Match Stats/Report - Sampras vs Courier, Year End Championship finals, 1991

Waspsting

Hall of Fame
Pete Sampras beat Jim Courier 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-3, 6-4 in the Year End Championship final, 1991 on carpet in Frankfurt, Germany

It was the first of Sampras' 5 YEC titles

Sampras won 135 points, Courier 121

Sampras serve-volleyed off all but 2 first serves


Serve Stats
Sampras...
- 1st serve percentage (72/116) 62%
- 1st serve points won (52/72) 72%
- 2nd serve points won (28/44) 64%
- Aces 9, Service Winners 3
- Double Faults 5
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (29/116) 25%

Courier...
- 1st serve percentage (86/140) 61%
- 1st serve points won (58/86) 67%
- 2nd serve points won (27/54) 50%
- Aces 4
- Double Faults 2
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (27/140) 19%


Serve Pattern
Sampras served...
- to FH 41%
- to BH 56%

- to Body 4%

Courier served...
- to FH 30%
- to BH 64%
- to Body 6%
 
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Waspsting

Hall of Fame
Return Stats
Sampras made...
- 111 (32 FH, 79 BH), including 1 runaround FH & 4 return-approaches
- 23 Errors, comprising...

- 6 Unforced (2 FH, 4 BH)
- 17 Forced (8 FH, 9 BH)
- Return Rate (111/138) 80%

Courier made...
- 82 (34 FH, 48 BH), including 2 runaround FHs & 3 return-approaches
- 3 Winners (2 FH, 1 BH), including 1 runaround FH
- 17 Errors, comprising...

- 3 Unforced (2 FH, 1 BH)
- 14 Forced (5 FH, 9 BH)
- Return Rate (82/111) 74%

Break Points
Sampras 4/12 (7 games)
Courier 4/5 (4 games)
 

Waspsting

Hall of Fame
Winners (including returns, excluding serves)
Sampras 51 (13 FH, 12 BH, 11 FHV, 7 BHV, 1 BH1/2V, 6 OH, 1 BHOH)
Courier 30 ( 17 FH, 7 BH, 4 BHV, 2 OH)

Sampras had 18 from serve-volley points

- 11 first 'volleys' (3 FHV, 4 BHV, 1 OH, 1 FH at net, 2 BH at net)
- 7 second volleys (4 FHV, 2 BHV, 1 OH)

- 11 passes (5 FH, 6 BH)
- FHs - 2 cc and 3 dtl
- BHs - 5 cc and 1 dtl

- non-pass groundstrokes -
- FHs - 1 cc, 1 dtl, 4 inside-out and 1 inside-in
- BHs - 1 cc, 1 dtl, 1 dtl/inside-out and 1 inside-out

Courier's FHs - 6 cc (2 passes, 1 return), 3 dtl (2 passes), 3 inside-out, 3 inside-in (1 return) and 2 at net (1 running-down-drop shot)
- BHs - 1 cc pass, 4 dtl passes, 1 inside-out/dtl and 1 inside-in return pass

- 1 first volley of a second serve-volley point (1 BHV)

Errors
(excluding returns and serves)
Sampras 59
- 21 Unforced (7 FH, 9 BH, 3 FHV, 2 BHV)
- 38 Forced (14 FH, 13 BH, 4 FHV, 3 BHV, 4 BH1/2V)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 48.6

Courier 53
- 22 Unforced (16 FH, 3 BH, 2 FHV, 1 BHV)
- 31 Forced (14 FH, 13 BH, 1 FHV, 1 FH1/2V, 2 BH1/2V)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 47.7

(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)
 

Waspsting

Hall of Fame
Net Points & Serve-Volley
Sampras was...
- 62/90 (69%) at net, including...
- 39/58 (67%) serve-volleying, all first serves

--

- 1/4 (25%) return-approaching
- 0/1 forced back/retreating

Courier was...
- 24/45 (53%) at net, including...
- 5/8 (63%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 4/7 (57%) off 1st serve and...
- 1/1 off 2nd serve

--

- 2/3 return-approaching
- 1/1 forced back/retreating

Match Report
Great match and fantastic performance from Sampras. Its one of those rare matches when a top player plays well, but is still blown away by a fellow top but also zoning attacking player

Court looks medium paced, with bounce on the low side, typically hip height bounce with slices staying under knee level. And it's not a match of uniform play. Courier tramples Sampras in the first set with strong returns and commanding baseline play. He continues to dominate the baseline action in the second, but Sampras' net play goes up a notch and its Pete who has most of the chances in return games. He finally snatches one in game 11 but fails to serve out the set, sending it into the tiebreak lottery

From the tiebreak onwards though, Sampras is in the zone - returning, passing, groundstrokes, volleying, movement.... everything clicking. Its testament to Courier's quality that he only loses the last two sets 3 and 4.... from the feel of the action, it could have been breadsticks and bagels. Number of points served for the match - Sampras 116, Courier 140 - coupled with both men breaking the other 4 times, indicates exactly how much more easily Sampras held serve. The impressions is augmented still further by the points on his serve games being considerably shorter

Serve & Return
Service percentage is near identical (Sampras 62%, Courier 61%), but Sampras serve is much bigger. Sampras' second serves are probably more forceful than Courier's firsts. And Sampras follows his first serve to net all but always (stays back twice)

Its in this context that one can appreciate just how well Courier returned. 74% return rate against Pete Sampras serving well is very impressive. And his returns are forceful too - he seems to read the serve well, and gets good strong swings in to them

Courier's serve is a bit odd. His first serve is relatively ordinary (doesn't do much damage for a first serve), but his second is very good (isn't easy to attack)

Sampras is able to return reasonably comfortably for the first two sets. In the next two, his returning jumps up a level (along with everything else).... he makes fewer errors and hits more cleanly. In this latter part, Courier has to start rallies from neutral positions frequently (he usually had advantageous positions after the serve earlier in the match)
 

Waspsting

Hall of Fame
Baseline, Net Play & Movement
My memory of Courier's play is of his being unnecessarily FH heavy in his baseline game - and we see that here. Of course, he has a strong, heavy and damaging FH (cc and inside-out being his preferred attacking plays), but I always thought his BH was solid and steady enough that all that running round it to hit FHs wasn't the best play

He does that regular running round BHs here and tends to look for inside-out shots to break down Sampras' BH. While certainly having the power edge in these FH i-o vs BH cc rallies, he also leaves the court open... and eventually, Sampras starts capitilizing by manufacturing approaches. In my opinion, Courier had a good enough BH to outlast Sampras BH-BH from a standard baseline position.... or make it harder for Pete to escape these smothering rallies

Note Courier with 16 FH UEs (Sampras has 16 FH and BH combined)… much of that is from overusing the FH.

While solid, Courier tends to avoid playing BHs whenever he can. His BH looks secure compared to Pete's, which has a frail look to it at times. Courier also slices well - something I don't recall him doing much of

Sampras stays back on all his second serves. Initially, even with the advantage his second serve gives him, he gets bossed about from the baseline. From the second set onward thought Sampras looks to come into net from baseline situations... this is a key to his changing the flow of the match. With Sampras at net, its touch and go if Courier can win the point with a pass

Sampras volleys well enough in first half, but Courier's passes are also strong (11 FEs in forecourt for Sampras) enough to offer ample resistance. in second half, Sampras scarce misses any volley - low or high - and invariably places them in corners. Just too good... nothing Courier could do on the pass against play of that quality

Courier himself comes to net a fair bit. 45 times to be exact. I remember him as a only-comes-to-net-to-shake-hands kind of player. Serve volleys a few times (including once on second serve, which is 1 more than Sampras did) and even return approaches effectively. He's about average in the forecourt, though his approaches are something more than that. 53% at net doesn't look great (and it isn't) but that number went down as the match wore on and Sampras started zoning on the pass

From the tiebreak onwards, Sampras hits 33 winners in play, while making 7 unforced errors (and most of those are on unimportant points). His volleying is near perfect - speed to get to net, covering the net and the volley shots themselves. On the baseline, he's roughly even in neutral situations and goes ahead due to Courier's errors from aggressive shots. Attacking baseline stuff - he also has an edge - especially when he combines it with approaches. His movements are as fast as they are smooth, seemingly soundlessly racing to the ball and even on the run, hitting counter shots to Courier's attacking shots that go for winners or force errors. His returning is more sure.... Courier still can't earn cheap points, but now he can't even get much advantage with the first shot. And he hits some glorious passing shots

Pete's FH is deadly from any situation in this zoning phase. The BH is consistent all round (and not at all an invitation to be attacked) and precise on the pass. He starts holding even with Courier's FH inside-outs and even flips the script, hitting FH inside-outs of his own to Courier's BH

One can't blame Courier for letting it all get to him. There's plenty of shows of frustration, including a huge roar. When Sampras nets a makeable BH pass dtl (he was regularly making difficult passes at this point), Courier blows a kiss with both hands to the Universe in appreciation. On another point, Courier simply kicks away on the full a Sampras volley, that he could have reached if he'd bent forward to... but what's the point? He's been doing that all night, only to have the next volley go for a winner

Summing up, solid stuff from Jim Courier - returns superbly, passes well, defends stoutly, strong off the ground and not shy of taking the net. But Pete Sampras goes into another dimension of playing level - attacking of nature and near flawless of execution - and races away with the win. One of Sampras' very best all court matches
 

Moose Malloy

G.O.A.T.
This was a pretty important win for sampras. He struggled with shin splints early in the year and after his tame loss to courier at USO, many thought he may be a one slam wonder.

This match and the 94 YEC final are 2 of my favorite matches of his. They may be more entertaining than any of his grand slam finals.
Nice balance with his winners here -13 fh, 12 bh

His win over Lendl in the semis was also in the zone type stuff. I recall some calling it one of the best indoor matches that anyone had played. I think @slice serve ace did stats on it.

So why do you think sampras didn't S&V on 2nd serve even once? I get that it wasn't a part of his general strategy early in his career, but you think he would have recognized that he was volleying great and eliciting enough weak returns off his 2nd serve to at least try it a few times. Guess it didn't matter ultimately.

And yeah courier came to net a lot more than his rep. Way more than agassi in general. amazing improvement for him in '91, started the year ranked 25, ended it #2.
 
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Waspsting

Hall of Fame
So why do you think sampras didn't S&V on 2nd serve even once? I get that it wasn't a part of his general strategy early in his career, but you think he would have recognized that he was volleying great and eliciting enough weak returns off his 2nd serve to at least try it a few times. Guess it didn't matter ultimately.

Who knows? No reason not to give it a shot

Then again, he could probably have won last two sets staying back off first serves... we could just as easily wonder why he didn't do that

Few things that struck me about Sampras' approach choices

From what I've seen recently in that period, he -
- virtually always serve-volleyed off first serve
- almost never off second
- didn't look to come in off rally situations

So I was struck by his changing up point 3. Which he did after the first set, where he was hammered

Non-S/V approach in set 1 - 4
set 2 - 11
set 3 - 10
set 4 - 7

...which shows some ability to change strategy mid-match. so why not S/V off second serve a bit too?

I think Sampras fancied himself a strong baseliner and maybe got a kick out of trading shots from the back with the baseline heavies like Courier, Lendl, Agassi. Not unlike Boris Becker.... though I don't know of Sampras going so far as to eschew S/V off first serves on non-clay just for kicks, like Boris sometimes would

Unrelated, another general impression I have of Sampras of the period was his confidence was particularly sensitive to results. He loses a set, or a tiebreak or gets broken... he gets droopy and scales back on aggression, cuts back on whatever lost him the set or tiebreak or service game etc.

Here, we see the flip side of that. Though the better player in set 2, its not by much and he's still well behind purely from the baseline

But winning the tiebreak seems to give him a shot in both arms... the change in his intensity, enthusiasm, energy levels thereon is palpable
 

krosero

Legend
Fourth straight year that the loser of the opening set had come back to win this final.

Number of points served for the match - Sampras 116, Courier 140 - coupled with both men breaking the other 4 times, indicates exactly how much more easily Sampras held serve. The impressions is augmented still further by the points on his serve games being considerably shorter
116/140 is a fairly big difference but in this case it's even more pronounced, because Courier served only 19 service games, Sampras 21.

Each man served 6 points in the tiebreak, so Sampras served 110 points in 21 service games, an average of 5.2 points per game. Courier served 134 points in 19 service games, an average of 7.1 points per game.
 

Waspsting

Hall of Fame
Fourth straight year that the loser of the opening set had come back to win this final.

And the lower ranked, nominal underdog... a streak that continued 'til '94

Have you ever noticed all 5 times Boris Becker played Pete Sampras in the round robins... the loser of the match went on to win the tournament?
 
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