Match Stats/Report - Sampras vs Korda, Indian Wells final, 1994

[Waspsting]

Pete Sampras beat Petr Korda 4-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the Indian Wells final, 1994 on hard court

Sampras had recently won the Australian Open and would go onto win Miami shortly after. Korda was seeded 10th

Sampras won 157 points, Korda 139

Sampras serve-volleyed off all first serves and occasionally off seconds

Serve Stats
Sampras...
- 1st serve percentage (92/147) 63%
- 1st serve points won (70/92) 76%
- 2nd serve points won (28/55) 51%
- Aces 23
- Double Faults 10
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (52/147) 35%

Korda...
- 1st serve percentage (89/149) 60%
- 1st serve points won (60/89) 67%
- 2nd serve points won (30/60) 50%
- Aces 9
- Double Faults 6
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (35/149) 23%

Serve Patterns
Sampras served...
- to FH 29%
- to BH 68%
- to Body 3%

Korda served...
- to FH 27%
- to BH 70%
- to Body 3%

Return Stats
Sampras made...
- 108 (32 FH, 76 BH), including 4 return-approaches
- 1 Winner (1 BH)
- 26 Errors, comprising...
- 16 Unforced (5 FH, 11 BH)
- 10 Forced (3 FH, 7 BH)
- Return Rate (108/143) 76%

Korda made...
- 85 (23 FH, 62 BH), including 1 return-approach
- 3 Winners (2 FH, 1 BH)
- 29 Errors, comprising...
- 2 Unforced (2 BH)
- 27 Forced (4 FH, 23 BH)
- Return Rate (85/137) 62%

Break Points
Sampras 5/15 (8 games)
Korda 3/12 (8 games)

Winners (including returns, excluding serves)
Sampras 28 (10 FH, 4 BH, 3 FHV, 3 BHV, 8 OH)
Korda 32 (15 FH, 9 BH, 4 FHV, 2 BHV, 2 OH)

Sampras had 12 from serve-volley points -
- 4 first 'volleys' (1 BHV, 1 OH, 1 FH at net, 1 BH at net)
- 8 second volleys (2 FHV, 2 BHV, 4 OH)

- 1 from a return-approach point, an OH

- 2 other OHs on the bounce - 1 at net, 1 from no-man's land

- FHs - 3 cc (2 passes), 2 dtl and 4 inside-out
- BHs (all passes) - 2 cc and 1 inside-in return

Korda had 14 passes - 3 returns (2 FH, 1 BH) and 11 regular (5 FH, 6 BH)
- FH returns - 1 cc and 1 dtl
- regular FHs - 2 cc (1 at net) and 3 dtl
- BH return - 1 dtl
- regular BHs - 3 cc and 3 dtl

- regular (non-pass) FHs - 4 cc, 1 dtl, 1 inside-out and 2 inside-out/dtl
- regular BHs - 1 cc and 1 dtl

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

Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Sampras 62
- 37 Unforced (20 FH, 7 BH, 4 FHV, 4 BHV, 2 OH)
- 25 Forced (7 FH, 11 BH, 1 FHV, 2 FH1/2V, 4 BHV)... with 1 BH running-down-drop-shot at net
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 50

Korda 71
- 43 Unforced (21 FH, 21 BH, 1 BHV)
- 28 Forced (9 FH, 18 BH, 1 BHV)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 45.6

(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
Sampras was...
- 64/97 (66%) at net, including...
- 54/84 (68%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 47/69 (68%) off 1st serve and...
- 7/11 (64%) off 2nd serve
---
- 1/4 (25%) return-approaching
- 1/1 retreated

Korda was...
- 23/31 (74%) at net, including...
- 3/5 (60%) serve-volleying, all 1st serves
---
- 1/1 return-approaching
- 0/1 forced

Match Report
A sluggish, mundane encounter on a slow-ish hard court. Sampras' serve is the only outstanding feature and with other things being equal (and fairly average), gives him a little advantage in prospects of coming out on top, which he eventually does

The court is a bit odd. Though distinctly on the slow side, the bounce isn't high. Hip and thigh high groundstrokes are the norm

Sampras serve-volleys 100% off first serves and 24% of the time off seconds. Korda plays from the baseline. So action is two fold - Sampras serve-volleying vs Korda return-passing and baseline contests

The serve-volley battle goes Sampras' way due to the serve, not the volleying. Court is slow enough that its conceivable that a hot returner could potentially regularly threaten even a Sampras calibre serve-volleyer. Korda's pretty solid on the return for much of match, weakening some towards the end. And Sampras is average on the volley too... allowing Korda some counter-play. Eventually, the bigger Sampras serves push Sampras over

23 aces from Pete, moderate (for him) 35% unreturned rate and winning 68% serve-volleying (about the same off both serves). Just 2 return UEs from Korda and they come late in the match when he seems a bit listless. Plenty of heavy second serving from Pete, so good job by Korda to get the balls back in play so consistently

The returns against serve-volleys tend to be firm, around net high biased to slightly under. The kind of thing that's not easy to putaway, but not too much trouble to keep in play. Even so, Sampras is at best, average on the volley. Note very low 4 first 'volley' winners from 80 serve-volley points... and only 1 of those is bona fida volley, with the rest being OHs or groundstrokes at net. Firm returning from Korda on the whole, but of course, there are easy high ones, but Pete can't put them away. Partially due to slow court, but mostly, just not killer enough on the volley

Sampras with 6 volley winners to 7 UEs is a very surprising stat. Including OHs, that ratio changes to 12 winners (excluding a pair of OHs one the bounce - 1 not even at net) to 10 UEs... still quite poor and 2 OH UEs from anyone, but particularly Sampras isn't good either. That said, the OHs he makes include outstanding, back pedalling efforts (the 2 UEs though are easy)

The volleys Pete makes are pushed away from Korda, short of into corners and not punched through. Korda has decent looks on the pass. He's got 11 passing winners from rallies (+3 on the return), which given Pete's got total 6 volleying winners (12 counting OHs taken on the full), is outstanding. Pete also forces a bunch of passing errors (Korda has 27 groundstroke FEs - bulk of which are passes). Not too many overly difficult shoelace volleys for Pete to face, and he makes probably a few more than he misses (he has 7 'volley' FEs)

Purely on volley vs pass, Korda does well enough to threaten to break regularly. Solid returning and some good passing from him and average volleying from Pete and a slow court. Its all aces (23) and forced return errors (27) that sees Pete hold with relative comfort

 

[Waspsting]

Korda's 3/12 on break points to Pete's 5/15 with both players having them in 8 games. From Korda's perspective, that's a job well done on return. He's got his own style. In ad court, Korda takes return from center of court, essentially, leaving FH side open and daring Pete to go there. I'd have expected Sampras to oblige and back himself to go through the hole Kora leaves out wide, but he largely sticks to serving to BH (just 29% serves are directed to FH and Korda's in that central position on every return on ad court)

Baseline play comes on Korda's service games and most of Pete's 2nd serve points. Pete with hefty second serve that's enough to give him initiative to start rally. Off 2nd serves, he wins 64% serve-volleying and 62% staying back... both numbers largely dependent on the serve. He also double faults high 10 times to pull his overall 2nd serve points down to 51% won

Very few demons on the Korda serve. Its the slow court. Sampras returning at 76% - and 16/26 return errors have been marked unforced. Conservative placement for Korda. His serve out wide in deuce court is as not-wide as you'll see from a lefty. Comfortably, regulation returns for Pete - and then they rally

Baseline action is largely who-blinks-first, neither player can hit through the court, though ball gets to comfy, hip height for power hitting. Korda with his BH and Pete with his FH occasionally try for big, attacking shots... rarely is it worth the effort. Korda is more apt to go on attack or manufacture an approach. He tends to do the latter when he's in trouble on serve

Rallying to net, Korda is excellent 19/25 or 76%. Sampras by contrast is 9/13 or 69%... speaking to Korda being both more in charge of rallies (though there's not a whole lot of 'taking charge' in them, they're essentially waiting-for-an-error type rallies) and very good in the forecourt. And more net hungry. Sampras is content to keep ball in court

Sampras' BH proves to be by far the most consistent groundie on show. Groundstroke UEs read -
- Sampras BH 7
- Sampras FH 20
- both Korda's FH and BH 21

... and UEs are the key to baseline action, so Sampras looking good to give himself chances to break

Similarly to the Sampras serve-volley points though, Korda has his safety net of 23% unreturned rate (healthy scope for Pete to have done better on that front), leading winners 10-7 and forcing more errors baseline to baseline

In short, Korda returning (and passing) solidly enough and Pete unconvincing enough on the volley that Korda develops chances to break. And Pete steady enough from the back that he has chances to break. In that sense, its a close match as scoreline, 5 sets and the break point numbers indicate. Not a particularly good one in any area, but decent enough

Match Progression
Korda breaks to open the match. Couple of good passes, but from 40-30, its Pete faltering (missing regulation BHV, double faulting and missing routine third ball FH) that decides the game. The 1 break proves enough, but both players have a hard time holding for rest of set. There are 87 points or 8.7 per game in the set. In other words, average game is longer than a deuce game. For rest of match, average game length is 5.7 points

There's an odd incident and a rare case of a player being able to change the umpires mind. Sampras 2nd serve hits top of net and goes well past the line, hitting Korda around the feet. Its initally called a let. Korda approaches the chair and correctly points out that the ball hit his feet after bouncing and call is changed to a double fault. Another out-of-character incident is Sampras rushing over to change his racquet in mid-game. Generally, he tends to dawdle when doing this and usually takes a seat as he pulls out a new racquet

Korda breaks to open the 2nd set too - again, 2 good passes and 2 sloppy errors from Pete (1 volley, 1 groundstroke). The missed volley is particularly bad. From 2-3 down, Sampras wins next 4 games - like Korda's breaks earlier, both are half products of strong Sampras plays and half loose ones from Korda

Korda serve-volleys for a game to get the third started. Pete's a bit more clean in his attacking baseline play. Excellent return game by Korda to break and he consolidates while saving a break point in a 12 point hold of baseline play

Sampras is under the gun in first game of the 4th too and ends up holding after saving 2 break points, making a fine half-volley to keep the second of them going before managing to force a passing error. He has to save 2 more break points on his next service game also. Thereafter, he loses just 1 point on serve in holding thrice and scores the break mostly due to Korda UEs

Certain things shift from around middle of 4th set to end. Sampras serve vs Korda contest had been fairly even to this point. From hereon, Sampras gets the better of it and Korda struggles to return, or returns softly or even just lets tougher serves go. Korda's BH also gets a bit suspect

Combination of the 2 sees Sampras in charge of the 5th set, the only one where he looks the part of strong favourite. He breaks to start and adds another to make it 4-1 before seeing the match out

Summing up, not a particularly good match though a competitive one. There's a solid contest between Sampras hefty serve and Korda's firm returning in first half, with Sampras' follow up volleying unconvincing enough to make holding a struggle. Average serving from Korda and baseline play is who-blinks-first with average hitting from both players - Korda the more enterprising but also more loose - leaving chances for breaks on that side too. Ultimately, strong Sampras serving shine through and is key difference between the two players