Match Stats/Report - Rusedski vs Sampras, Paris final, 1998

[Waspsting]

Greg Rusedski beat Pete Sampras 6-4, 7-6(4), 6-3 in the Paris final, 1998 on carpet

It would be Rusedski’s only Masters title. Sampras was the defending champion

Rusedski won 99 points, Sampras 80

Rusedski serve-volleyed off most first serves and rarely off seconds, Sampras off all first serves and most seconds

Serve Stats
Rusedski...
- 1st serve percentage (55/92) 60%
- 1st serve points won (48/55) 87%
- 2nd serve points won (23/37) 62%
- Aces 18 (2 second serves)
- Double Faults 2
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (33/92) 36%

Sampras...
- 1st serve percentage (53/87) 61%
- 1st serve points won (42/53) 80%
- 2nd serve points won (17/34) 50%
- Aces 14 (1 not clean, 1 second serve), Service Winners 2
- Double Faults 6
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (32/87) 37%

Serve Patterns
Rusedski served...
- to FH 41%
- to BH 49%
- to Body 10%

Sampras served....
- to FH 30%
- to BH 70%

Return Stats
Rusedski made...
- 49 (10 FH, 39 BH)
- 2 Winners (2 BH)
- 16 Errors, all forced...
- 16 Forced (5 FH, 11 BH)
- Return Rate (49/81) 60%

Sampras made...
- 57 (23 FH, 34 BH), including 3 return-approaches
- 2 Winners (2 BH)
- 15 Errors, comprising...
- 2 Unforced (1 FH, 1 BH)
- 13 Forced (6 FH, 7 BH)
- Return Rate (57/90) 63%

Break Points
Rusedski 3/5 (4 games)
Sampras 1/5 (2 games)

Winners (including returns, excluding serves)
Rusedski 26 (8 FH, 6 BH, 7 FHV, 3 BHV, 2 OH)
Sampras 24 (5 FH, 5 BH, 4 FHV, 4 BHV, 6 OH)

Rusedski had 10 from serve volley points -
- 6 first volleys (2 FHV, 3 BHV, 1 OH)
- 4 second volley (3 FHV, 1 OH)

- 12 passes - 2 returns (2 BH) & 10 regular (6 FH, 4 BH)
- BH returns - 2 dtl
- FHs - 1 cc, 1 dtl, 4 inside-out
- BHs - 2 dtl, 1 dtl/inside-out, 1 longline (with opponent semi stopped playing, distracted by flickering lights according to commentary)

- regular (non-pass) FHs - 1 dtl, 1 inside-out

Sampras had 14 from serve volley points -
- 4 first 'volleys' (1 FHV, 1 BHV, 1 OH, 1 BH at net)... the BH at net can reasonably be called a BH1/2V
- 7 second volley (2 FHV, 3 BHV, 2 OH)
- 3 third 'volleys' (1 FHV, 2 OH)... 1 OH was on the bounce

- 5 passes - 2 returns (2 BH) & 3 regular (1 FH, 2 BH)
- BH returns - 2 inside-in
- FH - 1 dtl
- BHs - 1 cc, 1 dtl

- regular (non-pass) FHs - 1 dtl, 2 inside-out, 1 inside-in

Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Rusedski 22
- 9 Unforced (2 FH, 4 BH, 1 FHV, 1 BHV, 1 OH)... with 1 BH at net
- 13 Forced (8 FH, 5 BH).... with 1 BH running-down-drop-shot at net
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 48.9

Sampras 34
- 16 Unforced (3 FH, 8 BH, 1 FHV, 4 BHV)... with 1 BH at net
- 18 Forced (3 FH, 8 BH, 1 FH1/2V, 2 BHV, 4 BH1/2V)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 48.8

(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
Rusedski was...
- 33/45 (73%) at net, including...
- 29/39 (74%) serve-volleying, comprising..
- 27/33 (82%) off 1st serve and..
- 2/6 (33%) off 2nd
---
- 1/3 (33%) forced back/retreated

Sampras was...
- 43/69 (62%) at net, including...
- 39/57 (68%) serve-volleying, comprising..
- 27/38 (71%) off 1st serve and..
- 12/19 (63%) off 2nd
---
- 0/3 return-approaching
- 1/2 forced back

Match Report
Rusedski puts on an all court, all aspects of the game showing that even his opponent would have proud to have done to convincingly best a strong Sampras. To the point of seemingly breaking Sampras’ spirit even. Court is slow for ‘90s carpet (returning isn’t as difficult as that standard), but still quick (strong, slightly wide groundstrokes are damaging)

26 winners, 22 errors (9 UEs, 13 FEs) showing from Greg. Without overly high unreturneds (Greg has 36%, Pete 37%) to bolster it. He serve-volleys off first serves, stays back off seconds and is impressive at all of it - volleying, passing or trading groundstrokes. Top notch numbers and fair reflection of his showing

Sampras has some double faulting trouble, and misses a small few simple volleys. And is outplayed from baseline. Serve-volleys close to all the time. Beyond that? He’s fine, just normal high end Pete stuff with big serves, neat volleys and he isn’t allowed to return or pass well because Greg’s just too good, and is outplayed from baseline. After going down a break early in third set, his shoulders drop

Match is serve-volley based, with significant baseline action. With serve doing all kinds of heavy damage, of course

Serve-volleying frequencies -
- 1st serves - Pete 100%, Greg 85%
- 2nd serves - Pete 70%, Greg 18%

In-count (Greg 60%, Pete 61%) and unreturned serves (Greg 36%, Pete 37%) virtually same. Pete’s unreturneds are bolstered by his serve-volleying a lot more, so the freebies are relative win for Greg
That wins is augmented by double faults - Greg with just 2 or 5% of second serves, Pete 6 or 18%

Greg’s more successful at net, too
He’s got 12 winners, 4 UEs there and wins 73% of his points
Pete has 15 winners, 6 UEs, 7 FEs and wins 62%

Similar ratio of winners and UEs and major difference is in net FEs, which speaks to reason for Greg’s superiority being his passing better (including with the return)

Finally, Greg getting better of baseline rallies, where he has 5 UEs to Pete’s 10. His FH is particularly good and he controls play to having it be in directions he prefers. His FH has match low 2 UEs, Pete’s BH has match high 7 (excluding a net shot)

Gist - Greg outstanding and Greg better than Pete in virtually all areas, QED

Rusedski’s serve games
No surprises in the big serving, but couple of noteable points
One is use of body serves, the other is big second serving
He’s got couple of second serve aces (he has same number of double faults). And during one passage in particular, utilizes big body serves to good effect
Serves 10% to the body (Pete has none). Mostly first serves and they’re accurate and jam Pete up who usually can’t make the return
The lot of body serves (and the difference with opponent, who has none) is hindrance to Greg having more aces

Off first serves, Greg with 29% aces. Pete has similar 28% (including 2 service winners and 1 not clean ace). With Pete serving potential aces all the time, Greg body serves 10% of the time, that rate favours Greg in terms of sending down unreturnables, with the body serves also usually not coming back

2 seconds serves aces speaks to big second serving too. Pete looks to creep forward to on or inside baseline to attack with the return. He’s left to just block returns back on the rise. Would be normal enough returns from normal position that’d yield Greg with good third ball position. From where Pete takes them, they’re difficult returns

So Pete always under gun returning. Against first serves, naturally. Against seconds, due to his looking to attack. Alternative of returning neutrally would likely yield Greg decent initiative to start rallies, so not a bad move

Off first serve -
- Greg has 29% aces and for rest…
- serve-volleys 85% of the time, winning 82%
- stays back 15% of time, winning 5/6 or 83%

No pointed reason to stay back, he just does it now and then to mix things up. Draws return errors anyway, which isn’t surprising with that serve. Thorough dominance whatever he does - he knocks away volleys nicely, misses very little and leaves bad look passes

Off second serve -
- Greg has both aces and double faults 4% of time and for rest…
- stays back 82% of time, winning 70%
- serve-volleys 18% of time, winning 2/6 or 33%

Little surprising he’s done badly serve-volleying, though that can be put down to small sample size. Like with the first serve stay backs, just variation he throws in and low winning rate not too important

 

[Waspsting]

Winning 70% points staying back is.

Ground to ground winners - Greg 2, Pete 4 (all FHs for both players)
FEs in baseline rallies - both 2
Ground UEs - Greg 5 (2 FH, 3 BH), Pete 10 (3 FH, 7 BH)

For starters, Greg very secure and to continue, Greg controlling dynamics to maximize his FH vs Pete’s BH. Good, solid hitting, with Greg’s FH having much better of it. Pete’s BH is pressured and unable to pressure and gives up errors

Pete doing his thing with the FH shot-making when gets chance. Greg seeing to it that he doesn’t get many is more important. To be clear, its not a Greg-hits-everything-to-BH & Pete-sees-a-FH-very-rarely dynamic. Staple rallies are biased towards Greg FH - Pete BH contest, but there’s substantial lof the other way around too

Pete not in undue rush to be aggressive with FH and rallies along normally much of time. 4 winners, 3 UEs is excellent, but Greg keeping his BH UEs down to same low 3 is important. His BH isn’t even pushed around by Pete’s FH, unlike the other way around. Relative win for Greg - and certainly one in light of how things go when shoe is on other foot (Pete’s BH getting pushed back and pressured into errors)

Pete’s 0/3 chip-charge returning. They’re not good returns. Floaty and Greg has time to runaround to play FHs. All 3 are met by FH inside-out passing winners. Not good returns, but still, plenty of credit to Greg for the perfect responses

At net, Greg with 12 volley winners, and 4 UEs (including a BH at net)
Pete has 5 passing winners (1 FH, 4 BHs - with 2 of the BHs returns), and 9 passing errors (2 FH, 7 BH)

Good winner/UE ratio for Greg and importantly, no FEs. He’s not faced with much that’s difficult but volleys the routine stuff well. Either putting them away for winners or leaving bad passing looks. And whatever tough stuff he does face, he makes. Almost always getting it to Pete’s BH (hence, just 3 FH finishers on pass to 9 BHs)

Not bad passing from Pete, given bad look passes. Would have to be spectacular to make more inroads, with nothing short of perfect pass winning points
All credit to Greg for how well he does at net

Sampras’ serve games
Normal big serving from Pete too of course, with a small caveat; After being broken at start of third set, he eases up on the pace of serves, but remains very successful behind it, with slower but wider placed serves at top drawer 83% in count

Pete Sampras serving 83% is a scary thought, but it is done with toned down force. Nice trivia though - when has Sampras lost a set while making 83% first serves?

With match long in counts virtually equal (Pete +1%), and Pete having that high a lot to end the match at toned down force, practically, Greg’s served better with full power serving all the way to have same in count

Pete serve-volleys almost always

Off first serve -
- ace/service winner rate - 28%, and 100% serve-volley otherwise, winning 71%

Off second serve, he has 1 ace, 6 doubles (18% off the time) and the rest…
- serve-volleys 70% of the time, winning 63%
- stays back 30%, winning 50%

On the ‘volley’, he has 15 winners, 6 UEs, 7 FEs
Greg on the pass has 12 winners (2 returns) and 11 passing errors

Those numbers would be disastrous for Pete, sans the fat 37% freebie cushion. They’re enough to lose him match comfily, even with it. And its for every reason there can be

6 UEs is drifting towards sloppy and they are simple balls
7 FEs speaks to some excellent passing from Greg. 5/7 of Pete’s FEs are half-volleys - and not necessarily off the first volley
He’s not great at handling the difficult stuff, missing more than he makes but he does volley the routine stuff with authority. If anything, beyond his norm, which isn’t particularly high

Fantastic hit rate on the pass for Greg, with almost a winner for every error. 3 of the winners are against chip-charge returns so don’t contribute to Pete getting broken, but even so, almost as many winners as passing errors against well punched and wide volleys or after forcing a weak one with the return is superb

Pete wins 4/8 staying back, largely covered by the baseline rally numbers presented earlier

Rallying to net (in both players service games), Greg’s 4/6, Pete 4/9
And 1 of the points Greg loses is a hopeless running-down-drop-volley at net
Covered by both players volley and pass figures

A last word on effort. Greg throws himself into everything with full commitment. Almost Michael Chang like. Pete’s 2 service winners would be aces if he weren’t (serves of that calibre against Pete go through for aces), he runs full speed for unlikely to be able to get racquet on ball situations. He even makes Pete play multiple OHs more than once - and its unusual for Pete to need more than one smash to finish a point

Pete playing normally for 2 sets. In third set, his efforts slack some after falling behind 2-0. It’s a slight dampener on the Rusedski show, but he’s been driven to it, his spirit broken by a top class showing

Match Progression
Is this the lumbering, imprecise/weak BH Greg Rusedski at the start of the match?

Powerful return + powerful running pass force BH1/2V from Pete second point of match. Then a BH dtl return pass winner. He scrambles like crazy for a hopeless ball point after that before Pete holds

In his first service game, neatly handles a FH1/2V, comes in from rally to knock away a well set up FHV winner and knocks away a perfect BH dtl/inside-out pass winner when Pete comes in after that. And finishes the love hold with an ace

Strong serving from both though, dominates. Pete levels game 7 at deuce from 40-0 down with 3 straight winners (FH inside-out, BH inside-in return pass and BH cc pass). Greg hits a beautiful, tough low volley to come away with point after that before going on to hold

Greg breaks for 5-4, in 8-point game beginning and ending with double faults. In between, Greg spanks 2 perfect passing winners. Pete’s unconscious, comical grimace tells the tale as Greg dispatches a BH dtl pass against a good, firm volley, but the full running FH dtl one out of the corner next point is even better

Greg serves out the set to 30 with 3 aces

Poor net errors (a BH and an OH) see Greg fall to 0-40 in his opening service game of second set. Pretty good second serve to body that Pete looks to take from inside court saves the first one, though its been marked a UE and wouldn’t be particularly difficult to put in play from a normal position. Greg manages to hold, with among other things, the best of his FH inside-out pass winners against a floated but deep chip-charge return

Greg wins consecutive baseline rallies in game 4 with error forcing FHs

Pete breaks for 4-2, with Greg missing 2 easy volleys and Pete scoring with a couple of FHs (1 winner, 1 error forced) and soon after, Pete serves for the set at 5-3
Game starts normally, with a good wide, winning volley but Pete throws it away after that with 2 double faults and 2 volley UEs (1 routine, 1 easy) - and things are back on serve

Gret starts dishing out big body serves regularly and they almost all force return errors

Tiebreak and both players are near perfect. Pete’s tested by low returns but makes half volleys to them to come away with couple early points. Gets a chip-charge return off too, but Greg again passes him FH inside-out
On serve at 4-4, Pete misses a regulation BHV. Greg stays back off the next first serve and Pete gets into the rally, before manufacturing an approach, but misses attempted delicate BHV. Greg wraps up with a big serve

Greg breaks to move ahead 2-0 in third set. 2 double fualts and a misses BH at net see Pete down 30-40. A great, wide second serve by Pete and Greg doing very well to guide the return on the full stretch wide to force low-ish BHV error

Game seems to take the wind out of Pete’s sails, who somewhat phones in rest of match. He also serves considerably less powerfully, but places them aggressively wide and makes 19/23 first serves

Needs those good serves to get out of 15-40 hole he digs himself into with some careless play to force Greg to serve it out
Which Greg does to love with 4 winners, fittingly, the last of them an ace

Summing up, if Greg Rusedski has played a better match, I haven’t heard of it. His showing wouldn’t be out of place even among the very best of Pete Sampras’

Big, effective serving is normal enough. The use of body serves is well done
Strong return-passing, running and stretching for everything, excellent winning passes against good, aggressive volleying, secure but commanding baseline play that he maintains control of with FH and consistent, damaging volleying probably isn’t so normal. All coming together at once - superb

Pete Sampras has his troubles with double faults and a few easy volley misses but plays well too, with big serving typically at center of it. And is outplayed in every area (serve, return, groundstrokes, volleys, passing) to the degree of seemingly having his will broken

 

[GuyForget]

Greg Rusedski beat Pete Sampras 6-4, 7-6(4), 6-3 in the Paris final, 1998 on carpet

It would be Rusedski’s only Masters title. Sampras was the defending champion

Rusedski won 99 points, Sampras 80

Rusedski serve-volleyed off most first serves and rarely off seconds, Sampras off all first serves and most seconds

Serve Stats
Rusedski...
- 1st serve percentage (55/92) 60%
- 1st serve points won (48/55) 87%
- 2nd serve points won (23/37) 62%
- Aces 18 (2 second serves)
- Double Faults 2
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (33/92) 36%

Sampras...
- 1st serve percentage (53/87) 61%
- 1st serve points won (42/53) 80%
- 2nd serve points won (17/34) 50%
- Aces 14 (1 not clean, 1 second serve), Service Winners 2
- Double Faults 6
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (32/87) 37%

Serve Patterns
Rusedski served...
- to FH 41%
- to BH 49%
- to Body 10%

Sampras served....
- to FH 30%
- to BH 70%

Return Stats
Rusedski made...
- 49 (10 FH, 39 BH)
- 2 Winners (2 BH)
- 16 Errors, all forced...
- 16 Forced (5 FH, 11 BH)
- Return Rate (49/81) 60%

Sampras made...
- 57 (23 FH, 34 BH), including 3 return-approaches
- 2 Winners (2 BH)
- 15 Errors, comprising...
- 2 Unforced (1 FH, 1 BH)
- 13 Forced (6 FH, 7 BH)
- Return Rate (57/90) 63%

Break Points
Rusedski 3/5 (4 games)
Sampras 1/5 (2 games)

Winners (including returns, excluding serves)
Rusedski 26 (8 FH, 6 BH, 7 FHV, 3 BHV, 2 OH)
Sampras 24 (5 FH, 5 BH, 4 FHV, 4 BHV, 6 OH)

Rusedski had 10 from serve volley points -
- 6 first volleys (2 FHV, 3 BHV, 1 OH)
- 4 second volley (3 FHV, 1 OH)

- 12 passes - 2 returns (2 BH) & 10 regular (6 FH, 4 BH)
- BH returns - 2 dtl
- FHs - 1 cc, 1 dtl, 4 inside-out
- BHs - 2 dtl, 1 dtl/inside-out, 1 longline (with opponent semi stopped playing, distracted by flickering lights according to commentary)

- regular (non-pass) FHs - 1 dtl, 1 inside-out

Sampras had 14 from serve volley points -
- 4 first 'volleys' (1 FHV, 1 BHV, 1 OH, 1 BH at net)... the BH at net can reasonably be called a BH1/2V
- 7 second volley (2 FHV, 3 BHV, 2 OH)
- 3 third 'volleys' (1 FHV, 2 OH)... 1 OH was on the bounce

- 5 passes - 2 returns (2 BH) & 3 regular (1 FH, 2 BH)
- BH returns - 2 inside-in
- FH - 1 dtl
- BHs - 1 cc, 1 dtl

- regular (non-pass) FHs - 1 dtl, 2 inside-out, 1 inside-in

Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Rusedski 22
- 9 Unforced (2 FH, 4 BH, 1 FHV, 1 BHV, 1 OH)... with 1 BH at net
- 13 Forced (8 FH, 5 BH).... with 1 BH running-down-drop-shot at net
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 48.9

Sampras 34
- 16 Unforced (3 FH, 8 BH, 1 FHV, 4 BHV)... with 1 BH at net
- 18 Forced (3 FH, 8 BH, 1 FH1/2V, 2 BHV, 4 BH1/2V)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 48.8

(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
Rusedski was...
- 33/45 (73%) at net, including...
- 29/39 (74%) serve-volleying, comprising..
- 27/33 (82%) off 1st serve and..
- 2/6 (33%) off 2nd
---
- 1/3 (33%) forced back/retreated

Sampras was...
- 43/69 (62%) at net, including...
- 39/57 (68%) serve-volleying, comprising..
- 27/38 (71%) off 1st serve and..
- 12/19 (63%) off 2nd
---
- 0/3 return-approaching
- 1/2 forced back

Match Report
Rusedski puts on an all court, all aspects of the game showing that even his opponent would have proud to have done to convincingly best a strong Sampras. To the point of seemingly breaking Sampras’ spirit even. Court is slow for ‘90s carpet (returning isn’t as difficult as that standard), but still quick (strong, slightly wide groundstrokes are damaging)

26 winners, 22 errors (9 UEs, 13 FEs) showing from Greg. Without overly high unreturneds (Greg has 36%, Pete 37%) to bolster it. He serve-volleys off first serves, stays back off seconds and is impressive at all of it - volleying, passing or trading groundstrokes. Top notch numbers and fair reflection of his showing

Sampras has some double faulting trouble, and misses a small few simple volleys. And is outplayed from baseline. Serve-volleys close to all the time. Beyond that? He’s fine, just normal high end Pete stuff with big serves, neat volleys and he isn’t allowed to return or pass well because Greg’s just too good, and is outplayed from baseline. After going down a break early in third set, his shoulders drop

Match is serve-volley based, with significant baseline action. With serve doing all kinds of heavy damage, of course

Serve-volleying frequencies -
- 1st serves - Pete 100%, Greg 85%
- 2nd serves - Pete 70%, Greg 18%

In-count (Greg 60%, Pete 61%) and unreturned serves (Greg 36%, Pete 37%) virtually same. Pete’s unreturneds are bolstered by his serve-volleying a lot more, so the freebies are relative win for Greg
That wins is augmented by double faults - Greg with just 2 or 5% of second serves, Pete 6 or 18%

Greg’s more successful at net, too
He’s got 12 winners, 4 UEs there and wins 73% of his points
Pete has 15 winners, 6 UEs, 7 FEs and wins 62%

Similar ratio of winners and UEs and major difference is in net FEs, which speaks to reason for Greg’s superiority being his passing better (including with the return)

Finally, Greg getting better of baseline rallies, where he has 5 UEs to Pete’s 10. His FH is particularly good and he controls play to having it be in directions he prefers. His FH has match low 2 UEs, Pete’s BH has match high 7 (excluding a net shot)

Gist - Greg outstanding and Greg better than Pete in virtually all areas, QED

Rusedski’s serve games
No surprises in the big serving, but couple of noteable points
One is use of body serves, the other is big second serving
He’s got couple of second serve aces (he has same number of double faults). And during one passage in particular, utilizes big body serves to good effect
Serves 10% to the body (Pete has none). Mostly first serves and they’re accurate and jam Pete up who usually can’t make the return
The lot of body serves (and the difference with opponent, who has none) is hindrance to Greg having more aces

Off first serves, Greg with 29% aces. Pete has similar 28% (including 2 service winners and 1 not clean ace). With Pete serving potential aces all the time, Greg body serves 10% of the time, that rate favours Greg in terms of sending down unreturnables, with the body serves also usually not coming back

2 seconds serves aces speaks to big second serving too. Pete looks to creep forward to on or inside baseline to attack with the return. He’s left to just block returns back on the rise. Would be normal enough returns from normal position that’d yield Greg with good third ball position. From where Pete takes them, they’re difficult returns

So Pete always under gun returning. Against first serves, naturally. Against seconds, due to his looking to attack. Alternative of returning neutrally would likely yield Greg decent initiative to start rallies, so not a bad move

Off first serve -
- Greg has 29% aces and for rest…
- serve-volleys 85% of the time, winning 82%
- stays back 15% of time, winning 5/6 or 83%

No pointed reason to stay back, he just does it now and then to mix things up. Draws return errors anyway, which isn’t surprising with that serve. Thorough dominance whatever he does - he knocks away volleys nicely, misses very little and leaves bad look passes

Off second serve -
- Greg has both aces and double faults 4% of time and for rest…
- stays back 82% of time, winning 70%
- serve-volleys 18% of time, winning 2/6 or 33%

Little surprising he’s done badly serve-volleying, though that can be put down to small sample size. Like with the first serve stay backs, just variation he throws in and low winning rate not too important

yes remember this, great win for Greg, im still gutted he didnt win the USO in 97, monster torque on his serve

 

[buscemi]

This felt like Rusedski at the peak of his powers. I think he would have won WTF shortly thereafter if not for the tiebreaker rules. Rusedski replaced an injured Agassi and went 2-0, but finished third in his group behind Corretja and Henman (whom Rusedski straight setted) b/c they both went 2-1 and played 3 matches vs. Rusedski only playing 2. Corretja went on to take the title.