Match Stats/Report - Lendl vs Mecir, US Open final, 1986

[Waspsting]

Ivan Lendl beat Miloslav Mecir 6-4, 6-2, 6-0 in the US Open final, 1986 on hard court

Lendl was the defending champion and he would go onto win the title the following year also. Mecir was playing his first Slam final. The two would meet again in the '89 Australian Open final with Lendl again winning

Lendl won 96 points, Mecir 64

Serve Stats
Lendl...
- 1st serve percentage (42/62) 68%
- 1st serve points won (34/42) 81%
- 2nd serve points won (12/20) 60%
- Aces 10
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (20/62) 32%

Mecir...
- 1st serve percentage (60/98) 61%
- 1st serve points won (31/60) 52%
- 2nd serve points won (17/38) 45%
- Aces 1
- Double Faults 2
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (15/98) 15%

Serve Patterns
Lendl served...
- to FH 47%
- to BH 45%
- to Body 8%

Mecir served....
- to FH 36%
- to BH 54%
- to Body 9%

Return Stats
Lendl made...
- 81 (35 FH, 46 BH), including 3 runaround FHs
- 1 Winner (1 BH)
- 14 Errors, comprising...
- 8 Unforced (7 FH, 1 BH)
- 6 Forced (2 FH, 4 BH)
- Return Rate (81/96) 84%

Mecir made...
- 42 (23 FH, 19 BH), including 1 return-approach
- 1 Winner (1 FH)
- 10 Errors, comprising...
- 5 Unforced (2 FH, 3 BH)
- 5 Forced (2 FH, 3 BH)
- Return Rate (42/62) 68%

Break Points
Lendl 7/13 (9 games)
Mecir 1/1

Winners (including returns, excluding serves)
Lendl 18 (8 FH, 9 BH, 1 BHV)
Mecir 14 (5 FH, 2 BH, 6 FHV, 1 BHV)

Lendl had 12 passes (5 FH, 7 BH)
- FHs - 2 cc, 1 dtl, 1 dtl/inside-out and 1 inside-in
- BHs - 3 cc (1 return, 1 not clean), 3 dtl and 1 longline

- regular FHs - 2 cc and 1 inside-out
- regular BHs - 2 dtl (1 at net)

Mecir's FHs - 1 cc, 1 dtl return, 1 inside-out, 1 running-down-drop-shot shot inside-out at net pass and 1 net chord dribbler
- BHs - 1 dtl and 1 inside-out

- 1 from a return-approach point, a FHV
- 1 other FHV was a swinging inside-out shot

Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Lendl 35
- 20 Unforced (8 FH, 12 BH)... with 1 FH pass attempt
- 15 Forced (6 FH, 8 BH, 1 Over-Shoulder)... with 1 FH running-down-drop-shot at net & 1 BH at net
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 44.5

Mecir 56
- 40 Unforced (22 FH, 16 BH, 2 FHV)... with 1 FH at net
- 16 Forced (4 FH, 7 BH, 2 FHV, 3 BHV)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 46.5

(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...
- 11/17 (65%) at net, with...
- 1/3 (33%) forced back/retreated

Mecir was...
- 20/40 (50%) at net, including...
- 1/4 (25%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 0/1 off 1st serve and...
- 1/3 off 2nd serve
---
- 1/1 return approaching

Match Report
Straight forward, easy win for Lendl on a normal hard court. He has 2 things Mecir doesn't: a powerful serve and power on his groundstrokes, particularly the FH. And Mecir seems to be making it up as he goes along - and not well

Mecir's first serve is like a normal players second - at least comfortable and usually easy to return and neutralize. Hence, he gets no significant advantage with the shot and rallies start 50-50 (in fact, Mecir wins 52%)
His second serve is slightly weaker. Lendl looks to take it on FH and hit initiative snatchingly strong return. Call the starting point for those rallies 45-55 in Lendl's favour (in fact, that's exactly how it plays out)

That's a very poor outlook in terms of prospects of holding and Mecir would have to be far better court player to hold with any regularity. Which he isn't

Lendl meanwhile is biffing down big first serves all match. And serves at for him, very high 68%, with 10 aces (Mecir has 1) and 32% unreturned rate (Mecir has 15%). The returns that come back leave Lendl free to take charge of point at once with his FH. In short, big advantage for Lendl and even so, 81 first serve points won are high. Lendl's second serve is a normal one, which should be about 50-50 (in fact, he ends up winning 60%)

Prospects would be winning big bulk of first serve points and about half seconds, with court play about equal. He does rather better than that because he's better in play too

Match can be divided in two - the first set and the next two

First Set
Mecir completely serves 2 'second' serves and returns are easy to put in play, leading to 50-50 points. Lendl dominates on first serve points

Mecir though is the better player. Control of play is up in the air and its Mecir who has the bigger half of it. Lendl with significant hitting advantage on FH, while Mecir's is a bit feeble. He tries to compensate with side spin shots and balls dropped short so as to be dying when they reach Lendl and longline/inside-out shots (still lacking power) to Lendl's BH... whatever he does, its not very effective

On BH, Lendl plays his orthodox mixture of moderate drives, slices and that little bending-down chip he likes. Mecir sooner or later (usually sooner), comes up with a well angled cc shot to open the court or goes dtl. Mecir's the playmaker, Lendl content to play who-blinks-first

Mecir isn't particularly powerful of BH either. When Lendl lets loose with the occasional big drive, its comfortably the hardest hit BH on show. He moves Lendl to sides of court, but without sufficient power to force errors and Lendl remains adept at keeping rally going against mildly challenging wide shots

Nice looking though the well angled BH cc's are, they don't actually end points. Lendl moves with typically efficiency all match - rarely looking harried but always in position - and gets to them without undue strain, making it look easier than it probably is. Mecir's BH isn't particularly powerful either. Lendl for his part mixes up careful firm hits, slices and little chips off the BH, only occasionally letting loose with a full cut one. When he does, its by far the most powerful BH on show

Coming to net is what gives Mecir's game teeth, which he does in combination with wide hitting, particularly off his BH. He rallies to net 19 times in the set, winning 13. Its a good move. He doesn't have the power to compete with Lendl trading groundies and his wide placed shots give him control of points but doesn't finish them. His volleys are less than inspiring and he tends to volley short. Not quite drop volleys, but 'drop-ish' to coin a phrase. It proves good enough

He might be the better player but just barely over the firm hitting, quick moving and fairly consistent Lendl. The two split combined second serve points won 12-12 (on both players serve, the returner wins the bulk) and Mecir wins 18/29 first serve points (which are effectively 50-50 points) and its nothing like to the degree it would have to be to override Lendl's big first serve. Lendl serves at 71% and wins 80% of those points... giving him a large safety net on all other points.

 

[Waspsting]

Second & Third Sets
Lendl is much better player and retains his advantage on the serve, though Mecir steps it up a bit

Serve-return dynamics remain similar, despite Mecir serving harder. Lendl still returns comfortably. When Lendl stands wide looking for a big FH return, Mecir's willing to go to open FH side for the point ending serve and Lendl's forced to run the serves down. Pretty good from Mecir, but he just doesn't have enough on the serve to be particularly troubling. By matches end, he's forced 6 return errors from Lendl (and 1 ace), which is 6 more than he looked like doing in first set

He continues coming to net, but baseline play slips to Lendl's favour with more FH play. And Lendl wins a number of points with powerful, precise passes from approaches Mecir has to manufacture without much advantage. It gets harder for Mecir to create angles from baseline, and eventually, he stops coming in. By match end, he's only won 20/40 net points

From baseline, he outmatched on FH and after missing a few BHs, packs in hitting wide. As Lendl gains ascendancy, he hits out off his BH with authority to. Mecir turns to all kinds of things briefly

- doesn't change much on the FH other than what he tries in first set. Don't think there's much he can change... Lendl's is just much harder hit. Staying away would be best move. He is apt to go for the dtl attacking shot or sharp cc one but doesn't have enough power for it to unduly trouble Lendl (and he misses a good amount trying - he has 10 attacking UEs to Lendl's 1)

- As starts getting better of BH rallies too - Mecir missing more mildly attacking wide hit shots than Lendl does regulation cc ones - he looks to play completely orthodox, who-blinks-first-cc rallies. Just for a point or two
- he even initiates a couple of moonball rallies. 1 end when he looks to come in behind a moonball and Lendl blasts a FH inside-in pass for the winner

- serve-volleys a little bit - usually off the second serve. It doesn't end well and he wins just 1/4

- plays with dropping ball short. Its a nothing ploy... not a drop shot, not even drawing Lendl in and Lendl can step in, whack the ball and take whatever position he wants after

- alters his returning position. He'd done a bit of this in first set too when taking a couple of first serves from well inside court

One gets the impression its all done on the fly. None of it is a particularly good idea. And he doesn't let any of it run its course

In third set, Mecir's barely coming in and getting outhit from sides as Lendl steamrolls him to finish match

Play & Stats
The standout stat is Mecir's 22 FH UEs. Lendl has 20 total and FH aside, Mecir has 18. Even in first set, Mecir's FH doesn't look up to holding up. Its a soft shot and as Lendl's hitting force increases gradually longer rally goes, he turns to side spin shots or hitting short so ball is dying low by the time it reaches Lendl on baseline or going mildly inside-out to longline to avoid Lendl's FH. Whatever he tries, his FH is softly hit. The Mecir FH longline/inside-out vs Lendl BH cc looks an even hitting contest - and that's with Lendl slicing and chipping a good number of BHs. When Lendl goes for the drive, his shots are more powerful

As match wears on, Lendl keeps rallies more FH to FH and he crushes Mecir still more. Lendl has match low 8 FH UEs. The FH cc rally is hopeless from Mecir's point of view and Lendl doesn't get carried away. A few point endingly strong dtl shots, but he's content to hit hard and wait for errors. Its not quite beat-down strong, but closer to it than outlasting play

On the BH, its a contest between Lendl's consistency vs Mecir's wide hit shots. Lendl drives hard more and more as match goes on. Otherwise, he throws in his usual lot of slices and chips. 12 UEs for Lendl isn't a good figure. Mecir has 4 more, but he actually does damage and livens up play as he'd need to to come out ahead

Some very good passing shots from Lendl, particularly off the BH, which given how ordinary it is in play most of the time, comes as a bit of a surprise. Just a couple volleying UEs from Mecir while he's forced into 5 (and Lendl hits a large 12 passing winners) makes it seem credit for Mecir winning just 50% net point is primarily Lendl's. That's not overly true and Mecir's short volleys - not drop volleys - tend to leave Lendl good shots on the pass

Not much need for Lendl to come to net and he's only there 17 times - a significant chunk of which are forced approaches. There's plenty of scope for him to come in as heavier hitter. Why do so when things are going so swimmingly from the back?

Summing up, a decent match from Lendl, particularly getting the most out of his serve and hitting some bombing passes when called to. More than that, a disappointing showing from Mecir whose serve is harmless and groundies lacking power. He's at his best opening the court with BH and coming to net... but errors come with the wide hit shots and his volleying isn't confidence filling either

Stats for '85 final between Lendl and John McEnroe - Match Stats/Report - Lendl vs McEnroe, US Open final, 1985 | Talk Tennis (tennis-warehouse.com)
Stats for '87 final between Lendl and Mats Wilander - Match Stats/Report - Lendl vs Wilander, US Open final, 1987 | Talk Tennis (tennis-warehouse.com)
Stats for pair's '89 Australian Open final - Match Stats/Report - Lendl vs Mecir, Australian Open final, 1989 | Talk Tennis (tennis-warehouse.com)

 

[Gizo]

I haven't watched either final back, and with the player I that preferred out of the two being convincingly beaten on both occasions I didn't have much incentive to ! However I thought at the time that overall Mecir played better in this final than he did in the 1989 AO one despite winning the same number of games in both matches.

In this final, at least the first set was very competitive (I agree that Mecir was the better player for large parts of it), and he altered his gameplan a little, adjusting his positioning on the baseline. In the 1989 AO final, I thought this serving was terrible, and he melted under the brutal heat that day. I will compare and contrast the stats that you provided for both matches though.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, US TV ratings plummeted for this final compared to previous ones, and the US Open was dubbed the Czechoslovakian Open at the time (all 4 male and female singles finalists in 1986 were born and raised there).

Mecir had an impressive route to this final, dispatching Wilander, Nystrom and Becker along the way. In the SF win against Becker, his 'unpredictability' kept Becker guessing and off balance. Becker admitted that afterwards, and also admitted that he was afraid to serve and volley (I believe that he came to the net less than Mecir did) because he feared Mecir's passing shots.

 

[Waspsting]

Its good to see you, Gizo

I thought at the time that overall Mecir played better in this final than he did in the 1989 AO one despite winning the same number of games in both matches.

I think so too

There's not much realistic difference between 6-2 and 6-0 in this match up... suffice to say, Lendl's in complete control

All the sets in the '89 match are like that - mostly due to huge difference in two players serve. In addition to being weak, Mecir's double faulting regularly in '89 too

The first set here though is a good one. Not equal exactly because of the serve... but a good watch, fine rallies. Mecir shading them in my opinion (and the more proactive, attractive player)

Mecir had an impressive route to this final, dispatching Wilander, Nystrom and Becker along the way. In the SF win against Becker, his 'unpredictability' kept Becker guessing and off balance. Becker admitted that afterwards, and also admitted that he was afraid to serve and volley (I believe that he came to the net less than Mecir did) because he feared Mecir's passing shots.

I haven't seen the Becker match. Couple of thoughts on the match-up -

- Becker's not very quick and I can see Mecir's wide hitting causing Boris trouble. Lendl isn't overly bothered... to get to Lendl, you'd need to hit hard on top of wide, which Mecir isn't able to

- Becker's a lot less consistent than Lendl, and you'll get more UEs out of him baseline to baseline. Both sides, but particularly BH, which is where Mecir's at his best hitting wide cc's

In the lead up event at Stratton Mountain, off first serves Boris serve-volleyed just 26% of the time against McEnroe in the semi and 71% against Lendl (against whom he'd already learnt in earlier matches that trading groundies with wasn't a good idea)

It seems plausible that Boris just wasn't serve-volleying regularly on hard courts around this period. Do you remember how he was playing in the tournament prior to the semis?

He's doing so more on the carpet matches I've done around this period but short of always there too

Match Stats/Report - Becker vs McEnroe, Stratton Mountain semi-final, 1986 | Talk Tennis (tennis-warehouse.com)

Match Stats/Report - Lendl vs Becker, Stratton Mountain final, 1986 | Talk Tennis (tennis-warehouse.com)

 

[Gizo]

Its good to see you, Gizo



I think so too

There's not much realistic difference between 6-2 and 6-0 in this match up... suffice to say, Lendl's in complete control

All the sets in the '89 match are like that - mostly due to huge difference in two players serve. In addition to being weak, Mecir's double faulting regularly in '89 too

The first set here though is a good one. Not equal exactly because of the serve... but a good watch, fine rallies. Mecir shading them in my opinion (and the more proactive, attractive player)



I haven't seen the Becker match. Couple of thoughts on the match-up -

- Becker's not very quick and I can see Mecir's wide hitting causing Boris trouble. Lendl isn't overly bothered... to get to Lendl, you'd need to hit hard on top of wide, which Mecir isn't able to

- Becker's a lot less consistent than Lendl, and you'll get more UEs out of him baseline to baseline. Both sides, but particularly BH, which is where Mecir's at his best hitting wide cc's

In the lead up event at Stratton Mountain, off first serves Boris serve-volleyed just 26% of the time against McEnroe in the semi and 71% against Lendl (against whom he'd already learnt in earlier matches that trading groundies with wasn't a good idea)

It seems plausible that Boris just wasn't serve-volleying regularly on hard courts around this period. Do you remember how he was playing in the tournament prior to the semis?

He's doing so more on the carpet matches I've done around this period but short of always there too

Match Stats/Report - Becker vs McEnroe, Stratton Mountain semi-final, 1986 | Talk Tennis (tennis-warehouse.com)

Match Stats/Report - Lendl vs Becker, Stratton Mountain final, 1986 | Talk Tennis (tennis-warehouse.com)

Good to see you too, and thanks for continuing to post the very detailed stats threads, they're great.

To be honest I didn't watch a particularly large number of Becker's matches on hard courts during that mid-80s period, especially compared to those on grass or carpet which were more easily accessible, and I didn't see a great deal of footage of his USO matches before his SF defeat against Mecir in 1986 - Srejber looked to have a nightmare in their QF and seemingly forgot how to hit a well placed volley. In numerous ones that I saw, including vs. Wilander at Cincinnati in 1985, vs. Edberg in Indian Wells in 1987 etc, he was typically serve-volleying behind most of his 1st serves and staying back on 2nd serves. On return he was occasionally chipping and charging, or working his way to the net later on during points (and then sometimes moving back to the baseline afterwards). Against Gilbert (a nemesis for him at the time) at the 1987 USO, I thought he seemed to be serve-volleying more frequently on 2nd serves compared to in those other matches, but I haven't watched that back for a while so my perception could be wrong there.

I've only seen (fairly brief) highlights of match against Nystrom at the 1985 USO, when of course Nystrom gained revenge after titanic tussle at Wimbledon a couple of months earlier, and prevented the eagerly anticipated McEnroe-Becker QF from taking place. It seemed to me that again he was largely serve-volleying on 1st serves and staying back on 2nd serves, but again I saw those highlights quite a long time ago. Nystrom's return of serve was very highly regarded.

Mecir got in plenty of volleying practice in against Wilander in the 4th round in 1986, deciding early on that he didn't want to get drawn into a series of long-baseline rallies. His cross court passing shots were very highly regarded including by Becker, who also praised how well he moved around the court. In addition to coming to the net frequently with well timed approaches, Mecir was also very effective at also keeping Becker engaged in longer rallies, mixing things up to frustrate him.

 

[Waspsting]

I suspect Boris took some time to work out how to balance pace of serve with his movement to net

Guys with big serves tend to get a lot of half-volleys first up because they can't make it far enough into forecourt. In later years, you rarely saw Boris caught out that way - even though he's one of the slower guys

Look at Goran Ivanisevic or even Michael Stich. You see them stumped by forced gentle returns when they're short of service line, and they don't know to move forward to volley, or half-volley or take step back to hit a groundstroke. I don't see much of that with Boris

His serve-volleying frequency on hard courts in particular, but also carpet, are all over the place in his early years (they're not particularly predictable later on hard courts either)

Serve-volleying frequency off first serves -
'85 Cincy vs Wilander - 100%
'85 Antwerp vs McEnroe - 50% (that's deco hard court, same as US Open)
'85 Wembley vs Lendl - 89%
'85 Masters vs Lendl - 56%
'86 Chicago vs Lendl - 48%
'86 Masters vs Lendl - 46% (which is interesting because he's near 100% in 3 other matches on carpet leading up to the event)
'87 Indian Wells vs Edberg - 83%
'87 Cincy vs Edberg - 66%
'88 Masters vs Lendl - 99%

In '89 US Open
vs Rostagno - 63% (where he got himself into all kinds of trouble)
but vs Lendl - 94%

He did do so more on carpet than hard court. Don't see much difference in pace and bounce on those surfaces in the late '80s

During '90 US Open, commentators quote Ion Tiriac as explaining Boris' tendency to stay back sometime due to finding serve-volleying all the time "boring"

Don't know what the deal is. Could be working out how to match his serve speed with his footspeed. Some of it is undoubtedly his just being an unpredictable, strategically whimsical player

He varies his serve a lot too. Some matches he's holding back, some bombing them down, some serving out wide, some serving to body, or he goes whole match holding back and then starts bombing them down at the end etc.