Evert d. Turnbull 7-6 (3), 6-2
Evert was 22. Turnbull was 24 and twelfth-seeded.
Wendy had beaten Martina in the semis. Chris had defeated a 14-year-old Tracy Austin earlier in the tournament.
Evert was the first to win three straight titles at Forest Hills since Mo Connolly. It was her 7th Slam title.
The New York Times reported that this was Evert’s 113th straight victory on clay.
Turnbull broke at 3-all by winning two long baseline rallies on Evert unforced errors. She served for the first set at 5-4.
By my count:
Evert had 0 aces and 2 doubles.
Turnbull had 2 aces and 4 doubles.
Evert got a return error from Turnbull 7 times.
Turnbull got a return error from Evert 5 times.
I saw nothing that I would have judged a service winner.
Evert served at 71%, making 41 of 58 first serves.
Turnbull served at 52%, making 33 of 63 first serves.
Evert won 41 of 58 points on her serve, Turnbull 32 of 63.
Evert won 13 straight points on serve to start the match.
Evert won 4 of 8 break points, Turnbull 2 of 6.
Evert got her first serve into play on 5 of the 6 break points that she faced, Turnbull on 4 of 8.
Evert won 72 points overall, Turnbull 49.
Evert had 11 winners: 9 BH, 2 FHV.
Turnbull had 13 winners: 5 FH, 1 BH, 2 FHV, 1 BHV, 4 overheads.
Evert had 2 service return winners, both passes, both backhands off first serve. On top of that she had 4 other passes, all backhands.
Turnbull had no return winners, but she made 3 passes, all forehands.
I ordered this match mainly to compare against a boxscore available in the New York Times archive:
The aces and double faults line up with my own count. So do the placements -- they agree with my own count of the clean (non-service) winners.
The numbers in the boxscore add up to 120 points, with Evert winning 72, Turnbull 48. The only difference with my count is that I have Turnbull winning 49.
The service percentages are slightly different from my counts.
All in all, however, this is the most accurate of the boxscores in the Times for the men’s and women’s U.S. Open finals of 1976-77.
(See for example, Evert-Goolagong).
I didn’t do my own count of the errors, but in comparison to the boxscore I would have judged more of the errors as forced. Wendy’s net-rushing produced a few errors from Chris; I would have counted most if not all of the service return errors as forced; and there were other forcing shots in the rallies.
If I subtract the aces, doubles and winners from the total points that I calculated for each player, then Evert made 32 forced and unforced errors, Turnbull 57. Those numbers line up almost exactly with the ones in the boxscore. As noted above, 5 of Evert’s errors were on the return, as were 7 of Turnbull’s.
Evert was 22. Turnbull was 24 and twelfth-seeded.
Wendy had beaten Martina in the semis. Chris had defeated a 14-year-old Tracy Austin earlier in the tournament.
Evert was the first to win three straight titles at Forest Hills since Mo Connolly. It was her 7th Slam title.
The New York Times reported that this was Evert’s 113th straight victory on clay.
Turnbull broke at 3-all by winning two long baseline rallies on Evert unforced errors. She served for the first set at 5-4.
By my count:
Evert had 0 aces and 2 doubles.
Turnbull had 2 aces and 4 doubles.
Evert got a return error from Turnbull 7 times.
Turnbull got a return error from Evert 5 times.
I saw nothing that I would have judged a service winner.
Evert served at 71%, making 41 of 58 first serves.
Turnbull served at 52%, making 33 of 63 first serves.
Evert won 41 of 58 points on her serve, Turnbull 32 of 63.
Evert won 13 straight points on serve to start the match.
Evert won 4 of 8 break points, Turnbull 2 of 6.
Evert got her first serve into play on 5 of the 6 break points that she faced, Turnbull on 4 of 8.
Evert won 72 points overall, Turnbull 49.
Evert had 11 winners: 9 BH, 2 FHV.
Turnbull had 13 winners: 5 FH, 1 BH, 2 FHV, 1 BHV, 4 overheads.
Evert had 2 service return winners, both passes, both backhands off first serve. On top of that she had 4 other passes, all backhands.
Turnbull had no return winners, but she made 3 passes, all forehands.
I ordered this match mainly to compare against a boxscore available in the New York Times archive:
The aces and double faults line up with my own count. So do the placements -- they agree with my own count of the clean (non-service) winners.
The numbers in the boxscore add up to 120 points, with Evert winning 72, Turnbull 48. The only difference with my count is that I have Turnbull winning 49.
The service percentages are slightly different from my counts.
All in all, however, this is the most accurate of the boxscores in the Times for the men’s and women’s U.S. Open finals of 1976-77.
(See for example, Evert-Goolagong).
I didn’t do my own count of the errors, but in comparison to the boxscore I would have judged more of the errors as forced. Wendy’s net-rushing produced a few errors from Chris; I would have counted most if not all of the service return errors as forced; and there were other forcing shots in the rallies.
If I subtract the aces, doubles and winners from the total points that I calculated for each player, then Evert made 32 forced and unforced errors, Turnbull 57. Those numbers line up almost exactly with the ones in the boxscore. As noted above, 5 of Evert’s errors were on the return, as were 7 of Turnbull’s.
