Ivan Lendl beat Miloslav Mecir 6-1, 6-3, 6-3 in the Hamburg final, 1987 on clay
Lendl would go onto win his third French Open shortly afterwards. Mecir had recently scored what would turn out to be his sole win over Lendl in the final of Miami
Lendl won 101 points, Mecir 71
(Note: I'm missing service information - 1st or 2nd and direction - for 1 Lendl serve point, but the ending of the point is included in relevant breakdowns)
Serve Stats
Lendl...
- 1st serve percentage (30/66) 45%
- 1st serve points won (23/30) 77%
- 2nd serve points won (23/36) 64%
- Unknown serve point (0/1)
- Aces 3
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (13/67) 19%
Mecir...
- 1st serve percentage (67/105) 64%
- 1st serve points won (35/67) 52%
- 2nd serve points won (15/38) 39%
- Aces 1
- Double Faults 4
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (7/105) 7%
Serve Patterns
Lendl served...
- to FH 24%
- to BH 74%
- to Body 2%
Mecir served....
- to FH 47%
- to BH 47%
- to Body 6%
Return Stats
Lendl made...
- 94 (55 FH, 38 BH, 1 ??), including 5 runaround FHs
- 2 Winners (2 FH)
- 6 Errors, comprising...
- 1 Unforced (1 FH), a runaround
- 5 Forced (1 FH, 4 BH)
- Return Rate (94/101) 93%
Mecir made...
- 54 (12 FH, 41 BH, 1 ??)
- 1 Winner (1 FH)
- 10 Errors, comprising...
- 3 Unforced (1 FH, 2 BH), including 1 runaround FH
- 7 Forced (4 FH, 3 BH)
- Return Rate (54/67) 81%
Break Points
Lendl 8/15 (10 games)
Mecir 2/5 (3 games)
Winners (including returns, excluding serves)
Lendl 25 (13 FH, 11 BH, 1 BHV)
Mecir 13 (3 FH, 5 BH, 3 FHV, 2 BHV)
Lendl's FHs - 7 cc (4 passes), 3 dtl passes, 2 inside-in returns and 1 lob
- BHs - 2 cc (1 pass), 1 dtl, 1 inside-out, 1 inside-out/longline, 3 drop shots, 1 net chord dribbler, 1 lob (a mishit) and 1 running-down-drop-volley at net (around net post)
Mecir's FHs - 1 dtl pass and 2 net chord dribblers (1 return)
- BHs - 2 cc and 3 dtl (1 pass)
- 1 FHV and 1 BHV were played net-to-net
Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Lendl 51
- 29 Unforced (18 FH, 11 BH)
- 22 Forced (9 FH, 12 BH, 1 BHV)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 49
Mecir 59
- 45 Unforced (13 FH, 27 BH, 2 FHV, 3 BHV)
- 14 Forced (3 FH, 8 BH, 3 FHV)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 44.4
(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...
- 8/16 (50%) at net, with...
- 0/1 forced back/retreated
Mecir was...
- 18/39 (46%) at net, including...
- 0/1 serve-volleying, a first serve
Match Report
Entertaining, if one sided stuff on a relatively quick, low bouncing clay court. Rallies are fairly short for clay too
Key stat, as is usually the case on clay is unforced errors in play. 45 from Mecir (including 27 BHs) to 29 from Lendl
This is my first look at Mecir. He has pretty shots, assassin silent movements and looks to open the court at every opportunity. That means his average groundstroke is a bit riskier than the norm - and he pays the price for it with all those errors
The BH is unusual in that both the touch and fragility of the shot are characteristic of one-handers rather than 2. Its not particularly powerful, but Mecir does find good angles with it. Ditto the FH, but that's not as unusual and I think he's better with the angles off the BH
Problem is, these court opening angles aren't enough to force errors out of Lendl. So he's playing a relatively risky shot, but not getting a corresponding reward out of it. The unforced errors flow from his racquet (45) at a much higher rate than he forces errors out of Lendl (22, a healthy chunk of them passing attempts)…. baseline-to-baseline, Mecir's game isn't suited to tackling Lendl on clay
For his part, Lendl doesn't seem to mind the open court dynamics. Generally, he likes his close court who-blinks-first stuff, but makes no attempt to force it by hitting up and down the middle and keeping the angles dull. He plays along with Mecir's game
A word on Lendl's movements. He doesn't look particularly quick of foot... but is rarely out of position (and with Mecir aiming for lines, it would have been very easy to be caught out of position). Might go unnoticed, but Lendl's movement is highly efficient - its the highest compliment for something to be so smooth as to go unnoticed
So for Mecir… going for lines and/or sharp angles naturally leads to his making errors, but doesn't force them out of Lendl and who-blinks-first rallying would likely go even worse. That leaves him with taking the net
Only Lendl is having one of his very good passing days. 9 passing winners (including a mishit fluke lob) and forcing 3 volleying errors - so the net's not much good for Mecir either (just 46% point won up there). Part of this is his own doing... why exactly is he volleying as often as not to Lendl's FH?
Note he also serves equally to FH and BH. Why? He's forced 4 errors out of Lendl's BH to 1 off the FH (also copped 2 winners from the FH, to 0 off the BH). Lendl's preference is clear - he makes room to take every body serve (they're not really 'body serves', just safe serves down the middle I think) on the FH and runs around to hit FHs 5 times. Why play to Lendl's strength on the FH?
Note Lendl's return rate of 93%. Mecir's serve isn't powerful... but 93% is still very high. And his typical return is reasonably strong... he's not looping them back over or anything like that
Lendl is considerably more consistent than Mecir, but down from his own standards. 29 UEs is on the high side for him... to some extent that's because he lets his hair down and goes for more on groundies, given the cushion of points Mecir's UEs gives him. Many of Lendl's more attacking errors (his UEs are 8 winner attempts, 12 attacking shots, 8 neutral and 1 defensive) occur at unimportant junctures when he's comfortably placed in the game. And the open court dynamics he's consented to organically lead to more attacking plays
UEFI is misleading. Lendl's 49 is high and would typically indicate playing very aggressively, while Mecir's 44.4 is middling. I think the reason is that Mecir's 'normal' shot is relatively risky without quite being enough to be called 'attacking'. That and he does a miss a healthy number of routine balls - far more than Lendl
Couple of memorable points involving drop shots. Lendl runs down an excellent drop volley at full speed and hits the winner around the net post. On another occasion, he runs downs an angled drop shot from the baseline and has to hit the ball from well outside the court, and puts it at almost parallel to the net for the winner. His own drop shots are very good also. Mecir's by contrast, tends to give Lendl a chance. A few excellent passes from defensive positions from Lendl also
Summing up, sharp match for clay with Mecir taking the initiative to make things lively, but making too many errors doing so. Lendl is upto excelling in attacking dynamics too and is exceptional on the pass. Slightly more credit to Lendl for playing well than discredit to Mecir for not, but both are factors in the result
Lendl would go onto win his third French Open shortly afterwards. Mecir had recently scored what would turn out to be his sole win over Lendl in the final of Miami
Lendl won 101 points, Mecir 71
(Note: I'm missing service information - 1st or 2nd and direction - for 1 Lendl serve point, but the ending of the point is included in relevant breakdowns)
Serve Stats
Lendl...
- 1st serve percentage (30/66) 45%
- 1st serve points won (23/30) 77%
- 2nd serve points won (23/36) 64%
- Unknown serve point (0/1)
- Aces 3
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (13/67) 19%
Mecir...
- 1st serve percentage (67/105) 64%
- 1st serve points won (35/67) 52%
- 2nd serve points won (15/38) 39%
- Aces 1
- Double Faults 4
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (7/105) 7%
Serve Patterns
Lendl served...
- to FH 24%
- to BH 74%
- to Body 2%
Mecir served....
- to FH 47%
- to BH 47%
- to Body 6%
Return Stats
Lendl made...
- 94 (55 FH, 38 BH, 1 ??), including 5 runaround FHs
- 2 Winners (2 FH)
- 6 Errors, comprising...
- 1 Unforced (1 FH), a runaround
- 5 Forced (1 FH, 4 BH)
- Return Rate (94/101) 93%
Mecir made...
- 54 (12 FH, 41 BH, 1 ??)
- 1 Winner (1 FH)
- 10 Errors, comprising...
- 3 Unforced (1 FH, 2 BH), including 1 runaround FH
- 7 Forced (4 FH, 3 BH)
- Return Rate (54/67) 81%
Break Points
Lendl 8/15 (10 games)
Mecir 2/5 (3 games)
Winners (including returns, excluding serves)
Lendl 25 (13 FH, 11 BH, 1 BHV)
Mecir 13 (3 FH, 5 BH, 3 FHV, 2 BHV)
Lendl's FHs - 7 cc (4 passes), 3 dtl passes, 2 inside-in returns and 1 lob
- BHs - 2 cc (1 pass), 1 dtl, 1 inside-out, 1 inside-out/longline, 3 drop shots, 1 net chord dribbler, 1 lob (a mishit) and 1 running-down-drop-volley at net (around net post)
Mecir's FHs - 1 dtl pass and 2 net chord dribblers (1 return)
- BHs - 2 cc and 3 dtl (1 pass)
- 1 FHV and 1 BHV were played net-to-net
Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Lendl 51
- 29 Unforced (18 FH, 11 BH)
- 22 Forced (9 FH, 12 BH, 1 BHV)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 49
Mecir 59
- 45 Unforced (13 FH, 27 BH, 2 FHV, 3 BHV)
- 14 Forced (3 FH, 8 BH, 3 FHV)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 44.4
(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...
- 8/16 (50%) at net, with...
- 0/1 forced back/retreated
Mecir was...
- 18/39 (46%) at net, including...
- 0/1 serve-volleying, a first serve
Match Report
Entertaining, if one sided stuff on a relatively quick, low bouncing clay court. Rallies are fairly short for clay too
Key stat, as is usually the case on clay is unforced errors in play. 45 from Mecir (including 27 BHs) to 29 from Lendl
This is my first look at Mecir. He has pretty shots, assassin silent movements and looks to open the court at every opportunity. That means his average groundstroke is a bit riskier than the norm - and he pays the price for it with all those errors
The BH is unusual in that both the touch and fragility of the shot are characteristic of one-handers rather than 2. Its not particularly powerful, but Mecir does find good angles with it. Ditto the FH, but that's not as unusual and I think he's better with the angles off the BH
Problem is, these court opening angles aren't enough to force errors out of Lendl. So he's playing a relatively risky shot, but not getting a corresponding reward out of it. The unforced errors flow from his racquet (45) at a much higher rate than he forces errors out of Lendl (22, a healthy chunk of them passing attempts)…. baseline-to-baseline, Mecir's game isn't suited to tackling Lendl on clay
For his part, Lendl doesn't seem to mind the open court dynamics. Generally, he likes his close court who-blinks-first stuff, but makes no attempt to force it by hitting up and down the middle and keeping the angles dull. He plays along with Mecir's game
A word on Lendl's movements. He doesn't look particularly quick of foot... but is rarely out of position (and with Mecir aiming for lines, it would have been very easy to be caught out of position). Might go unnoticed, but Lendl's movement is highly efficient - its the highest compliment for something to be so smooth as to go unnoticed
So for Mecir… going for lines and/or sharp angles naturally leads to his making errors, but doesn't force them out of Lendl and who-blinks-first rallying would likely go even worse. That leaves him with taking the net
Only Lendl is having one of his very good passing days. 9 passing winners (including a mishit fluke lob) and forcing 3 volleying errors - so the net's not much good for Mecir either (just 46% point won up there). Part of this is his own doing... why exactly is he volleying as often as not to Lendl's FH?
Note he also serves equally to FH and BH. Why? He's forced 4 errors out of Lendl's BH to 1 off the FH (also copped 2 winners from the FH, to 0 off the BH). Lendl's preference is clear - he makes room to take every body serve (they're not really 'body serves', just safe serves down the middle I think) on the FH and runs around to hit FHs 5 times. Why play to Lendl's strength on the FH?
Note Lendl's return rate of 93%. Mecir's serve isn't powerful... but 93% is still very high. And his typical return is reasonably strong... he's not looping them back over or anything like that
Lendl is considerably more consistent than Mecir, but down from his own standards. 29 UEs is on the high side for him... to some extent that's because he lets his hair down and goes for more on groundies, given the cushion of points Mecir's UEs gives him. Many of Lendl's more attacking errors (his UEs are 8 winner attempts, 12 attacking shots, 8 neutral and 1 defensive) occur at unimportant junctures when he's comfortably placed in the game. And the open court dynamics he's consented to organically lead to more attacking plays
UEFI is misleading. Lendl's 49 is high and would typically indicate playing very aggressively, while Mecir's 44.4 is middling. I think the reason is that Mecir's 'normal' shot is relatively risky without quite being enough to be called 'attacking'. That and he does a miss a healthy number of routine balls - far more than Lendl
Couple of memorable points involving drop shots. Lendl runs down an excellent drop volley at full speed and hits the winner around the net post. On another occasion, he runs downs an angled drop shot from the baseline and has to hit the ball from well outside the court, and puts it at almost parallel to the net for the winner. His own drop shots are very good also. Mecir's by contrast, tends to give Lendl a chance. A few excellent passes from defensive positions from Lendl also
Summing up, sharp match for clay with Mecir taking the initiative to make things lively, but making too many errors doing so. Lendl is upto excelling in attacking dynamics too and is exceptional on the pass. Slightly more credit to Lendl for playing well than discredit to Mecir for not, but both are factors in the result
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