Match Stats/Report - McEnroe vs Becker, Antwerp Indoors Invitational semi-final, 1985

[Waspsting]

John McEnroe beat Boris Becker 6-3, 6-4 in the Antwerp Indoors Invitational semi-final, 1985 on hard court

It was the second meeting between the two players and the first since Becker became a Wimbledon champion. McEnroe would go on to lose the final to Ivan Lendl

McEnroe won 63 points, Becker 50

McEnroe serve-volleyed off all first serves and frequently off seconds. Becker randomly serve-volleyed about half the time off first serves and very rarely off second

Serve Stats
McEnroe...
- 1st serve percentage (31/62) 50%
- 1st serve points won (27/31) 87%
- 2nd serve points won (18/31) 58%
- Aces 3, Service Winners 3
- Double Faults 4
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (23/62) 37%

Becker...
- 1st serve percentage (24/51) 47%
- 1st serve points won (20/24) 83%
- 2nd serve points won (11/27) 41%
- Aces 8
- Double Faults 6
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (15/51) 29%

Serve Patterns
McEnroe served...
- to FH 34%
- to BH 55%
- to Body 10%

Becker served...
- to FH 22%
- to BH 76%
- to Body 2%

Return Stats
McEnroe made...
- 30 (7 FH, 23 BH), including 1 runaround FH & 7 return-approaches
- 7 Errors, comprising...
- 2 Unforced (2 BH)
- 5 Forced (1 FH, 4 BH)
- Return Rate (30/45) 67%

Becker made...
- 35 (12 FH, 23 BH), including 1 runaround FH
- 6 Winners (3 FH, 3 BH)
- 17 Errors, comprising...
- 3 Unforced (2 FH, 1 BH)
- 14 Forced (5 FH, 9 BH)
- Return Rate (35/58) 60%

Break Points
McEnroe 3/8 (4 games)
Becker 1/5 (3 games)

Winners (including returns, excluding serves)
McEnroe 13 (2 BH, 7 FHV, 2 BHV, 2 OH)
Becker 15 (8 FH, 7 BH)

McEnroe had 8 from serve-volley points
- 4 first volleys (3 FHV, 1 BHV)
- 4 second volleys (1 FHV, 1 BHV, 2 OH)

- BHs - 1 cc pass and 1 lob

Becker had passes (3 FH, 6 BH)
- FHs - 1 cc and 2 dtl returns
- BHs - 3 cc (1 clipped the net chord to throw McEnroe off), 2 dtl returns (1 not clean) and 1 inside-in return

- regular groundstrokes - 3 FH inside-outs and 1 BH cc

Errors (excluding serves and returns)
McEnroe 16
- 9 Unforced (2 FH, 4 BH, 3 FHV)
- 7 Forced (2 FH, 4 BH, 1 BHV)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 46.9

Becker 21
- 10 Unforced (4 FH, 3 BH, 1 FHV, 1 BHV, 1 BHOH)
- 11 Forced (5 FH, 4 BH, 1 FH1/2V, 1 BH1/2V)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 51

(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
McEnroe was...
- 33/48 (69%) at net, including...
- 28/41 (68%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 21/25 (84%) off 1st serve and...
- 7/16 (44%) off 2nd serve
--
- 5/7 (71%) return-approaching
- 0/1 forced back/retreated

Becker was...
- 8/15 (53%) at net, including...
- 7/11 (64%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 6/8 (75%) off 1st serve and...
- 1/3 (33%) off 2nd serve

Match Report
A quick but bright match on a fast indoor hard court. McEnroe is thorough of play, while Becker is a bit random, inconsistent but dangerous

A word on the tournament. It was an invitational event running outside official circuit(s), but well attended by the top players and offering large prize money. The competitive environment of this match is indistinguishable from an official match; no joking around or playing to the crowd like we see in other exhibitions or invitational events. Becker sourly complains about a number of line calls (don't think he had a case)

Play aside (or perhaps even including), the highlight of the match might be the chair umpires handling of John McEnroe. When a McEnroe first serve is called out (I thought it was in, so you can imagine what McEnroe thought), he turns to the chair as he does. Calmly, respectfully, firmly and audibly into the microphone, the umpire says (paraphrasing) -

"It's (the linesman's) call, sir, I'm not in a position to overrule and I'm going with him"

The respectful and firm way he did stops Mac in his tracks. He hesitates, then turns and walks back to continue the match without another word. The crowd breaks into a cheer and the linesman in question has an appreciative grin on his face. Later, when serving for the match, Mac's is annoyed at a fan loudly cheering when he misses a first serve. The cheering clearly started after the serve was called out, but the annoyed American seems to be asking the umpire for a first serve

"Second serve", is the reply in the same tone as before. And Mac gets on with it

They should have trained all umpires to handle players after this one

McEnroe serve-volleys off all first serves. He starts out doing so off most seconds too, but cuts back, especially in the second set, in light of some heavy returning from Becker. Good adjustment. There's no pattern to Becker's serve-volleying... in numbers he does so 50% of the time off first serves, but he wasn't looking to come in off most of the 8 aces he had. Just does it on a whim, it looks like

In first set, Mac has 2 break points in the game 4, on the back of 2 chip-charge return points and a lazy BHOH by Becker, but the German saves them with an ace and a serve-volley point and goes on to hold. Next game, Becker has a break point on the back of a some heavy returning and a couple of Mac volleying UEs. He nets a second serve return that Mac stayed back to... and Mac goes on to hold

Becker plays a poor game to get broken. Opening with a double fault, he proceeds to serve-volley 3 times but misses easy volleys on 2. Next game is one of the best of the match, a demonstration of how to serve-volley as Mac runs Becker all over the place with his volleys to force errors, before finishing with a first FHV winner. 2 love games later (Mac's having 4 unreturned serves, including a service winner), its 1 set to love

Action picks up in the second set. Becker impresses with 3 passing winners in the first three games. And then he breaks. He makes room to a body serve to slap down a FH dtl return pass winner and adds a blocked back FH dtl return winner off a first serve 2 points later before Mac double faults on break point. But Mac breaks to love in an 8 point game beginning and ending with a double faults with a pair of Mac return-approach FHV winners in between

1 of these is the shot of the match. He FH cc returns a first serve with moderate authority and chooses to come into net behind it. Becker's third ball reaches him as he's still behind the service line with power and Mac feathers a stop FHV just over the net for a winner. Couldn't have hit it more softly and still have it go over and it dies instantly on Becker's side of the net... perfection

Mac goes up a break in horrendous game from Becker. A double fault and 2 3rd ball FH UEs puts him down 0-40 and Mac finishes the job with a beautiful, touch/push BH lob winner

There's a hiccup as Mac goes down 0-40 when serving for the match. 4/5 points are unreturned serves though and that's the match

 

[Waspsting]

Serve & Return
Its not just that Mac serves well, but as with their pairs encounter in Stratton the following year, Becker seems to have no read on the serve. It'd be a handful to return even with a read, but without, you'd think Becker would be helpless. And you'd be right.... except for the times when he's not. Silly as it sounds, "Becker is helpless on return, other than when he's not" is good description of what goes on

Against first serves, Becker takes to guessing and looks a puppet on a string when he gets it wrong - changing direction and lunging, hopping to try to get racquet on ball. When he guesses right, he still can't return much, but the ones he does, he belts. And he belts second serves so hard Mac starts staying back on such points. 6 return winners for Boris. Mac tends to serve to the body on second serves he stays back for and Boris handles this well, stepping aside or backing away to hit strong FHs

Not much different from Becker's returning 10 years later. Miss some, hit some... and the ones hit are hit hard

Becker's first serve is powerful. Though he doesn't follow it to net much, its good enough to win points outright, as 8 aces indicate (Mac has 3). He doesn't serve well though - just 47% for the match and that's down to 37% in the second set. He targets Mac's BH return

Mac directs balls back off the BH and utilizes return-approaching very well. There are chip-charges, but if he sees that he's hit a return particularly well, he sometimes follows it to net

Net Play
Mac's is excellent. 1 bad game where he makes 2 FHV UEs, and 1 of those was relatively hard for a UE. Other than that, just 1 volley UE in the match. He makes a number of first half-volleys (5-6 I'd estimate - and doesn't miss a single one) off powerful returns and he gets them back with sleek placement and depth. When he's not volleying winners, he's running Becker to corners to retrieve balls (and make errors doing so)

Becker's is terrible in all ways. He's 8/15 and most of those 8 are unreturned serves. Misses easy volleys, makes a hash of a BHOH he doesn't bother jumping to hit, makes random, hasty and poor approaches from rallies... the 2 half-volley forced errors are a result of such bad choices. Approach shots, choice of when to come in and volleying... bad from Becker on all fronts

Note McEnroe with 0 approaches in rallies - all his net points are serve-volley or return-approaches. Haven't seen that before from him

Baseline
Becker is the aggressor. He looks to hit aggressive point ending shots early. Off the FH, inside-out is his shot of choice. 3 winners with the shot, including 1 hit from well behind the baseline but also plenty of errors. He has an obvious power advantage of both wings, but is also error prone. McEnroe seems content to play second fiddle from the baseline, probably confident Becker will make more errors than hit winners/force errors. Off the BH, he's relatively passive, but off the FH, Mac hits with good power too and better angles. Becker's power hitting is enough to discourage approaching, but I think McEnroe realized he'd get a healthy number of points from UEs baseline to baseline

Becker seems to have no plan. Serve big. Randomly serve-volley, but not much. Randomly approach (usually off the wrong ball and badly executed), but not much. Play aggressive from the baseline, particularly with the FH and errors be damned. Mac by contrast, seems to know exactly what he wants to do.... serve-volley and adjust if not going well, hold the fort in baseline rallies with the BH and be ready to strike with the FH, judiciously choose when to return-approach. And Mac executes well, especially on the volley

Summing up, a bright little match. Good stuff from Mac - good serving, excellent volleying and solid returning. Credit to him but I would primarily discredit Becker's aimless game for the result