Match Stats/Report - McEnroe vs Ashe, Masters final, 1978

[Waspsting]

John McEnroe beat Arthur Ashe 6-7(5), 6-3, 7-5 in the Masters (Year End Championship) final, 1978 on carpet in New York, USA

It was the first of McEnroe’s 3 titles at the event and Ashe’s only final. McEnroe had also won the pair’s round robin match

McEnroe won 109 points, Ashe 107

Both players serve-volleyed of all serves

(Note: I’m missing 1 point deduced to have been a first serve and confidently guessed from partial visual to have been an unreturned serve. Commentary indicates it wasn’t an ace. The point has been marked a first serve point, an unreturned served, assumed to have been a serve-volley point. Serve direction and return error type is unknown

Missing point - Set 2, Game 5, Point 1)

Serve Stats
McEnroe...
- 1st serve percentage (75/123) 61%
- 1st serve points won (52/75) 69%
- 2nd serve points won (27/48) 56%
- Aces 7 (1 possibly not clean)
- Double Faults 7
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (43/123) 35%

Ashe...
- 1st serve percentage (53/93) 57%
- 1st serve points won (44/53) 83%
- 2nd serve points won (19/40) 48%
- Aces 9, Service Winners 1
- Double Faults 5
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (33/93) 35%

Serve Patterns
McEnroe served...
- to FH 42%
- to BH 53%
- to Body 5%

Ashe served...
- to FH 24%
- to BH 70%
- to Body 6%

Return Stats
McEnroe made...
- 55 (11 FH, 44 BH)
- 2 Winners (1 FH, 1 BH)
- 23 Errors, all forced...
- 23 Forced (5 FH, 18 BH)
- Return Rate (55/88) 63%

Ashe made...
- 73 (37 FH, 36 BH), including 6 runaround FHs & 3 return-approaches
- 6 Winners (3 FH, 3 BH)
- 36 Errors, all forced...
- 36 Forced (18 FH, 17 BH, 1 ??), including 1 runaround FH
- Return Rate (73/116) 63%

Break Points
McEnroe 4/6 (4 games)
Ashe 2/10 (6 games)

Winners (including returns, excluding serves)
McEnroe 28 (4 FH, 2 BH, 4 FHV, 1 FH1/2V, 6 BHV, 11 OH)
Ashe 33 (5 FH, 5 BH, 7 FHV, 1 FH1/2V, 11 BHV, 4 OH)

McEnroe had 21 from serve-volley points
- 9 first 'volleys' (3 FHV, 1 FH1/2V, 4 BHV, 1 OH)... 1 FHV was a net chord dribbler and the OH can reasonably be called a FHV
- 11 second volleys (1 FHV, 2 BHV, 8 OH)
- 1 re-approach volley (1 OH)

-6 passes (4 FH, 2 BH)
- FHs - 2 cc (1 return), 1 inside-out and 1 longline
- BHs - 1 cc and 1 inside-out return

Ashe had 20 from serve-volley points
- 11 first 'volleys' (3 FHV, 1 FH1/2V, 7 BHV)... 1 FHV can reasonably be called an OH
- 9 second 'volleys' (3 FHV, 2 BHV, 3 OH, 1 FH at net)

- 2 from return-approach points (2 FHV)

- 7 passes (4 FH, 3 BH)
- FHs - 2 cc returns (1 runaround) and 2 inside-out (1 return)
- BHs - 2 dtl returns and 1 lob

- regular FH - 1 dtl
- regular BH - 1 net chord dribbler return (with McEnroe at net)

Errors (excluding serves and returns)
McEnroe 34
- 8 Unforced (1 FH, 1 BH, 3 FHV, 3 BHV)... with 1 FH at net & 1 BH at net
- 26 Forced (7 FH, 5 BH, 4 FHV, 6 BHV, 2 OH, 1 Over-the-Shoulder)... with 1 BH at net & 1 FHV was a baseline drive pass attempt
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 58.8

Ashe 33
- 10 Unforced (1 BH, 7 FHV, 2 BHV)... with 1 BH at net (from behind service line)
- 23 Forced (4 FH, 11 BH, 2 FHV, 5 BHV, 1 BH1/2V)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 56

(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
McEnroe was...
- 73/110 (66%) at net, including...
- 72/109 (66%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 45/68 (66%) off 1st serve and...
- 27/41 (66%) off 2nd serve
---
- 0/7 forced back

Ashe was...
- 60/88 (68%) at net, including...
- 53/78 (68%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 34/43 (79%) off 1st serve and...
- 19/35 (54%) off 2nd serve
---
- 2/3 (67%) return-approaching
- 0/2 forced back

Match Report
Great match and great showings from both players, almost from start to stop. The two play similarly on a fast court, both serve-volleying 100% of the time. McEnroe is more conventional, Ashe more creative and damaging within that context, though that’s not why the result is what it is

Why is the result the way it is? No real reason. Someone has to win, someone has to lose is sum of it

Ashe has the bigger, more powerful serve, but it also lacks disguise. Fairly obvious which way he’s going, which doesn’t matter much if he gets it wide, but probably has a hand in Mac being able to return a little better than he otherwise would

Ashe has the more powerful return and hammers anything he can reach that much harder than Mac does, with natural downside that he misses a few going that hard relative to Mac. He’s also the more creative one - taking unbalanced, if not extreme positions to encourage Mac to serve where he wants him to (Mac does similar things, not to same extent), and return-approaching a few times (Mac none at all), throwing in the odd runaround, extra hard hit FH (Mac none)

Extending from the return, Ashe is the more powerful and creative passer. He hammers the ball that much harder than Mac, and shows plenty of variety too. He has the softer, rolled pass that he gets wide and short and lobs fantastically to send Mac back to the baseline not infrequently.

Ashe is the more decisive volleyer (helped by Mac making less strong returns), and what he putsaway stays putaway or leaves hopeless passing chances. Not that Mac’s far behind in this area. Equalizer is Ashe is more prone to miss the odd regulation volley - not that matters much in shaping result

Both are excellent at dealing with tough volleys to the feet or against extra powerful or wide returns (of which there are plenty from both players). Comes as a surprise when they don’t put the half-volleys and shoelace volleys back in play. Deep even

Ashe missing a couple of difficult volleys are key to the decisive break. Difficult, but the sort he (and Mac for that matter) had been putting in play for most of match. In fact, slightly easier than that

Mac is that much quicker. It doesn’t matter much for passes, but he is able to get into position to volley that much better (also, because his serve isn’t as powerful). Not that Ashe isn’t in good position too

Gist - slightly different styles of both serve-volleying and return-passing, with Ashe the more dynamic, Mac the more conventional. None of it leads to decisive advantage. And to be clear, if Ashe is more powerful or decisive in this or that area, its not by much - Mac’s not tapping returns and plonking volleys either

There are ups and downs and you could say Mac chokes away a straight set win. Would have been an excellent straight setter if he hadn’t. He serves for first set, reaches 40-0 from where he double faults 3 times in a row and gets broken, before going on to lose tiebreak. Then again, sole break of second set that gives it to Mac is largely (not to same extent) a product of 2 Ashe doubles too

If there is a drawback to the match, its extent to which double faults contribute to the few breaks games there are. There are total 7 double faults in the 6 break games of the match

Things get even tenser at the end. Up a break, Ashe is 2 holds away from taking the match. Mac breaks, but after that, Ashe has 2 break/match points, and gets as good a look on the return and pass as he could hope for (which isn’t particularly good) on them, but misses. Just a percentage thing - you make some of these normal look returns and passes, you miss more - Ashe happens to miss these 2

And it turns out to be Mac who breaks from 40-15 down, on cusp of another tiebreak, with Ashe missing difficult volleys that he’d been making regularly before hand. Little question of ‘choking’, its more appropriate to marvel at how regularly he’d handled such volleys upto now with the after-thought that he’d be hard pressed to keep it up indefinately. Mac also throws in both his BH passing winners of the match in the game, including his sole BH return, so if anything, a clutch steal number from Mac

Even that’s not quite the end. Mac advances to 40-0 serving for the match, when Ashe hits back to back return winners (1 a fluke net chord dribbler) to get the pigeons antsy if not scurrying. That’s it though, Mac’s next serve doesn’t come back

Statistically, the first thing that stands out is how much more Mac has to serve

Points won are all but equal (Mac wins 2 more), which is low, given he’s won 5 more regular games and only lost tiebreak by 2 points, but serves 30 more points

More easy holds for Ashe, and more often he gets into return games, which is somewhat reflected in break point numbers -
Mac 4/6 (4 games), Ashe 2/10 (6 games)

That alone wouldn’t account for a 30 point difference - the more regular easy holds for Ashe and tough but not too tough ones for Mac (as in, he’s not constantly got his back up to hold) have an even greater hand

What those break numbers are saying is Mac takes just about every chance he gets, Ashe is able to create more, but can’t drive the final nail in often enough. Does well to make the chances, Mac does well to thwart them. Other than couple of games where double faults are main reason for breaks (once by Mac, once by Ashe), play is remarkably regular in its high quality

Lots of implications from most basic stats

Action & Stats
1st serve in - Mac 61%, Ashe 57%
1st serve won - Mac 61%, Ashe 83%
2nd serve won - Mac 56%, Ashe 48%

 

[Waspsting]

Ashe’s bigger first serve is coming through. Even more clearly in his substantial 19% - 7% ace rate frequency advantage

Mac also double faults at greater rate 15% to 13%, with quite a few doubles for both players. Both go for deep second serves and its necessary against the powerful returns they face

Ashe’s return position shapes action. He takes returns half-way between side and center line in deuce court and well over to side on ad. He wants Mac to serve to his FH and is willing to dare him to send ball through in big gap he leaves on that side

One imagines that a time-free version of Mac would take on the challenge of such a big gap on a quick court, backing himself to get the serve through it, but he largely plays as Ashe would have him. 42% directed to FH, 53% to BH (with Ashe running around to hit FHs 6 times too) is a success for Ashe

Judging by power of Ashe’s returns, it’s a bit surprising he’d go to such lengths to bait a return to his FH. Seems to hammer both returns hard. He might favour the FH as many players do, but wouldn’t think moving to loaded positions to encourage getting a serve there would be necessary. Everything about Ashe’s return results are balanced

- returns made - 37 FH, 36 BH
- winners - 3 apiece
- errors - 18 FH, 17 BH

Perhaps the loaded positions are more about taking away Mac’s favoured serves, particularly, out wide in ad court. If so, it works - smart as well as effective returning by Ashe. Also throws out 3 return-approaches, winning 2 - loses the low percentage chip shot to normal ball, wins others where he comes in after seeing he’s about to draw a half-volley off the return

His own serve is more orthodox of direction - 24% to FH, 70% to BH. Mac’s BH is compact, but not as much as it would come to be and he takes noticably bigger swings than he would in years to come. Though not as much as Ashe, he’s hard hitting on the return too. Power more than direction are his counter-weapons, though he is more apt to semi-block the return down low deliberately than Ashe is, its still more about force than guile

Mac also takes a loaded position regularly in deuce court around middle, which would tempt Ashe to go more to his BH. If it’s a bluff, it doesn’t work and Ashe is happy to do so. Mac takes 2nd returns early - earlier than Ashe, if not as hard hit - often just inside the baseline

Gist of serve-return contest is it comes out even - both players with 35% unreturneds, both with 63% return rate. Return rate like that while getting ball back firmly around net high is generally good to create some chances against serve-volleying. Both players return more than ‘firmly’ and both get it below the net quite regularly too (and both against very good serving)… a great job by both, both serving and returning

Mac’s greater surety on the volley comes out in second serve points won advantage 56% to 48%. Just serve-volleying, i.e. sans double faults, its 66% to 54%

Mac with same rate of winning serve-volleying off both serves at 66%. Better first serve than second, so that’s a bit of a surprise, but first serve isn’t particularly devastating as it would come to be (or as Ashe’s is here)

‘Volley’ UEs - Mac 8, Ashe 10 (with Mac at net 110 times to Ashe’s 88 - and Ashe having on average easier volleys) confirms Mac’s greater consistency on the volley. Like most things, its not too important - just the odd routine volley miss by Ashe more than Mac, but of course, better to be more sure than less on staple shots. Ashe being looser is compensated for somewhat by his finishing being more decisive, but again, not much difference between the two there

The big difference in volleying is shaped by Ashe’s use of the lob. This is the best contest between OH and lob I’ve seen. Ashe sends up excellent offensive lobs that has Mac back-pedalling and in difficulty to make the smash

Scarcely an easy OH among Mac’s 11 winners, and he needs more than 1 to finish more often than he’d like (though not all that often. Mac’s not one to fool around on the OH). And there’s the small matter of being forced back from net 7 times (losing every point). Quality of lobs ensures Mat’s forced back retrievals are hopeless Over-the-Shoulder shots (he has 2 errors on it), and Ashe is up at net to putaway whatever comes back

Its amusing when Mac borrows the same play and with same result. That’s his only non-serve-volley net point. Ashe has 7 others (sans his 3 return-approaches), all but 1 after forcing Mac back

‘Volley’ FEs - Mac 12, Ashe 8… close to same proportion with Mac being at net a lot more often, but just as with consistency, Mac a little bit better at making the tough volleys. Both players are textbook natural of look on the volley, playing shoelace volleys as gracefully as routine ones

Ashe’s FEs tend to be balls to his feet. More of Mac’s are powerful, wide balls - not high, but not as low as feet. Neither player is left hopping by feet volleys, but Mac has no choice but to lunge and hop uncomfortably to try to cope with the wide power hits

All stats point to things being very close between the two players - and that’s not deceptive

Breaking down that near equality - Ashe with slight advantage on serve-return complex - his serve his bigger, his returns more powerful, Mac on the volley - he’s misses fewer routine ones and makes a few more difficult ones

Ashe is also the better passer - his power is greater, and he has plenty of variety with the lobs and change-up ‘rolled’ passes to complement the power

Emphasis on ‘slight’. Both players are excellent in all areas. Ashe is the more creative and more eye-catching

Match Progression
Action is largely as described above and all sets are high of quality, with minor variations, so its easiest to just get to play-by-play here

Ashe chip-charge a second return early on, a suicidal move and Mac may well have not noticed as he clinically dispatches the floater for a winner

Mac scores the break to move up 2-1. Couple of Ashe volley UEs and couple of Mac passing winners - 1 set up by a low return, the other with the return itself. Server continues to dominate, ‘til Mac steps up to serve for the set

3 unreturned serves get him to 40-0, and 6 hits later, its deuce with Mac double faulting thrice in. Good, strong passes and lobs by Ashe to finish the job of breaking - he forces an OH and 2 BHV errors. Mac had earlier double faulted twice in a game he held to 30, so that’s 5/7 of his match long double faults in the set

Server domination continues in tiebreak. Pair trade mini-breaks to leave things at 4-4 and Ashe is the agent of it. He gains his with a runaround FH cc return pass winner and hands it back missing a regulation FHV. Gains the decisive mini awhile later with a powerful, wide return that forces error and wraps things up with a service winner

Great set of tennis. Mac messing it up with the double faults, but Ashe is very impressive too

Second set is case of Mac grabbing 1 break amidst easy Ashe holds, and fighting off being broken back. The break comes in game 4. 2 Ashe doubles contribute, but an impossible volley and another good return have a hand too. Sans that game, Ashe loses 4 points in 3 holds

Mac meanwhile has to weather the storm of power returns and endures 10, 8 and 10 point holds, despite serving at 69%. He saves break point early, making a low first volley to do so. And has to save 2 more in serving out. Couple of volleying UEs get him down 15-40, which he serves his way out of to level the match

Mac serves 36 points (7.2 per game), Ashe 21 (5.3 per game) in the set

Quality remains high, but action changes slightly. Ashe turns to lobbing more than before and rolling passes wide rather than blasting them

He’s got better of first half of set. Loses 1 point in first 3 holds, while breaking Mac in a a high pressure game. Mac had survived 2 break points in his first hold, but can’t do it a second time. Like the first set, he falters, missing easy BH at net to bring up break point, and then double faulting on it

With Ashe consolidating easily, score stands 4-1. Ashe only wins 1 more game (or Mac wins 6 of the last 7), but its anything but an easy ride

Strong passes get Mac the break back for 3-4. And next time he serves, he’s down 15-40 and 2 match points on back of winning lobs, rolled passes and a clean return winner. Ashe has decent looks on the pass and return respectively on his 2 match points, but can’t make either. Game ends with Ashe missing another second return - nothing is easy, but its about as good a look as he could hope for

Mac breaks right after in a 10 point game with all kinds of things happening. He strikes both of his BH winners in the game (inside-out return and on break point, cc pass set up by another inside-out return). Ashe misses not-easy to tough volleys he’d been mostly making for the match. Most poetically, Mac does to Ashe what Ashe has been doing to him for fun - lobs him back to baseline, comes in and putsaway an OH

Mac reaches 40-0 while serving out, when Ashe strikes back with a couple of return winners (1 a net chord dribbler), awakening memories of the first set choke. Not this time, as Mac finishes with another unreturned serve

Summing up, top class match with both players superb. Both serve-volley 100% of the time

Ashe has more powerful serve, McEnroe’s is better disguised
Ashe hits returns harder, McEnroe takes them earlier
Ashe is more decisive on the volley, McEnroe is more secure
Ashe passes harder and more creatively, McEnroe is quicker in covering court

Sublte differences, with both being excellent in all areas. Not quite a coin flip - only a massive double faulting choke from McEnroe keeps it from being a straight setter - but very close with the more by-the-book McEnroe edging out the more creative Ashe