Match Stats/Report - Rios vs Agassi, Miami final, 1998

[Waspsting]

Marcelo Rios beat Andre Agassi 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 in the Miami final, 1998 on hard court

The win took Rios to the world number 1 position. He had recently won the title at Indian Wells, following a runner-up showing at the Australian Open. Agassi had previously won the title in 1990, '95 and '96. The two would meet at the end of the year at the Grand Slam Cup final, with Rios again winning

Rios won 104 points, Agassi 85

Serve Stats
Rios...
- 1st serve percentage (58/91) 64%
- 1st serve points won (45/58) 78%
- 2nd serve points won (20/33) 61%
- Aces 12
- Double Faults 2
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (29/91) 32%

Agassi...
- 1st serve percentage (49/98) 50%
- 1st serve points won (40/49) 82%
- 2nd serve points won (19/49) 39%
- Aces 5, Service Winners 1
- Double Faults 4
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (32/98) 33%

Serve Patterns
Rios served...
- to FH 42%
- to BH 57%
- to Body 1%

Agassi served...
- to FH 30%
- to BH 66%
- to Body 4%

Return Stats
Rios made...
- 62 (19 FH, 43 BH), including 1 runaround FH
- 4 Winners (1 FH, 3 BH)
- 26 Errors, comprising...
- 12 Unforced (4 FH, 8 BH)
- 14 Forced (5 FH, 9 BH)
- Return Rate (62/94) 66%

Agassi made...
- 60 (27 FH, 33 BH), including 1 runaround FH
- 3 Winners (2 FH, 1 BH)
- 17 Errors, comprising...
- 7 Unforced (3 FH, 4 BH)
- 10 Forced (1 FH, 9 BH)
- Return Rate (60/89) 67%

Break Points
Rios 4/12 (7 games)
Agassi 1/1

Winners (including returns, excluding serves)
Rios 34 (21 FH, 9 BH, 2 FHV, 2 BHV)
Agassi 16 (7 FH, 7 BH, 1 FHV, 1 OH)

Rios' FHs - 3 cc, 1 cc/inside-in, 5 dtl (1 return), 1 dtl/inside-out pass, 8 inside-out (1 at net) and 3 inside-in
- BHs - 9 cc (3 returns, 2 passes, 1 at net)

- 1 from a serve-volley point, a 2nd volley FHV

Agassi's FHs - 3 cc (1 return, 1 at net), 2 inside-out and 2 inside-in (1 return)
- BHs - 4 cc, 1 inside-out, 1 inside-in return and 1 running-down-drop-shot cc at net

Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Rios 35
- 24 Unforced (11 FH, 13 BH)… with 1 FH at net
- 11 Forced (7 FH, 4 BH)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 44.6

Agassi 37
- 31 Unforced (15 FH, 16 BH)
- 6 Forced (2 FH, 4 BH)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 46.8

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

Net Points & Serve-Volley
Rios was...
- 7/8 (88%) at net, including...
- 1/1 serve-volleying, a 1st serve
---
- 1/1 forced back

Agassi was...
- 6/9 (67%) at net, with...
- 1/1 retreated

Match Report
Great match and a top class showing from Rios, who outplays a well playing Andre Agassi in all areas - serving, returning and especially off the ground. Even more, he outplays him in all ways off the ground - off offence and shot making, off defence, movement and retrieving, off consistency and off point construction - there's not a thing Agassi does better, and he plays well

Focus of play is on baseline battles on a tilted towards quick hard court. Both serve well (Rios more), without having great serves to begin with. Both return well (Rios more), to allow rallies to develop. Both hit exceptionally well, cleanly, hard and deep (Rios more)... and action is multi-faceted

There's hard hitting, dual, pressuring rallies. There's a good number of UEs in the match and they're about as difficult as balls can be and still be marked UEs. With both players hitting deep and at least firmly and more often hard, the errors are bound to come sooner rather than later

There's moving the opponent around rallies. Agassi is able to make Rios run more than the other way around, but Rios' movements are exceptional of quickness and upto handling it. Agassi isn't tested as much on the run, but is very able when called upon also - and Rios' moderate, wide shots are just as testing as Agassi's own

There's some drawing weak ball through the above dynamics and then pouncing on it to attack (the attacks virtually always from the baseline). Agassi falters some here, Rios very rarely... usually, a pressured error comes out rather than a weak ball the lead player in rally can look to attack

There's shot-making, i.e. going for a point ending shot from near regulation position. Rios goes for it more, and almost always makes it. Not too often

More than that, there's well constructed points (i.e. moving opponent out of position with moderate shots) to open the court and then going for the point finishing shot into it. Agassi goes in for this more, but Rios' quickness in retrieving keeps him from getting to many kill shots off. Rios indulges in it too, is more willing to go for the point killer without unduly having pushed Agassi out of position... and rarely falters in the finishing shot

In nutshell, most everything you can see from the baseline on show - and all of it high end. Not much touch or drop shotting or slicing. Emphasis is on clean, hard hitting with good depth. In encounters like this, its rare for action to remain high quality and usually, one player is limited by the other gaining ascendancy. There is some of that going on, with Agassi the one to drop, but not by much. His showing would likely squeeze out overwhelming bulk of players. When he finds the hard hitting, grinding stuff not doing the job of squeezing Rios out, he turns to more, move-Rios-around and look-to-open-court + hit-into-it play. Again, well enough to likely bowl over most players, and again, not Rios

Rios' overall superiority is evident in break point figures. He has them 7 games and converts 4/12. Agassi converts his only one middle of first set - and that's all

Unreturned rates are near even (Rios 32%, Agassi 33%) and errors in play are near even (Rios 35, Agassi 37... the UE and FE breakdown varies though), leaving the main difference to be winners in play. Rios has 34 - more than double Agassi's 16

Rios' 34 winners to 35 total errors (24 UEs, 11 FEs) is very, very impressive, given moderate unreturned rates and action being almost all baseline based. Its a fair indicator of how well he plays. If anything, it under-represents it with good lot of the UEs being relatively hard due to Agassi's heavy and deep hitting and some being careless throw-away shots when he's up a break

Other stats of particular interest are...

- Rios dominating both 2nd serves (he wins 61% off both serve and return points)... an indicator of his superiority in play

- Both players dominating first serve points (Agassi winning 82%, Rios 78%)... these are surprisingly high, especially Agassi's number

- Low first serve in count from Agassi of 50%. The numbers make him look like a serve-bot. He wins just 27/62 or 43.5% points when return comes back, which falls to 40.9% when double faults are included

- Rios' UEFI of 44.6 is very low for 34 winners, 24 UEs showing. He misses just 4 winner attempts... a remarkably low number to go with so many winners from the baseline, among the best I've seen

 

[Waspsting]

Serve & Return
Good battle on both fronts, both serving and returning aggressively. Agassi's low in count of 50% is key, especially since he's got a huge difference in how he's doing off his 2 serves (winning 82% off firsts and 39% off seconds)

Though not overly pacey, both serve out wide to give difficult returns and open the court. Including occasionally off the 2nd serve
Both also take returns early, looking to slap them back with initiative grabbing or even point ending force. This makes returning even more difficult and leads to errors, but also leads to lively action.
In short, attacking serving met by counter-attacking returning

Rios serving 14% higher rate helps and he gets his wide serves out at sharper angles. Excellent 12 aces for him to Agassi's 5 (+ 1 service winner)
Rios' early returning position hinders him from putting the return in play. 12 return UEs for him (to Agassi's 7)... balls he could put in play comfortably from a normal position. Agassi has the same problem, though Rios' serves tend to be wider and return errors for him get marked forced more often
In all, very similar of damaging quality and consistency. Agassi is +1% unreturned rate, Rios has 4 winners to Agassi's 3
Both players have the odd throwaway return game where they just flash wantonly at returns, invariably missing. In Rios case, when he's up a break. In Agassi's, when he's frustrated

Agassi's lower in count gives Rios considerably more 2nd serves to look at and he's a bit better at slapping them back hard to start the rally on good footing

Agassi's low in count is largely due to going for particularly wide serves, beyond his norm. Since he's won an abnormally large 82% points behind first serve, its not in vain. His trouble lies in being outplayed in rallies, not his serving. Alternative would have been to place the serve more safely to get more first serves in and likely outcome would be Rios slapping back more returns - and there's no reason to think rallies would go any differently then they end up doing (i.e. Rios winning lions share)

In nutshell, not much in it between the two in serve-return complex, with both players handling both sides of it in similar style. Rios with advantage, he -
- serves at 64%, to Agassi's 50% and thus...
- is able to get more serves out damagingly wide and fewer where they can be reached and so...
- has more chances on reachable returns, with both players heftily smacking anything that fits that description

And then they rally...

Play - Baseline (& Net)
Action is almost all baseline battles and the two combine for just 17 net points. Both hit well enough from the back that they can finish points from there in theory at least. In the event, Rios thwarts Agassi's attacks fairly regularly. Both counter-hit from what should be defensive positions (against deep balls or/and wide ones for example) strongly enough that coming to net would involve some risk. Hence, negligible net play and it doesn't suggest itself as an obviously good option

Rios winning 61% of his second serve points and Agassi's too sums up in numbers how play goes

Initially, Agassi looks to test Rios' BH, which he targets with BH longlines. Rios BH longlines right back without taking a backward step. They're neutral rallies, but with clean hitting taken early from both sides. Good stuff
Unable to make headway that way, Agassi shifts to dual winged play. Nothing he tries off either side or either direction bothers Rios much, who hits back the same way. But it is Agassi that slightly leads action, with Rios in slightly reactive role. Emphasis on slightly

Rios proves slightly steadier of the two. He has 23 UEs (discounting a net shot) to Agassi's 31. UEs by shot read -
- Rios FH 10 (+ 1 at net)
- Rios BH 13
- Agassi FH 15
- Agassi BH 16

UE types are more interesting still. Neutrally, the 2 all but identical. Rios has 17, Agassi 16. Rios' 'neutral UEs' tend to tilted towards defensive more than Agassi's. As noted earlier, with hard hitting play, UEs are relatively difficult. Especially Rios'

Its on the more attacking shots that Rios gains his overall slight advantage in keeping ball in play. Somewhat credit to Rios' ability to scamper and resist being forced into errors against Agassi's moderate attacks, thus leading to Agassi to go for more to try to finish points
- Attacking UEs - Agassi 9, Rios 3
- Winner attempt UEs - Agassi 6, Rios 4

That's half the story. The other half is points ended aggressively - and this is where Rios really shines

34 winners - overwhelming bulk being baseline-to-baseline shots - 4 winner attempt UEs, is an outrageously high ratio. The winners he hits are rarely off third balls, set up by serves. He uses the serve (or return) to get a good starting point for rallies, then rallies along with powerful shots and looking to grab leading position, then after moving Agassi about, pulls the trigger. And makes it, almost always. The few winners set up by the serve tend to be not easy balls and certainly not putaways

FH is the star of the match with 21 winners, 11 UEs - both match bests. The next best winner/UE differential is Rios' BH which lies on -4. Agassi's FH is -8 and BH -9. Grade A FH shot making from Rios. He's even in the positives on winners/all errors on the shot (+3 or +2 if you exclude a return winner)
The BH is hard hit, often deep and steady. It cops the brunt of Agassi's attempts to beat out errors. All 9 of his winners are hit cc and he barely plays an aggressive dtl BH in the match. For someone like Rios, who in general tends to get carried away, keeping the BH to hard hitting, pressuring shots and basic cc attacking shots constitutes sound play

Agassi for his part, switches gears smartly though it ends up not bearing fruit. Starting with trying to breakdown Rios BH. Moving to dual wing play. Changing to moving Rios around. Finally, with nothing proving particularly effective, going into 1-2s court opener-hit winner into it. Excellent defence from Rios against a typical, beat down but short of blast away showing from Agassi. The errors that creep into Agassi's game are largely a product of Rios not yielding to Agassi's usually successful, moderate attacking shots. 'Not yielding' isn't a good description in that it implies Rios is reactive... in fact he hits back just as hard off both sides, leaving Agassi trailing in consistency, not having a hitting advantage and obviously, a long way behind in shot making

The FEs tell a story of their own. Rios forcing just 7 indicates Agassi defended well too and that Rios' finishing didn't leave him a chance. Agassi forces 11 - very high in context of hitting 16 winners - both indicating how well Rios defended and the more moderate nature of Agassi's attacking

Match Progression
Rios breaks early to go up 2-0, finishing with FH inside-out winner. Play settles into hard and deep hitting from both players

Good game with strong returns, including a return winner by Agassi to break back, though on break point itself, Rios misses an easy FH at net

Serving at 5-5, 40-15, Rios loses 2 points to overly adventurous winner attempts (1 of them a second serve that he misses) to make it deuce. Agassi falters in yielding a routine error after that and Rios goes on to hold

A series of stunning shots from Rios the game after sees him raise a bunch of set-break points. Points he wins include winners from FHV, BH cc return, FH cc from mid-court set up by a huge return and an impeccable FH dtl/inside-out pass. Agassi steps to thwart 3 break points with strong plays of his own but finally, double faults to give up the set

Rios cleans up his game in second set and barely misses a ball while Agassi seems to be getting frustrated by it all. He's broken in a poor game, missing 2 routine attacking shots with the court open for them

Agassi shifts his game to more aggressive in the third set and he whacks most of his BH winners, including 1 inside-out in it. He looks to open court and then hit a winner into it, as opposed to move Rios around

Rios survives a 12 point hold without facing break point where he serves 4 aces. With the exception of that game, he loses 9 points on serve in holding 9 times for the last 2 sets.
He breaks right after in another stunning game, dispatching 3 winners in last 4 points, ending by loopily directing a first serve return dtl for winner. And holds serve comfortably twice more to end the match

Summing up, excellent baseline match, a top class showing from Marcelo Rios and a good one from Agassi though its made to look ordinary. Both players serve aggressively wide, both take returns early and slap them hard, both engage in hard and deep hitting off both sides with healthy amount of running the opponent around

Rios is just better at everything - serving, returning, moving, being consistent, defending and most of all, attacking - and leaves the solid Agassi in the dust

Stats for pair's '02 semi - (4) Match Stats/Report - Agassi vs Rios, Miami semi-final, 2002 | Talk Tennis (tennis-warehouse.com)