BHs go wider. He likes going for BH dtl to follow up or as the court-opener too. The most unorthodox weapon he has is BH inside-out’ish shot from center of court. Not a shot many players play, but he does it regularly enough, giving Lendl a surprise run and slide to make the FH ‘get’

Lendl with his full variety on the BH - the drive, the top spin, push-slice, drive-slice and the late chip. The last named is the oddest shot and those familiar with Lendl will recognize it immediately. He waits on a routine ball until its inches from the ground and then just chips it up. It looks risky to let ball get that low, but he never seems to miss and is as comfy playing it as any other

Rallying to net - Lendl 7/13, Mec 30/48
Mec cutting back on his consistency handicap. He’s usually careful in when to come in. Its certainly not a net-seeking showing, but as often as not, approaches are sneaky (if not sneaks), more than overpowering or outmanuvering opponent type

Mec on ‘volley’ has 10 winners, 4 UEs, 4 FEs
Lendl on pass has 10 winners (3 FH, 7 BH), 17 FEs (4 FH, 13 BH - including a back-to-net BH)

Winners are usually easy. The UEs are low, the FEs not high. Approach does more of the work than the volleying for Mec’s success
Some good passes from Lendl, but approaches are good enough to leave him behind in contest. Mec wisely staying away from FH much as he can

Mec probably a bit wary of coming in more. With volleys not going through the court and Lendl’s speed, its obviously risky. With things as they are on baseline rallies, necessary too

Match Progression
First game sums up the first set. It’s a fine, 8 point game where Lendl breaks. Good length rallies, Mecir opening up the court nicely, but Lendl defending it out and Mec eventually missing his attacking shots. Mec with 5 ground UEs in the game - 4 of them attacking shots, and they’re in all directions. He also putsaway FHV winner after coming in off a wide BH cc

Lendl consolidates. Consecutive BH pass winners in the game (1 cc, second dtl wrong footingly) and flagrantly forcing error with a BH dtl in the game

Beautiful game from Mec to get on the board for 1-2 with 4 BH winners
- cc, completing a FH cc - BH cc 1-2
- dtl, completing a FH dtl - BH dtl 1-2
- third ball inside-out
- cc from up the court

Beauty is skin deep. 1 game won, lot of games lost trying same kinds of things
Ugly lies the bone. Lendl walling up and winning those other games

Mec holds his next service games from 15-40 down. Oddly, Lendl missing routine shots on last 3 points, including a second return

Mec breaks to get back to 3-3. Game of moving rallies, and Mec comes away with 2 net points and on break point, Lendl misses a risky BH dtl winner attempt

Lendl wins next 3 games to take the set. He breaks for 4-3 by defending his way through Mec’s attacks. Consolidates to love, including a lovely, sliding block BH dtl pass winner
And breaks in 8 point game, Mec’s attacks again thwarted and ultimately failing with final error

Lendl breaks early for 2-0 in second set. 2 third ball FH UEs from Mec in the game, including on break point
Action changes after that to less lively, Mec not looking to open court up as much

They start trading moonballs not infrequently, starting game 4. Crowd aren’t too happy with it. Which is funny, considering they’re acceptance of longer, more pronounced such stuff in the final. Apparently, they have different expectactions for Mec than they do for Wilander

Not just BH-BH moon exchanges, but Lendl backs off to hit FH inside-out ones
Its not pure moonballing and there’s normal rallying, with moonballs a frequent change up. And Mec later or sooner slaps a ball harder and wide to get out of the rallies. And Mec still looks to attack and comes to net regularly (though not early)

Mec faces break points in every service game of the set
He’s ground down to be broken again for 1-5, but breaks back in game with both moonballs and power

Takes 14 points and saving 4 break points to hold on for 3-5, but Lendl serves out to 30. Mec taking net on the serve-out, but Lendl with couple of great, different types of passes (powerful FH cc on run and rolled BH cc placed wide and low) to win points and he surprisingly drills a third ball BH inside-out winner. Wraps up with a third ball BH dtl winner against a very weak second return

After 2 sets, Lendl’s won 17 more points, Mec has served 27 more

Third set is even though and action shifts to normal, neutral rallying or who-blinks-first for staple. Lot of BH-BH rallies. Mecir looks for net less than earlier
Lendl gives up his share of routine UEs, sometimes in short rallies. He’s probably tiring some

First 4 games are all breaks. Lendl missing routine BHs gets him broken first time, rallies are much longer in second break but again, Lendl misses the BHs

2 trade breaks again in moving from 4-3 to 5-4. Horrendous game by Mec to hand back the break, and a bad one from Lendl to give it up in first place

Lendl commands tiebreak. After Mec misses routine BH in short rally to start, Lendl bops BH dtl pass winner and beautifully low, wide chips a pass to force BH1/2V error to move ahead 3-0

He doesn’t keep foot on accelerator fully and gives up routine return error and misses third ball FH inside-in’ish winner attempt (which brings home how rarely - virtually never - he’s tried to be so aggressive), but remains cozily ahead. Match ends with 3 successive FH UEs - 2 of them Mec’s, both dtl

Summing up, good, varied match. Lendl blasts down first serves at low in count, returns as consistently as passively (with both high end) and looks to play one more ball than opponent. He favours BH, and makes near 0 attempt to dictate with FH. He’s far more consistent than opponent, and so efficiently good defending that it almost doesn’t look like defending

Handily, but not easily outsteadied, Mecir does vary his game. Starts by looking to open court and liven up action but is thwarted. Tones it down, experiments with moonballing even, uses net well.
Lack of an effective serve - he essentially serves 2 ‘second serves’ - sees him having to play 50-50 prospect points on all his service points, against a better player. Doesn’t help himself by passively returning second serves himself, which given his handicaps, he can ill afford

Stats for the final between Lendl and Mats Wilander - Match Stats/Report - Lendl vs Wilander, French Open final, 1987 | Talk Tennis
Stats for Lendl’s quarter-final with Andres Gomez - Match Stats/Report - Lendl vs Gomez, French Open quarter-final, 1987 | Talk Tennis