Match Stats/Report - Roddick vs Coria, Miami final, 2004

[Waspsting]

Andy Roddick beat Guillermo Coria 6-7(2), 6-3, 6-1, 0-0 retired in the Miami final, 2004 on hard court

This was Roddick’s first title at the event. Coria would win the next Masters event in Monte Carlo

Roddick won 105 points, Coria 76

Serve Stats
Roddick...
- 1st serve percentage (45/74) 61%
- 1st serve points won (39/45) 87%
- 2nd serve points won (17/29) 59%
- Aces 11 (1 second serve)
- Double Faults 2
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (35/74) 47%

Coria...
- 1st serve percentage (81/107) 76%
- 1st serve points won (43/81) 53%
- 2nd serve points won (15/26) 58%
- Aces 4
- Double Faults 1
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (19/107) 18%

Serve Pattern
Roddick served...
- to FH 39%
- to BH 56%
- to Body 6%

Coria served...
- to FH 44%
- to BH 51%
- to Body 5%

Return Stats
Roddick made...
- 87 (46 FH, 41 BH), including 7 runaround FHs
- 1 Winner (1 FH)
- 15 Errors, comprising...
- 14 Unforced (8 FH, 6 BH), including 1 runaround FH
- 1 Forced (1 FH)
- Return Rate (87/106) 82%

Coria made...
- 37 (13 FH, 24 BH)
- 24 Errors, comprising...
- 8 Unforced (4 FH, 4 BH)
- 16 Forced (4 FH, 12 BH)
- Return Rate (37/72) 51%

Break Points
Roddick 5/11 (6 games)
Coria 1/2 (1 game)

Winners (including returns, excluding aces)
Roddick 25 (15 FH, 7 BH, 3 OH)
Coria 17 (4 FH, 8 BH, 4 FHV, 1 BHV)

Roddick's FHs - 2 cc (1 pass at net), 1 cc/down-the-middle at net, 4 dtl (1 return), 2 inside-out, 1 inside-out/longline, 2 inside-in, 1 inside-in/cc, 1 longline/inside-out, 1 drop shot
- BHs - 6 dtl (1 slice at net), 1 inside-out

- 1 from a serve-volley point, a first volley OH

Coria's FHs - 2 inside-out, 1 drop shot, 1 running-down-drop-shot dtl pass at net
- BHs - 1 cc, 4 dtl (1 pass, 1 at net), 1 drop shot, 2 lobs

- 1 from a serve-volley point, a first volley BHV
- 1 other FHV was a non-net, swinging cc shot

Errors (excluding returns and serves)
Roddick 38
- 32 Unforced (15 FH, 17 BH)
- 6 Forced (4 FH, 1 BH, 1 Back-to-Net)... the Back-to-Net can reasonbly be called a FH
Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 47.2

Coria 44
- 25 Unforced (15 FH, 10 BH)... with 1 FH pass attempt
- 19 Forced (11 FH, 6 BH, 1 FHV, 1 BHV)... with 2 BH running-down-drop-shot at net
Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 45.6

(Note 1: all half-volleys refer to such shots played at net. Half -volleys played from other parts of the court are included within relevant groundstroke counts)

(Note 2: The 'Unforced Error Forcefulness Index is a measure of how aggressive of intent the average UE made was. 60 is maximum, 20 is minimum. This match has been scored using a four point scale - 2 defensive, 4 neutral, 5 attacking, 6 winner attempt)

Net Points & Serve-Volley
Roddick was...
- 15/22 (68%) at net, including...
- 1/1 serve-volleying, a 1st serve
---
- 1/2 forced back

Coria was...
- 7/12 (58%) at net, including...
- 1/1 serve-volleying, a 1st serve

Match Report
Good contest between big serving, aggressive Roddick vs quick, steady, counter-punching Coria until Coria does does something to his back. His game linearly falls away from then and Roddick gains upper hand more and more, corresponding to longer match goes, before Coria ultimately calls it quits. Court is slow, and there’s enough breeze for much of match to be a factor

Trigger incident happens on serve game 11 of first set. Coria tends to his back quietly after running for a ball and is cautious in walking to his chair and sitting down at the end of the game. Takes a lengthy medical time out at the change-over. Steels himself to win the set in a tiebreak, but he at least seems to know which way wind is blowing. The irritated/frustrated way he tosses his racquet at the change-over is opposite of what one would expect from the winner of the set

His play doesn’t fall of radically. Starts with serving lighter and not moving as rapidly, which for with him, isn’t difficult to detect since he’s so quick otherwise. ‘Slow for Coria’ is more than good enough to compete and faster than all but handful of players. Smoothly, he gets worse - pace of serve, speed of foot and strength of shot. A graph outlining his decline would be a straight sloping down line

Since he’s neck and neck with Rod when fully fit, even a little decline would see Rod rise above, and Rod becomes stronger player for the slight drop. Which deepens and deepens as Rod dominates more and more. Rod doesn’t play particularly well in bossing action about

In the circumstance, match long stats are of limited value and match is better thought of as two part affair. First part is first set, a normal and good contest. Second part moves into mismatch, with Coria gradually fading

Part 1 - Normal Contest
Coria wins 7-6(2). He hurts himself in game 11

First serve in - Rod 58%, Coria 76%
First serve won - Rod 77%, Coria 72%
Second serve won - Rod 44%, Coria 63%

Darn good, big serving, aggressive player vs small serving, steady one
Coria with a below average serve at best. About 80% harmless, with 20% tricky. Slippery darted out wide serve being chief threat, as much for surprise as quality.
Very good in count. And he wins almost as many first serve points as much bigger serving Rod
Second serve points good indicator of how the the two stack up in play. Coria better, both good

Aces/double faults - Rod 5/2, Coria 1/0
Freebies - Rod 42%, Coria 24%

Rod getting a lot more out of the serve shot, as expected

Winners - Rod 4 (2 FH, 1 BH, 1 OH), Coria 9 (2 FH, 3 BH, 3 FHV, 1 BHV)
Errors forced - Rod 7, Coria 2
UEs - Rod 16 (6 FH, 10 BH), Cora 7 (5 FH, 2 BH)

Action is Rod leading, looking to overpower and Coria counter-punching
Rod looking to dictate off both wings, naturally more with FH. Coria quick and tested on running shots. Its breezy enough that precision attacking play and shot-making is hampered

Few surprises here, particularly Coria with such an advantage in winners
Most of it relates to drop shots.
3/5 ground winners, 1 is a pass, leaving just 1 bona fida, ground-to-ground winner (a BH dtl)
2/4 net ones are drop shot related, 1 other is from surprise serve-volley, leaving 1 bona fida, coming in from rallying (its set up by a good FH inside-out)
Some gorgeous drop shotting by Coria. Its crucial in tiebreak

42% freebies limits Rod’s scope for striking winners, but he’s got good initiative on third ball often enough. Feasible to hit winning shots. If he’s tempered in his shot choices, its wise given breeze. Breeze probably has hand in some of his failed shot-making, including crucial dtl winner attempt misses in the ‘breaker

Relatively low winners and high errors forced from Rod. Situations like this generally arise for couple reason
- measured, clinical attacking play. Just doing enough to win the point and a credit to the attacker or
- high end defence that denies clean winners

Combo of the two here. Coria on the run is very good

UEs along expected lines, with Coria more consistent off the BH accounting for it. That’s not just neutral consistency; Rod not averse to trying to attack with BH too. But it is FH he leads with more. Good lot of edging-towards attacking UEs off that side, particularly mishits. The breeze?
Rod is harder hitter and the one leading neutral rallies
More credit Coria for consistency than Rod for being loose, with Coria reacting, if not defending as staple

Coria winning 52% of points, serving 46% of them
Break points - Rod 1/1 , Coria 1/2 (both in 1 game)

Coria with couple winning drop shot plays and Rod missing couple not-obvious dtl winner attempts help decide tiebreak

 

[Waspsting]

Part 2 - Post-Injury
Roddick wins 6-3, 6-1, 0-0 (0-40, Coria serving) retired

Coria actually first hurts himself before end of first set, but he has just 1 game to hold and the ‘breaker to go

His serve is weaker than it had been before medical time out (and it wasn’t strong before it). 2 second serve showing for him for rest of match
He’s got worse of things right from start of second set, and ends up serving 50 points in its, while Rod serves 19

Rod returning more comfily than earlier. He’s not particularly good at trying to attack with the return, but is neutralizing with it at least. Coria’s less agile moving for returns
Some excellent second serving from Rod to accompany the fat first serving; Some placed well wide, others kicking head high or even both. Coria not moving too well doesn’t help, but these would be forceful serves regardless

First serve in - Rod 64%, Coria 77%
Fist serve won - Rod 96%, Coria 45%
Second serve won - Rod 77%, Coria 63%

Negligible changes in in-counts from first part. Coria strangely retaining high second serve points won, despite playing much more poorly. Its not due to Rod missing over-eager returns. His second serve points are virtually same as firsts in this phase of match. Just an anomaly. Not an important one - he’s getting crushed whatever

Aces/double faults - Rod 6/0, Coria 3/1
Freebies - Rod 53%, Coria 15%

Coria less and less able to handle Rod’s fat first serve. Rod serves 36 points in these 2 sets, as opposed to 38 in the first so his ace rate hasn’t changed much
Given Coria’s slower on the return, for ace rate to stay the same, Rod must be serving less aggressively in second part. Wise move, seeing as lesser serves draw errors anway
Would be even better if his in count got a boost, but again, given general crushing, not important. He could serve at 40% with moderate heat and still win easily

Winners - Rod 21 (13 FH, 6 BH, 2 OH), Coria 8 (2 FH, 5 BH, 1 FHV)
Errors forced - Rod 12, Coria 4
UEs - Rod 16 (9 FH, 7 BH), Coria 18 (10 FH, 8 BH)

Andy Roddick would not make a good poker player. Early to mid way into second set, Coria continues to make running defensive gets and Rod’s surprise is self-evident. He keeps an eye on Coria at change-overs, presumably monitoring the shape he’s in

Fortunately for him, they’re not playing poker and he has his way doing whatever he wants - bullying him from back, overpowering him, smacking winners off both wings (preferring FH, the inside-in particularly, with inside-out more moderate or used to set up), coming in to net to finish. Coria starts second start scampering, but about midway through, can’t do it anymore. Its takes doing it full tilt to simply not get rolled over

5/8 is a BH winner/UE yield for Coria. Would be one in normal times, and remarkable given his condition

High FEs for Coria. They go up as set goes on and he can’t get into position for what would be almost routine shots. As his hitting weakens, so Rod’s able to beat him down. Rod could almost certainly win just hitting through Coria, but why limit one’s game when almost anything will do?

Rod winning 65% of points, serving 33% of them
Break points - Rod 4/10 (5 games), Coria 0
Doesn’t need amplification - a mismatch, a thrashing

Match Progression
Its breezy enough to influence play. Nothing drastic, but enough to temper early taking rips

After Rod holds to to open, players trade breaks
Cori’a’s broken to love with 3 ground UEs - all at least attacking shots
Rod’s broken back in 8 point game missing groundies, including a terrible putaway FH miss from close to service line to end the game

No more breaks or break points in the set. Rod gets a good lot of freebies and tends to lead neutral rallies. Makes quite a few mishit errors. Coria is quick, comfy counter-punching and pretty slippery with his own, average serve

Gorgeous BH drop shot winner from routine position in Coria in game 9 is the pick of the shots

When running for shot near end of set, Coria seems to do something to his back. He’s conservative with his movement for rest of game and takes a medical time out at the change-over, with score at 6-5. According to commentary, he has muscle spasm in his back

He holds to send set into tiebreak, where his drop shots work their wonder. Mini-breaks to start the game with a FH drop shot winner from routine position and drop shot + lob volley combo wins him the point
after
Rod misses a BH dtl winner attempt and his drop volley is quickly rundown and putaway at net to take score to 5-0
In time, Rod misses a FH dtl winner attempt to end the set

Coria hurls his racquet on his bag as he makes his way to sit down. Looks like he lost the set rather than one it

Its pretty much all Roddick from then on. He loses 3 service points for 4 holds in second set. Coria’s service games last 8, 5 (a break), 18, 5 and 14 (a break) points by contrast

Coria’s quick enough to run down some difficult balls upto about middle of second set, despite footspeed declining. His ground consistency remains solid, but footwork to get into position and shot-tolerance to not fall behind in rallies are down and getting lower by the game
Rod correspondingly becomes more and more bossy - outhitting Coria, and finishing as he pleases.

3 BH UEs get Coria broken for 1-2
Manages to hold his next service game in 18 points, saving 3 break pints along the way
Thorough BH inside-out winner from Rod a bit later, played from middle of deuce court
Mismatch level baseline contest is reached by end of set as Rod breaks again to finish 6-3

Rest of match is more of the same, Roddick thoroughly dominating. He finishes third set with a second serve ace, having lost 1 service point in it
It’s a slight surprise Coria comes out for fourth set. 3 points and 3 FH UEs later, he calls it quits

Summing up, Coria coming down with back problems turns a good contest into a hopeless mismatch for him

Fine contest when both players are fit. Roddick serving big and looking to dictate from the back, Coria counter-punching skillfully, being secure off the ground and with some select aggression of his own, especially drop shots

Target practice show after Coria’s physical issues kick in. Roddick still making hay with big serve and dictating thoroughly from the back off both wings. Coria manages to remain consistent off the ground, but can’t get into position properly and can only hit feebly in response to opponents lead. Roddick’s less than great pressuring through, with fair few errors trying to press ahead, but still by miles good enough to win. FH inside-in is his best weapon, anything beyond a push is damaging by the end

Stats for the third round match between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer - Match Stats/Report - Nadal vs Federer, Miami third round, 2004 | Talk Tennis

 

[Galvermegs]

Roddick in thise halycon days before fed hadnt skinned him alive, metaphorically speaking.