Match Stats/Report - Sampras vs Roddick, US Open quarter-final, 2002

Waspsting

Hall of Fame
Pete Sampras beat Andy Roddick 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 in the US Open quarter-final, 2002 on hard court

Sampras would go onto win the title, beating Andre Agassi in the final for his record extending 14th Slam title. This was the third and last match the two would play. Roddick won the previous 2, the last being Houston final on clay earlier in the year

Sampras won 82 points, Roddick 62

Sampras serve-volleyed off all first serves and all but 5 seconds

Serve Stats
Sampras...
- 1st serve percentage (35/75) 47%
- 1st serve points won (30/35) 86%
- 2nd serve points won (27/40) 68%
- Aces 13 (2 second serves)
- Double Faults 8
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (25/75) 33%

Roddick...
- 1st serve percentage (47/69) 68%
- 1st serve points won (34/47) 72%
- 2nd serve points won (10/22) 45%
- Aces 8
- Double Faults 3
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (26/69) 38%

Serve Patterns
Sampras served...
- to FH 40%
- to BH 51%
- to Body 9%

Roddick served...
- to FH 39%
- to BH 50%
- to Body 11%

Return Stats
Sampras made...
- 40 (10 FH, 30 BH), including 7 return-approaches
- 1 Winner (1 BH)
- 18 Errors, comprising...
- 8 Unforced (5 FH, 3 BH)
- 10 Forced (7 FH, 3 BH)
- Return Rate (40/66) 61%

Roddick made...
- 42 (15 FH, 27 BH)
- 1 Winner (1 BH)
- 12 Errors, all forced...
- 12 Forced (5 FH, 7 BH)
- Return Rate (42/67) 63%

Break Points
Sampras 4/6 (4 games)
Roddick 0/1

Winners (including returns, excluding serves)
Sampras 28 (7 FH, 1 BH, 13 FHV, 5 BHV, 1 BH1/2V, 1 OH)
Roddick 8 (6 FH, 2 BH)

Sampras had 18 from serve-volley points
- 10 first 'volleys' (7 FHV, 2 BHV, 1 BH1/2V, 1 FH at net)
- 7 second volleys (5 FHV, 1 BHV, 1 OH)
- 1 third volley (1 OH)

- 1 from a return-approach point, a BHV

- FHs - 3 cc passes and 3 inside-in
- BH return - 1 cc

Roddick's FHs - 1 cc, 1 dtl, 3 inside-out and 1 inside-in
- BH passes - 2 dtl (1 return)

Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Sampras 20
- 9 Unforced (1 FH, 5 BH, 2 FHV, 1 BHV)
- 11 Forced (1 FH, 2 BH, 2 FHV, 1 FH1/2V, 3 BHV, 2 BH1/2V)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 44.4

Roddick 26
- 9 Unforced (7 FH, 2 BH)
- 17 Forced (5 FH, 11 BH, 1 Tweener)... with 1 BH running-down-drop-shot at net
- 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 this match are keyed on 4 categories - 20 defensive, 40 neutral, 50 attacking and 60 winner attempt)

Net Points & Serve-Volley
Sampras was...
- 49/61 (80%) at net, including...
- 39/49 (80%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 19/24 (79%) off 1st serve and...
- 20/25 (80%) off 2nd serve
---
- 5/7 (71%) return-approaching

Roddick was...
- 2/8 (25%) at net, with...
- 0/1 forced

Match Report
Fine showing by Sampras, as he cruises serve-volleying and utilizes return-approaches to get what he needs returning. Roddick adopts a questionalbe, early returning position from where he can't get anything done and is a little clueless even on serve on a quick hard court

Sampras serve-volleys almost always and cruises so doing. Roddick stands on baseline to take first serves and a bit in front of that to take seconds. It doesn't pay dividends. At all. Sampras faces 1 break point all match and despite low 47% in-count and high 8 double faults (20% of the time). Other side of the story gets statistically twisted by Sampras breaking early in every set, after which, he takes it easier on return games

Consequently, match long stats are deceptive. The only one that really matters is Pete being 4/6 (4 games) on break points, Rod 0/1

Roddick ends up leading unreturned rate with an impressive 38% to Pete's 33%. Both numbers, especially the latter, look impressive from Rod's perspective - and both are deceptive

His sizable 38% unreturneds include Pete easing up in return games as he's a break up. And Pete's moderate 33% include Rod poking returns high in play for the serve-volleying to dispatch easily and at once

Sampras actually has much better of serve-return complex, aided by his serve-volleying almost always (stays back off 5 serves, all 2nds). Roddick's helpless on return. Pete isn't too good at handling power either on the second shot either, but his chip-charges are effective

UEs are a wash at 9 apiece
Pete leads (as in, has fewer) FEs 11-17. Function of Rod being unable to do damage with the return, as most of those take place with Pete at net and Rod on baseline

Pete leads winners 28-8 is big one. The difference is exactly the same as difference in total points won, so you could say Pete's winners are key. And they're a product his advantage on serve-return, specifically, Rod popping up returns to be putaway, with very few damaging ones to counter-balance

And key to that is where Roddick's standing. He takes 1st returns from on the baseline, or even a little inside and 2nd returns from slightly further up from there even

That's just numbers, context is Pete breaking early and then shifting to holding serve. Rod doesn't seem to have any clear way of winning his service points either and his serve isn't particularly damaging, though Pete's returning isn't the best either. Neither palyers movement is good. According to commentary, Rod has a blister problem on his feet - and it shows
 
Last edited:

Waspsting

Hall of Fame
Sampras' serve game & volley vs pass
Sampras serve-volleys all but always (stays back on 5 second serve points, winning them all) and serves typically strongly. Rod takes returns very early, similar to how Andre Agassi usually does. He's even further forward than Agassi's mode

From that baseline, just-inside position, the potential benefit is striking returns damagingly at the cost of giving up aces and other unreturneds. Here, the cost is there and the benefits aren't

Pete has 11 first serve aces or 31% of the time, plus 2 second serves for total 13 aces. Rod only makes 12 return errors. Numerically, this isn't bad from Rod's point of view. Provided the returns he makes are troubling

They aren't.
Almost all of what Rod returns is fended or 'reflexed' back gently and high. Pete's faced with gentle, chest high first volleys. And dispatches them

10/18 of Pete's serve-volley winners are first 'volleys'. For him, usually a 2 part volleyer, that's a large chunk. Most are semi-swing volleys, begging to be putaway. On top of the winners, he slaps them hard near Rod to force passing errors, again helped by Rod being so far forward

Just the occasional powerful return from Rod. He's forced 8 'volley' errors (3 are 1/2volleys). Pete makes about the same number that had potential to force errors (including a beautiful BH1/2V winner). Not particularly good by Pete at handling the difficult volleys, but he's not faced with much and nowhere near getting enough strong returns off by Rod

To go with the FEs he draws, just 2 passing winners by Rod, including 1 return that he slips by BH dtl. On flip side, Pete has 18 serve-volleying winners, draws most of Rod's 17 FEs that are near hopeless, to say nothing of sizable 33% unreturned rate

Way he returns, Rod would need Pete to mess up badly on easy volleys or double fault a lot to get into return games. The doubles do come, a high 8 of them or 20% of second serves. The volleys don't (it'd have to be terrible volleying to miss the kinds of balls faced). 3 volley UEs by Pete, they're all in 1 game and within 4 points. The only game Rod conjures a break point

Sans doubles, Pete wins 84% second serve points. With them, 68% which is in touching distance of the 72% first serve points Rod wins. Serve-volleying, Pete wins negligible more behind 2nd serves than 1sts (80% to 79%)

Never an easy or sure way to return Pete Sampras. Hence, taking returns early isn't necessarily a bad way but it does require ability to swat powerful balls on up and with short swing. Rod's not known for doing either and the way he goes about things falls flat

Gist is easy time for Pete on serve, facing fended up, chest high volleys that he can swat away with ease and a lot of aces

Roddick's serve game & baseline points
Not very good placement of the big first serve from Rod and most are in swing zone. Pete not moving has hand in about half the 8 aces. Pete's not too quick in blocking back the pacey serves either

Numerically though, 38% unreturneds is good for Rod. 8/18 Pete return errors have been marked UEs, so there's scope for Pete to return better too

Rod stays on baseline and once return is made, the two duke it out from back

Groundstroke UEs - Pete 6, Rod 9
Baseline-to-baseline winners - Pete 4 (1 return), Rod 6

Neither players moves well and Pete's BH is frail of look, giving up 5 UEs. He is able to slip aside to whack 3 FH inside-in winners though. Its not an aggressive FH showing from Pete. He reacts to Rod's lead (which isn't particulalry aggressive either) and the small number of times he moves around to take the shot, makes it

Rod's got 6 winners, 7 UEs off FH - both baseline-to-baseline match highs. Doesn't come to net much, though as lead player, he has chances to. Not coming to net isn't a bad move because when he's there, he volleys poorly. Not as poorly as the 2/8 at net would suggest because more than half of those are forced approaches, but he's passed 3 times after plonking volleys in middle of court and doesn't have a winer from net

Still, all the unreturneds gives him nice cushion to hold. BUt he's just 45% second serves won. Pete winning 5/7 return-approach points has good hand in that

As stated earlier, the overall numbers don't matter much. Rod's broken in his first service game in 2 sets and in his second in the remaining one. After that, more or less irrelevant what happens as long as Pete can hold

Match Progression
Pete holds to love to open, despite missing 1st serve on all the points. Bangs down an ace and stays back off the last point, on which Rod misses a big FH

Then breaks next game, taking net 3 times (twice off the return) and winning all 3 points. There is a beauty of a shot outside that where Pete backs away against a deep ball to strike a perfect FH inside-in winners

Comfortable to easy holds for both players after that. Pete continues chip-charging a bit. Serves out to 30 when he again, misses all his first serves and this time, double faults twice. Hits a particularly good BHV winner at 30-30 before an unreturned serve seals the set

Rod opens 2nd set with love hold and Pete misses 3 easy volleys to go down 30-40 after that. He saves break point with an easy FHV winner and needs to make a 1/2volley first up before winning the next point and going on to hold. Horrendous game from Rod to be broken to love after that - 2 third ball FH errors, followed by 2 double faults - and Pete's up 2-1 and a break

Pete holds another all 2nd serve point game to 30 before adding a second break where he wins 2 points with chip-charges. On break point, Rod misses FH dtl. Pete serves out to 15

Rod's broken to open the 3rd set. A poor volley is punished with a FH cc pass, Pete chips his way to net to draw an error and Rod misses a couple groundies. Thereafter, Pete slumbers on return. Rod's unreturned rate for rest of match is 14/23 or 61% and 6 of his 8 aces come in the period. Rest of match, Rod has 12/46 or 26% unreturned and 2 aces. Even then he has to endure a troubling 10 point hold (no break points). Pete's taken to 30 in 3/5 of his service games but is never in much trouble. He finishes with a drop volley that flagrantly forces an error

Summing up, an easy win for Sampras and a poor showing by Roddick, particularly on the return. Some typically good serving by the winner, but at just 47% first serves in and regular double faulting, leaves oppurtunity for Roddick to get into return games. His choice to try returning from on the baseline or just inside it is not a good one and he can only poke returns back high above net that gets swatted away easily. On flip side, big but not wide serving from Roddick that's about as returnable as can be expected. Sampras doesn't return particularly well, but is able to wins points chip-charging second serves to good effect

With Sampras breaking early in all the sets, much of match is played in cruise control. Good showing from the winner, as much a resourceless one from the loser

Stats for the final between Sampras and Andre Agassi - Match Stats/Report - Sampras vs Agassi, US Open final, 2002 | Talk Tennis (tennis-warehouse.com)
 
Last edited:

FD3S

Hall of Fame
Roddick was injured here. Might explain why he was so far up the court to return, he wanted to shorten points.
A lot of people have forgotten this by now. Adrenaline and his serve carried him through against Chela beforehand but even in that match he was already on borrowed time; by the end, that ankle was not in good shape.
 
Last edited:

bigbadboaz

Semi-Pro
When was this disclosed? After all these years and all the bluster about how badly Pete dispatched the anointed heir, I've actually never heard that brought up.
 

FD3S

Hall of Fame
When was this disclosed? After all these years and all the bluster about how badly Pete dispatched the anointed heir, I've actually never heard that brought up.
Dating myself but I remember his ankle injury being brought up as something that could work against Roddick in some of the pre-match coverage at the time - some of the highlights against Chela on YT mention it as well - and this article (http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/oconnor/2002-09-06-oconnor_x.htm) also acknowledges his ankle issues while eviscerating him for pretty much everything else.

To be honest it's almost certainly not something that would have made a difference in the final outcome given how well Pete was playing but IMO there's no question that a 100% healthy Roddick definitely puts on a more competitive show at the very least, even if he still probably would've lost in the end.
 

NatF

Bionic Poster
When was this disclosed? After all these years and all the bluster about how badly Pete dispatched the anointed heir, I've actually never heard that brought up.

Commies were talking about it in his prior matches, it was common knowledge. For example after this excellent point:
 

abmk

Bionic Poster
When was this disclosed? After all these years and all the bluster about how badly Pete dispatched the anointed heir, I've actually never heard that brought up.

THis was known at that time. ESPN report from 2002 itself.

Sampras had 13 aces and a total of 43 winners to 18 for Roddick, who might have been a step slow, having bruised his left foot during an earlier match.

 

Kralingen

Bionic Poster

dryeagle

Rookie
I don't remember a Roddick injury, probably an excuse he made afterwards. It was a windy evening I believe. Pete did his part to chip returns, keep the ball low and attack Roddick. Roddick was one dimensional and Pete had planned for that. Easy execution. Something Fed picked up on in future matchups with Roddick.
 

abmk

Bionic Poster
I don't remember a Roddick injury, probably an excuse he made afterwards. It was a windy evening I believe. Pete did his part to chip returns, keep the ball low and attack Roddick. Roddick was one dimensional and Pete had planned for that. Easy execution. Something Fed picked up on in future matchups with Roddick.

dude, the news was there before the match started.

Dating myself but I remember his ankle injury being brought up as something that could work against Roddick in some of the pre-match coverage at the time - some of the highlights against Chela on YT mention it as well - and this article (http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/oconnor/2002-09-06-oconnor_x.htm) also acknowledges his ankle issues while eviscerating him for pretty much everything else.

To be honest it's almost certainly not something that would have made a difference in the final outcome given how well Pete was playing but IMO there's no question that a 100% healthy Roddick definitely puts on a more competitive show at the very least, even if he still probably would've lost in the end.
 

FD3S

Hall of Fame
I don't remember a Roddick injury, probably an excuse he made afterwards. It was a windy evening I believe. Pete did his part to chip returns, keep the ball low and attack Roddick. Roddick was one dimensional and Pete had planned for that. Easy execution. Something Fed picked up on in future matchups with Roddick.
I imagine most probably wouldn't at this point. Remember, the only coverage it really got was during portions of a tennis tournament that took place more than two decades ago; unless you were watching/reading tennis media at the time and have a solid memory it's easy to forget (or never learn), which is why so many people reduce this match to a vintage Sampras beatdown over a pretender on a big stage while leaving the context out. Again, Sampras still probably wins but considering a healthy Roddick took their two previous encounters it's also very likely he puts up far more resistance.
 

mike danny

Bionic Poster
I don't remember a Roddick injury, probably an excuse he made afterwards. It was a windy evening I believe. Pete did his part to chip returns, keep the ball low and attack Roddick. Roddick was one dimensional and Pete had planned for that. Easy execution. Something Fed picked up on in future matchups with Roddick.
I mean, Fed scored wins over Andy already before that USO.
 

dryeagle

Rookie
I imagine most probably wouldn't at this point. Remember, the only coverage it really got was during portions of a tennis tournament that took place more than two decades ago; unless you were watching/reading tennis media at the time and have a solid memory it's easy to forget (or never learn), which is why so many people reduce this match to a vintage Sampras beatdown over a pretender on a big stage while leaving the context out. Again, Sampras still probably wins but considering a healthy Roddick took their two previous encounters it's also very likely he puts up far more resistance.
No, I have a very good memory. This was a huge match at the time, Thursday night QF at US Open in 2002. Roddick had a great run in 2001 and barely loss to an in form Hewitt in QF. So it was his opportunity to take next step and was a favorite heading into this match with Pete. No mention of injury heading into match and vague reference in media afterwards, which had more to do with butt kicking.
 

FD3S

Hall of Fame
No, I have a very good memory. This was a huge match at the time, Thursday night QF at US Open in 2002. Roddick had a great run in 2001 and barely loss to an in form Hewitt in QF. So it was his opportunity to take next step and was a favorite heading into this match with Pete. No mention of injury heading into match and vague reference in media afterwards, which had more to do with butt kicking.
ESPN coverage was mentioning it as early as the Chela match. The article I posted that gleefully took every other facet of Roddick's performance apart had zero issues citing a quotation that pointed out Roddick hobbling around the locker room beforehand despite being something that could have easily been omitted or ignored given the author's clear bias toward Sampras. As for Roddick himself, he was moving very poorly against Chela and only got into it once adrenaline got flowing, with his movement against Pete barely being any better in spite of his pre-match optimism; how much of that was real we'll never know.

Here's another one: https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-2002-09-04-0209040271-story.html

And this one makes very brief mention of it as well: https://sportstar.thehindu.com/magazine/roddick-americas-great-hope-or-hype/article29700768.ece

As does this one: https://www.independent.co.uk/sport...the-future-in-roddick-s-big-serve-175954.html

It was a tough year for Roddick's ankles. The right had given him issues early in 2002, I guess the left felt its time had come.
 
Last edited:

dryeagle

Rookie
ESPN coverage was mentioning it as early as the Chela match. The article I posted that gleefully took every other facet of Roddick's performance apart had zero issues citing a quotation that pointed out Roddick hobbling around the locker room beforehand despite being something that could have easily been omitted or ignored given the author's clear bias toward Sampras. As for Roddick himself, he was moving very poorly against Chela and only got into it once adrenaline got flowing, with his movement against Pete barely being any better in spite of his pre-match optimism; how much of that was real we'll never know.

Here's another one: https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-2002-09-04-0209040271-story.html

And this one makes very brief mention of it as well: https://sportstar.thehindu.com/magazine/roddick-americas-great-hope-or-hype/article29700768.ece

As does this one: https://www.independent.co.uk/sport...the-future-in-roddick-s-big-serve-175954.html

It was a tough year for Roddick's ankles. The right had given him issues early in 2002, I guess the left felt its time had come.
I don’t buy it. Roddick was the favorite going into the match, so just excuse because he was blown out.
 
Top