Match Stats/Report - Soderling vs Monfils, Paris final, 2010

[Waspsting]

Robin Soderling beat Gael Monfils 6-1, 7-6(1) in the Paris final, 2010 on indoor hard court

It would be Soderling’s only Masters title. Monfils had been runner-up the previous year also. He beat among others Andy Murray (who had recently won Shanghai) and Roger Federer (who would shortly after win the year Year End Championship) en route to the final

Soderling won 66 points, Monfils 46

Serve Stats
Soderling...
- 1st serve percentage (34/58) 59%
- 1st serve points won (30/34) 88%
- 2nd serve points won (15/24) 63%
- Aces 9
- Double Faults 4
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (23/58) 40%

Monfils...
- 1st serve percentage (30/54) 56%
- 1st serve points won (21/30) 70%
- 2nd serve points won (12/24) 50%
- Aces 8
- Double Faults 2
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (19/54) 35%

Serve Patterns
Soderling served...
- to FH 50%
- to BH 50%

Monfils served...
- to FH 33%
- to BH 60%
- to Body 8%

Return Stats
Soderling made...
- 33 (12 FH, 21 BH)
- 1 Winner (1 BH)
- 11 Errors, comprising...
- 8 Unforced (1 FH, 7 BH)
- 3 Forced (3 BH)
- Return Rate (33/52) 63%

Monfils made...
- 31 (14 FH, 17 BH)
- 14 Errors, comprising...
- 6 Unforced (2 FH, 4 BH)
- 8 Forced (5 FH, 3 BH)
- Return Rate (31/54) 57%

Break Points
Soderling 2/3 (2 games)
Monfils 0

Winners (including returns, excluding serves)
Soderling 16 (7 FH, 3 BH, 4 FHV, 1 BHV, 1 OH)
Monfils 8 (3 FH, 2 BH, 1 FHV, 2 BHV)

Soderling's FHs - 3 cc (2 at net), 4 inside-out (1 at net)
- BHs - 1 cc pass, 1 dtl pass at net, 1 inside-out/down-the-middle return (that opponent left)

Monfils' FHs - 1 cc, 1 cc/inside-in, 1 running-down-drop-shot cc pass at net
- BHs - 2 dtl (1 pass - a 1-handed shot)

- 3 from serve-volley points - 1 first volley (1 BHV) & 2 second volleys (1 FHV, 1 BHV)

Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Soderling 15
- 12 Unforced (6 FH, 6 BH)
- 3 Forced (2 FH, 1 BH)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 43.3

Monfils 25
- 15 Unforced (8 FH, 5 BH, 2 FHV)
- 10 Forced (3 FH, 7 BH)... with 1 diving FH
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 44.7

(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 are keyed on 4 categories - 20 defensive, 40 neutral, 50 attacking and 60 winner attempt)

Net Points & Serve-Volley
Soderling was 15/17 (88%) at net

Monfils was...
- 5/9 (56%) at net, including...
- 3/3 (100%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 2/2 off 1st serve and...
- 1/1 off 2nd serve

Match Report
Strong showing from Soderling, with a damaging serve and a powerful baseline game to back it up, with the FH damaging. Monfils gets enough out his serve to not be blown away, but is harmless off the ground and bossed about. Court is quick, bounce is comfy in relation to it

16 winners, 15 total errors (12 UEs, 3 FEs) from Sod, to go with fat 40% unreturned serves is dominant showing. Throw in high 10 errors forced, and even more so. Goes through the match without facing a break point. He’s not too good returning though for most of match, especially vulnerable to missing returns close to body

35% unreturned serves is the only good thing Monf has going on, aided by Sod’s returning trouble. Low winners (half of Sod’s), low errors forced (a third of Sod’s), slightly more UEs too. Might think this is a total blowout

It isn’t that at least. Match is exactly in line with scorelines - an easy pushover first set and neck and neck second

In first set, Sod with 7 winners, forcing 4 errors, 5 UEs to go with 32% unreturned
Monf has 4 winners, 7 UEs and 22% freebies

In second set, Sod 9 winners, forcing 6 errors, 7 UEs and 44% unreturned
Monf 4 winners, forcing 3 errors, 8 UEs and 42% unreturned
No break points, both players serving exactly 32 points for their 6 holds, before Sod crushes the ‘breaker 7-1

So Sod with more winners than UEs throughout match and more than double aggressively ended points as UEs too. With damaging serve thrown in

Monf running on freebies, for which Sod’s off returning has substantial hand, to hold even in second set, while not playing well in either set. He’s net negative aggressively ended points to UEs even when he’s competitive, but 42% freebies will get you long way towards holding

In short, Sod always at least untroubled. With flaws in his returning showing up
Monf with little more than capitalizing on that flaw going for him. He’s not impressive in any area, he trails in every area. Serve isn’t bad, but not quite ‘impressive’ either

Serve & Return
Good serves from both, Soderling with considerably bigger one, but its not all about bigness. Both players artfully slice a lot of effective serves, including aces, out wide

Given better serve from Sod, Monf probably returns a little better, with Sod having undue trouble on BH returns to balls close to him. Both players return with average force and server retains iniative off third ball
Sod leading in count 59% to 56%, with first serve ace rate virtually same and good (Sod 26%, Monf 27%)

Return UEs - Sod 8, Monf 6
Return FEs - Sod 3, Monf 8
Ace’d - Sod 8, Monf 9
(serves faced are virtually same - Sod faces 52, Monf 54)

Not small UEs for both players
Just 2 first returns in among the UEs for both players, so Sod missing 6 second returns (he only faces 22), Monf 4 (he faces 20)

That’s a pretty bad rate of missing second returns, especially from Sod. Body and body-ish second serves cause him trouble. Average paced, not difficult ones. Monf doing better but 80% second return rate isn’t great either

Sod’s bigger serve coming through in the FEs. FEs are drawn both by both brutish pace and slower, but very wide serves

Given he’s got 8 aces, drawing just 5 return errors with first serves by Monf is quite small. He has a decent 56% in count, but sign that he hasn’t got balance of how wide to go while still winning the point too well. Sod’s movement to reach wide serves are average, if anything, tilted to below

Monf is generally one of the quickest returners around. Not here. He’s not slow, but he’s ordinary enough in getting across to the sliced, wide serves. He himself dishes out wide sliced first serves. They either go for aces, or he misses and Sod not often tasked with difficult, wide return

Second serve double fault rate - Sod 17%, Monf 8%

Another area Sod’s not great. No particular pressure to deliver strong second serves, with both players returning normally. If anything, Sod getting stuck into rare second return more often (or looking to, anyway), so Monf would be ‘under more pressure’, but its negligible amount

Gist - Sod with bigger serve and getting a few more in. His firsts are powerful enough to be troubling, unlike Monf. Neither player returning too well. Sod a little worse on consistency, but he’s more serving better than he is returning worse to still edge the serve-return contest. Fair few doubles from Sod too

 

[Waspsting]

Play - Baseline (& Net)
Action is normal baseline stuff. Dual winged, but for Sod moving over to hit a few FHs
And Sod’s better at everything. Most obviously, more powerful. His FH is the powerhouse on show, he has firmer BH too. Monf largely just looking to keep ball in play off both wings, while typically, staying upright on BH

Sod’s more powerful, Sod’s able to overpower quite regularly. Sod using back-away FHs to actively attack. Sod able to take net after overpowering. Monf’s recourse would be remaining more consistent, but he’s not even that

In baseline rallies -
- Winners - Sod 5 (4 FH, 1 BH), Monf 3 (2 FH, 1 BH)
- Errors forced - Sod 6, Monf 2
- UEs - Sod 12 (6 on each wing), Monf 13 (8 FH, 5 BH)

Virtually nothing that Monf’s getting better off - not FHs, not BHs, not consistency, not doing damage

Statistically, he’s stayed closest on BH, where he has 1 fewer UE and a genuine winner (Sod’s winner is a return down the center that Monf leaves). Case of reality not matching appearance (which means appearance is wrong); Sod looking more comfy hitting BH, Monf a little loose with his not-getting-down way of hitting and Sod’s hitting harder. Not looking to beat down or anything like that, but with a hitting advantage that occasionally gets into pressuring range. Monf rarely gets that far. ‘Not being overpowered’ appears to be best thing he’s doing, but he has 1 fewer UE

Monf’s BH copping defensive brunt of Sod’s move-aside FH inside-outs. Too powerful and Monf has 3 BH FEs (Sod has just 1 FE in baseline rally)

On the FH, the occasional, cut-loose FH from Monf, but its rare and generally, Sod outhitting him there too. Full offence comes with back-away FH inside-outs, with which Sod has 3 winners and forces errors, or sets up comfy approaches

Neutral UEs - Sod 8, Monf 11
Attacking UEs - Sod 4, Monf 1
Winner attempt UEs - Monf 1

This gets to how little offence Monf can mount. Low winners and errors forced and almost no aggressive errors either. Essentially, he’s just keeping ball in play as firmly as possibly. And not doing that as well as Sod either, leaving aside getting overpowered and having Sod move to attacking

Rallying to net - Sod 15/17, Monf 2/6
Reaffirming whose pushing who around in baseline rallies. Pretty simple time at net for Sod, coming in after overpowering. Monf without much chance to, and not doing well when he can. 1/2 points he wins is a running-down-drop-shot play

Finally, Monf with the rare serve-volley, on which he’s 3/3, finishing everytime with a winner. Not important

Gist - Soderling better of everything - more powerful off both wings, more consistent, able to push Monf back and move up to attacking, both from back or by coming in. Rare unleashed FH and just as rare serve-volleys extent of Monf’s offence and his defence is handily outdone by Sod

Match Progression
Match starts brighly with 4 winners. Monf hits a running-down-drop-shot at net winner first point, with Sod’s choice of drop shot from well up the court a bad one. Sod strikes FHV winner, ace and third ball FH inside-out after that before completing the hold

Monf levels at 1-1. And doesn’t win another game in set

Broken for 1-3 missing FHVs to start and end the game. The starting one is easy, the ending one is net-to-net but he’s in good position to easily give Sod a difficult volley, but misses going wide

Stronger game by Sod to score second break, finishing last 3 points with panache. Handles a wide pass nicely, before striking FH cc at net winner, strikes a winning BH dtl/inside-out after that and finishes with a superb BH cc pass winner to ball that was wide and had got low

He serves out the set to 30, winning the last 3 points at net

Rest of match is server dominated
Sod loses 7 points, Monf 8 to hold 6 times each. No break points. Just one game goes to deuce (Sod serves it
Server domination is mostly due to unreturned serves, with both players having 40%+ freebies. The returning isn’t good from either player, especially Sod, and accounts for it as much as strong serving

Pick of the points would be Monf’s neatly putting away a BHV from his feet serve-volleying. From the baseline, Sod occasionally taking charge with FH inside-outs is most notable feature

Tiebreak and Sod’s all over it
Soft BH UE by Monf ends long rally to start and put him down a mini-break
3/4 Sod’s service points are unreturned serves (1 ace, 2 FEs), and he commandingly takes net with third ball FH inside-out to win the other one

Monf gets on the board at 1-3, and he’s only 1 mini behind at that stage. He leaves a defensive, deep return point after against a good serve that lands on the baseline under his nose for a winner
Sod wraps up after a pair of freebies with another return to the baseline - this time powerful - to take charge of rally, come in and putaway a FHV winner

Summing up, strong showing from Soderling, who’s better than Monfils in almost every way

Bigger serve, stronger and more consistent groundstrokes, able to outhit and get on attack fairly often while the opposite almost never happens
On downside, a little sloppy at times in missing routine returns, especially those close to him on BH side and uncostly, but not small number of double faults

Not bad serving from Monfils and the fruit it yields is ripened more by opponents returning troubles. Its enough to keep him competitive for most of match, but there’s nothing else he does better than average or as well as a better opponent

 

[Galvermegs]

Really a shame robin didnt play longer. Always worth a mention in best of the runners up in majors. Would have been good to see him more succesful at wimbledon too... he really gave nadal a tough out in one campaign

 

[7thKingSlam]

Really a shame robin didnt play longer. Always worth a mention in best of the runners up in majors. Would have been good to see him more succesful at wimbledon too... he really gave nadal a tough out in one campaign

2007 I believe. Really fun match