Marat Safin beat Harel Levy 6-2, 6-3 in the Canada final, 2000 on hard court in Toronto
It was Safin’s first Masters title and would turn out to be his only one on outdoor hard court. He’d go onto win his maiden Slam at US Open shortly after. Levy was a qualifier
Safin won 59 points, Levy 34
Levy serve-volleyed off most first serves
Serve Stats
Safin...
- 1st serve percentage (23/48) 48%
- 1st serve points won (19/23) 83%
- 2nd serve points won (17/25) 68%
- Aces 3
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (12/48) 25%
Levy...
- 1st serve percentage (27/45) 60%
- 1st serve points won (15/27) 56%
- 2nd serve points won (7/18) 39%
- Aces 3
- Double Faults 3
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (12/45) 27%
Serve Patterns
Safin served...
- to FH 29%
- to BH 67%
- to Body 4%
Levy served...
- to FH 29%
- to BH 55%
- to Body 17%
Return Stats
Safin made...
- 30 (11 FH, 19 BH)
- 9 Errors, comprising...
- 2 Unforced (1 FH, 1 BH)
- 7 Forced (7 BH)
- Return Rate (30/42) 71%
Levy made...
- 36 (9 FH, 27 BH), including 2 runaround FHs
- 9 Errors, comprising...
- 4 Unforced (3 FH, 1 BH)
- 5 Forced (3 FH, 2 BH)
- Return Rate (36/48) 75%
Break Points
Safin 4/6 (4 games)
Levy 1/5 (2 games)
Winners (including returns, excluding serves)
Safin 20 (7 FH, 5 BH, 5 FHV, 3 BHV)
Levy 7 (3 BH, 2 FHV, 1 BHV, 1 OH)
Safin's FHs - 5 dtl (1 pass), 1 inside-out, 1 inside-in
- BHs - 2 cc (1 pass), 2 dtl passes, 1 drop shot
- 1 FHV was a swinging longline shot from behind service line but has been marked a net point
Levy had 2 from serve-volley points - a first volley BHV & a third volley OH
- BHs - 2 dtl (1 pass), 1 lob
Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Safin 15
- 10 Unforced (8 FH, 1 BH, 1 FHV)
- 5 Forced (1 FH, 2 BH, 2 BHV)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 46
Levy 24
- 11 Unforced (3 FH, 7 BH, 1 FHV)
- 13 Forced (7 FH, 5 BH, 1 FH1/2V)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 45.5
(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
Safin was 17/23 (74%) at net
Levy was...
- 13/19 (68%) at net, including...
- 9/15 (60%) serve-volleying, all 1st serves
---
- 1/1 retreated
Match Report
Mismatch type encounter, with Safin easily overpowering Levy from back and coming to net to finish as he wants. Levy serve-volleys to decent effect, but is a category or 2 weaker than opponent from baseline. Court is normal
Levy breaks to start the match in a lovely game of sweet BHs and net play
Its all downhill from there though. Gives back the break to love in a terrible game. And Safin more or less does whatever he wants after that
What he wants apparently is to volley. Saf’s at net 23/93 points of the match or 25%. Sans aces, double faults and Levy’s serve-volleys, that rises to 33%. Unusually net thirsty showing from him
Safin with 20 winners, 15 errors (10 UE, 5 FE). Not to mention forcing 13 errors. Levy has 7 winners, 11 UEs, while forcing 5 errors
Levy wins 22/45 service points to hold 4 times, get broken four. One of the holds being a pseudo tank. Meanwhile, his only break chance after the deceptive opening is nervy serve-out, where Saf falls to 0-40
Harel Levy has an average serve, and serve-volleys 63% off the time of first serves. Nice volleys, with good touch. Returns consistently, though with below average force (and helped by Saf having low in count of 48%). Saf's good kick second serves draw soft returns from Levy too
His FH is weak, spinny shot. Reactions and shot tolerance not good. Firm, wid-ish shots from Safin has him rushing about like blasted shots to corners and his ‘gets’ to these are weak
1-handed BH is pretty shot and he’s not afraid to go dtl with it. He’s not unduly out-hit on that side, but is more error prone, without the errors taking too long to come
Safin serves within himself and at low in count. Easily overpowers Levy with FH, and has just 1 BH UE. Comes to net to finish off, rather looking for winners from the back. Its very effective move
Doesn’t return-pass too heavily and returns just firmly when Levy stays back
In count - Saf 48%, Levy 60%
Both have 3 aces (Saf 13% off first serves, Levy 11%)
Unreturned serves - Saf 25%, Levy 27%
Levy’s freebies helped by serve-volleying 63% off first serves (and Saf semi-tanking a game near the end)
15/19 of Levy’s net points are serve-volleys. He’s a perfect 4/4 rallying to net. He doesn’t have much scope to come in once rally gets under way as he’s pushed behind baseline
At net, Levy with 4 winners, 1 UE, 1 FE
He forces just 1 passing error, while Saf has 4 passing winners
Just good enough, firm returning by Saf to not leave volleys that can be putaway. He doens’t have a return winner. That’s a very good passing yield for him, given he’s not drawing weak volley with the return (it would be good yield even if he were). Normal passing looks for Saf (which means less than 50% shot of getting ball through), so job well done with 4 winners, 1 error
In baseline rallies, Saf has 8 winners, forces 3 errors, 9 UEs
Levy has 1 winner, forces 2 errors, 10 UEs
Rallying to net, Saf is 17/23, Levy 4/4
Saf at net has 8 winners, 1 UE, 2 FEs. He forces 9 passing errors, while Levy has 2 passing winners
Ground consistency is flip -
- FH UEs - Saf 8, Levy 3
- BH UEs - Saf 1, Levy 7
Some sloppiness to Saf’s FH, but its also easily outhitting Levy’s spinny, reactive shot. Doesn’t even have to hit too hard or wide to do so. Most of Saf’s approaches are set up by FH, so more going on to that contest than UEs
Saf’s FH also with match high 7 winners, only 1 a pass. 4 are dtl, which is again, is unusually high proportion. Doing whatever he wants, basically, in bullying a smaller shot. Levy’s FH has no winner of any kind
BH contest is less of a mismatch. UEs do make up bulk of point ending shots there, so the 1-7 advantage for Saf is most important thing. Saf hitting firmly, less than ‘powerfully’. More strongly than Levy, but not pressuring him much. More just a basic consistency issue for Levy than being pressured or pushed around on the BH
Levy does like BH dtl, and hits some nice, winning ones, including a winner. Saf sticks to cc shots off the BH. Generally, he’s one of the trigger happiest of BH dtl’ers, but he’s content to wait for errors here, while bossing action with FH
Easy time at net for Saf. His approaches do much of the work (with Levy offering poor resistance) and finishing is simple enough
Match Progression
Its drizzling at start and continues to do so for much of first set. Drizzle causes short break, while staff towle downthe lines. It doesn’t seem a good idea to play on a hardcourt with even the small amount of drizzle about
Beautiful game from Levy to break out the game
Saf misses BH slice to open the match, which means he has no more BH UEs for rest of the day
Levy with BH dtl winner from routine position, a beautifuly lob winner after retreating from net and setting up FHV net-to-net winner with a drop shot (which Saf is slow to reach)
To seal the break, he strikes a winning, wrong-footing FH dtl
Hands back the break to love - 2 double fault, easy FHV miss and FH inside-in one
Levy starts game 3 with running BH dtl pass winner and holds for 2-2 with a couple of volley winners after that (1 of them set up by BH line approach, the other serve-volleyers)
Saf wins next 5 games to move to 6-2, 1-0
Couple of passing winners, couple of net points in first break in deuce game. And next 1 is to love, almost toying with Levy (net point, BH cc winner after a strong BH dtl return, inside-out BH drop shot winner)
Saf wins 13 points in row in bridging first and second set
Just the one break in second set which comes in game 6. Saf starts game coming away with FH dtl winner after exchanging very sharply angled FH cc’s and ends with a winning BH longline shot to end a long rally. Levy with a couple BH UEs in between
3 FH UEs see Saf down 0-40 on the serve-out, before he gets it together with strong serves and bullying his way to net to win next 5 points and bring the curtain down
Summing up, easy win for Safin. Even contained, his FH bullies Levy thoroughly and he comes to net to finish at his pleasure. Bit of casualness in some return games and looses errors that he can more than afford to go with it
Levy doesn’t look up to this standard. The extent to which he’s bossed about from baseline is probably more than typical qualifier vs elite baseliner contest. He volleys with sweet touch and has a nice looking BH but is essentially, out of his league here with reactions, shot tolerance, strength of shot not upto handling what its tasked with
Stats for Safn’s quarter-final with Pete Sampras - Match Stats/Report - Safin vs Sampras, Canadian Open quarter-final, 2000 | Talk Tennis
It was Safin’s first Masters title and would turn out to be his only one on outdoor hard court. He’d go onto win his maiden Slam at US Open shortly after. Levy was a qualifier
Safin won 59 points, Levy 34
Levy serve-volleyed off most first serves
Serve Stats
Safin...
- 1st serve percentage (23/48) 48%
- 1st serve points won (19/23) 83%
- 2nd serve points won (17/25) 68%
- Aces 3
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (12/48) 25%
Levy...
- 1st serve percentage (27/45) 60%
- 1st serve points won (15/27) 56%
- 2nd serve points won (7/18) 39%
- Aces 3
- Double Faults 3
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (12/45) 27%
Serve Patterns
Safin served...
- to FH 29%
- to BH 67%
- to Body 4%
Levy served...
- to FH 29%
- to BH 55%
- to Body 17%
Return Stats
Safin made...
- 30 (11 FH, 19 BH)
- 9 Errors, comprising...
- 2 Unforced (1 FH, 1 BH)
- 7 Forced (7 BH)
- Return Rate (30/42) 71%
Levy made...
- 36 (9 FH, 27 BH), including 2 runaround FHs
- 9 Errors, comprising...
- 4 Unforced (3 FH, 1 BH)
- 5 Forced (3 FH, 2 BH)
- Return Rate (36/48) 75%
Break Points
Safin 4/6 (4 games)
Levy 1/5 (2 games)
Winners (including returns, excluding serves)
Safin 20 (7 FH, 5 BH, 5 FHV, 3 BHV)
Levy 7 (3 BH, 2 FHV, 1 BHV, 1 OH)
Safin's FHs - 5 dtl (1 pass), 1 inside-out, 1 inside-in
- BHs - 2 cc (1 pass), 2 dtl passes, 1 drop shot
- 1 FHV was a swinging longline shot from behind service line but has been marked a net point
Levy had 2 from serve-volley points - a first volley BHV & a third volley OH
- BHs - 2 dtl (1 pass), 1 lob
Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Safin 15
- 10 Unforced (8 FH, 1 BH, 1 FHV)
- 5 Forced (1 FH, 2 BH, 2 BHV)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 46
Levy 24
- 11 Unforced (3 FH, 7 BH, 1 FHV)
- 13 Forced (7 FH, 5 BH, 1 FH1/2V)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 45.5
(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
Safin was 17/23 (74%) at net
Levy was...
- 13/19 (68%) at net, including...
- 9/15 (60%) serve-volleying, all 1st serves
---
- 1/1 retreated
Match Report
Mismatch type encounter, with Safin easily overpowering Levy from back and coming to net to finish as he wants. Levy serve-volleys to decent effect, but is a category or 2 weaker than opponent from baseline. Court is normal
Levy breaks to start the match in a lovely game of sweet BHs and net play
Its all downhill from there though. Gives back the break to love in a terrible game. And Safin more or less does whatever he wants after that
What he wants apparently is to volley. Saf’s at net 23/93 points of the match or 25%. Sans aces, double faults and Levy’s serve-volleys, that rises to 33%. Unusually net thirsty showing from him
Safin with 20 winners, 15 errors (10 UE, 5 FE). Not to mention forcing 13 errors. Levy has 7 winners, 11 UEs, while forcing 5 errors
Levy wins 22/45 service points to hold 4 times, get broken four. One of the holds being a pseudo tank. Meanwhile, his only break chance after the deceptive opening is nervy serve-out, where Saf falls to 0-40
Harel Levy has an average serve, and serve-volleys 63% off the time of first serves. Nice volleys, with good touch. Returns consistently, though with below average force (and helped by Saf having low in count of 48%). Saf's good kick second serves draw soft returns from Levy too
His FH is weak, spinny shot. Reactions and shot tolerance not good. Firm, wid-ish shots from Safin has him rushing about like blasted shots to corners and his ‘gets’ to these are weak
1-handed BH is pretty shot and he’s not afraid to go dtl with it. He’s not unduly out-hit on that side, but is more error prone, without the errors taking too long to come
Safin serves within himself and at low in count. Easily overpowers Levy with FH, and has just 1 BH UE. Comes to net to finish off, rather looking for winners from the back. Its very effective move
Doesn’t return-pass too heavily and returns just firmly when Levy stays back
In count - Saf 48%, Levy 60%
Both have 3 aces (Saf 13% off first serves, Levy 11%)
Unreturned serves - Saf 25%, Levy 27%
Levy’s freebies helped by serve-volleying 63% off first serves (and Saf semi-tanking a game near the end)
15/19 of Levy’s net points are serve-volleys. He’s a perfect 4/4 rallying to net. He doesn’t have much scope to come in once rally gets under way as he’s pushed behind baseline
At net, Levy with 4 winners, 1 UE, 1 FE
He forces just 1 passing error, while Saf has 4 passing winners
Just good enough, firm returning by Saf to not leave volleys that can be putaway. He doens’t have a return winner. That’s a very good passing yield for him, given he’s not drawing weak volley with the return (it would be good yield even if he were). Normal passing looks for Saf (which means less than 50% shot of getting ball through), so job well done with 4 winners, 1 error
In baseline rallies, Saf has 8 winners, forces 3 errors, 9 UEs
Levy has 1 winner, forces 2 errors, 10 UEs
Rallying to net, Saf is 17/23, Levy 4/4
Saf at net has 8 winners, 1 UE, 2 FEs. He forces 9 passing errors, while Levy has 2 passing winners
Ground consistency is flip -
- FH UEs - Saf 8, Levy 3
- BH UEs - Saf 1, Levy 7
Some sloppiness to Saf’s FH, but its also easily outhitting Levy’s spinny, reactive shot. Doesn’t even have to hit too hard or wide to do so. Most of Saf’s approaches are set up by FH, so more going on to that contest than UEs
Saf’s FH also with match high 7 winners, only 1 a pass. 4 are dtl, which is again, is unusually high proportion. Doing whatever he wants, basically, in bullying a smaller shot. Levy’s FH has no winner of any kind
BH contest is less of a mismatch. UEs do make up bulk of point ending shots there, so the 1-7 advantage for Saf is most important thing. Saf hitting firmly, less than ‘powerfully’. More strongly than Levy, but not pressuring him much. More just a basic consistency issue for Levy than being pressured or pushed around on the BH
Levy does like BH dtl, and hits some nice, winning ones, including a winner. Saf sticks to cc shots off the BH. Generally, he’s one of the trigger happiest of BH dtl’ers, but he’s content to wait for errors here, while bossing action with FH
Easy time at net for Saf. His approaches do much of the work (with Levy offering poor resistance) and finishing is simple enough
Match Progression
Its drizzling at start and continues to do so for much of first set. Drizzle causes short break, while staff towle downthe lines. It doesn’t seem a good idea to play on a hardcourt with even the small amount of drizzle about
Beautiful game from Levy to break out the game
Saf misses BH slice to open the match, which means he has no more BH UEs for rest of the day
Levy with BH dtl winner from routine position, a beautifuly lob winner after retreating from net and setting up FHV net-to-net winner with a drop shot (which Saf is slow to reach)
To seal the break, he strikes a winning, wrong-footing FH dtl
Hands back the break to love - 2 double fault, easy FHV miss and FH inside-in one
Levy starts game 3 with running BH dtl pass winner and holds for 2-2 with a couple of volley winners after that (1 of them set up by BH line approach, the other serve-volleyers)
Saf wins next 5 games to move to 6-2, 1-0
Couple of passing winners, couple of net points in first break in deuce game. And next 1 is to love, almost toying with Levy (net point, BH cc winner after a strong BH dtl return, inside-out BH drop shot winner)
Saf wins 13 points in row in bridging first and second set
Just the one break in second set which comes in game 6. Saf starts game coming away with FH dtl winner after exchanging very sharply angled FH cc’s and ends with a winning BH longline shot to end a long rally. Levy with a couple BH UEs in between
3 FH UEs see Saf down 0-40 on the serve-out, before he gets it together with strong serves and bullying his way to net to win next 5 points and bring the curtain down
Summing up, easy win for Safin. Even contained, his FH bullies Levy thoroughly and he comes to net to finish at his pleasure. Bit of casualness in some return games and looses errors that he can more than afford to go with it
Levy doesn’t look up to this standard. The extent to which he’s bossed about from baseline is probably more than typical qualifier vs elite baseliner contest. He volleys with sweet touch and has a nice looking BH but is essentially, out of his league here with reactions, shot tolerance, strength of shot not upto handling what its tasked with
Stats for Safn’s quarter-final with Pete Sampras - Match Stats/Report - Safin vs Sampras, Canadian Open quarter-final, 2000 | Talk Tennis
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