Stats for 1988 W SF (Edberg-Mecir)

[Moose Malloy]

Edberg d Mecir 4-6 2-6 6-4 6-3 6-4

My stats:

Mecir hit 68 non service winners: 17 fh, 26 bh, 10 fhv, 11 bhv, 4 ov
Edberg hit 57: 8 fh, 8 bh, 20 fhv, 17 bhv, 4 ov

winners by set:
Edberg - 7, 9, 11, 19, 11
Mecir - 17, 19, 12, 14, 6

Mecir hit 38 passing shot winners, 14 fh, 24 bh.
He hit 26 return of serve winners.

Edberg had 15 passing shot winners, 8 return winners.

Over a 2 game period in the 2nd set(games 3 & 5), Mecir hit 5 straight return winners off Edberg's serve(4 of them were off 1st serves)
4 of the 5 return winners were bh's.

Mecir had 2 aces & 2 doubles
Edberg had 3 & 6

Edberg had 38 unreturned serves, of which I judged 6 to be service winners.
Mecir had 30 unreturned serves, of which I judged 3 to be service winners.

Edberg was 117 of 171 on 1st serves, or 68%
Mecir was 91 of 137, or 66%

Edberg was 5 of 8 on break points, Mecir was 5 of 21

Break point conversions by set:

Edberg
1st set: 0-1
2nd set: 1-1
3rd set: 1-2
4th set: 1-2
5th set: 2-2

Mecir
1st set: 1-1
2nd set: 3-6
3rd set: 0-6
4th set: 0-6
5th set: 1-2

In the 5th set, Mecir broke for a 3-1 lead with 3 winners. Edberg broke right back with a 3 winner game.

I think Mecir's best chance to win the match came in the 4th, he was breezing through his service games & constantly pushing Edberg in his. He had 4 break points in the 7th game of that set, & then got broken in the next game after blowing those opportunities.

I'm curious how many total points were won by each player, its possible that Mecir won more, going by some of the stats.

NBC's stats:

after 3 sets they had Edberg at 38 winners, 17 unforced errors & Mecir at 51 winners, 18 unforced errors.

 

[krosero]

Thanks, Moose, nice to have full-match stats on this. I notice, btw, that your stats are very close to the total you got using NBC's fifth-set graphic; shows their counts were accurate. Really the only difference is the one we expected: Edberg got a lot of service winners from NBC. Late in the match they had him at 11 aces/service winners, and you counted only 3 aces.

Mecir hit 68 non service winners: 17 fh, 26 bh, 10 fhv, 11 bhv, 4 ov
Edberg hit 57: 8 fh, 8 bh, 20 fhv, 17 bhv, 4 ov

Mecir apparently was coming in quite a bit, with 25 volley/overhead winners. And you counted Edberg passing him 15 times, with 8 return winners, so Mecir was doing some serve-and-volley.

winners by set:
Edberg - 7, 9, 11, 19, 11
Mecir - 17, 19, 12, 14, 6

I remember we were wondering what Mecir's winner counts must have been early in the match. After two sets, with 36 winners, he was hitting exactly 2 winners per game (apart from service). Not a surprise that he couldn't keep it up, but he still kept his numbers high.

Edberg was 117 of 171 on 1st serves, or 68%
Mecir was 91 of 137, or 66%

Edberg was 5 of 8 on break points, Mecir was 5 of 21

That's really a large difference, when the winner of the match serves 34 more times than the loser (and faces 13 more break points).

I'm curious how many total points were won by each player, its possible that Mecir won more, going by some of the stats.

You've got Edberg facing break points a total of 18 times in the middle three sets, in which time Mecir faced only 5. I think this is a good candidate for one of those matches where the loser wins more points.

 

[Lendl and Federer Fan]

That was a great comeback for Edberg.

 

[krosero]

I'm curious how many total points were won by each player, its possible that Mecir won more, going by some of the stats.

Going by your service percentages, Moose, it looks like Mecir won 155 points, Edberg 153.

The Associated Press

July 1, 1988, Friday, AM cycle

After Ivan Lendl fought off three match points against Boris Becker at Wimbledon Friday, darkness forced the match to be suspended.

Hours earlier, Stefan Edberg had turned the lights out on Miloslav Mecir.

Edberg, staging the biggest semifinal comeback here since countryman Bjorn Borg, rallied from two sets down to beat Mecir and put a Swede in the men's final for the first time in seven years.

"It was hard to believe I could come back today," Edberg said after his 4-6, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 victory. "It felt such a long way off. I was in big trouble ... then I got my act together."


The start of the second semifinal was delayed 45 minutes by a downpour that began minutes after Edberg completed his miraculous comeback. But lightning didn't strike until the third set, when Lendl, the top seed, overcame three match points and won the tiebreaker 10-8, pushing the match to a second day.

Although it was the first set Becker has lost in the tournament, history will be on his side when the 6-4, 6-3, 6-7 match resumes Saturday prior to the women's final between Steffi Graf and Martina Navratilova.

The last time a men's semifinal was carried over, in 1985, Becker beat Anders Jarryd and went on to win the first of his two Wimbledon titles over Kevin Curren.

In the first match, Edberg, the third seed, fought off the bullet service returns and pinpoint volleys of Mecir to become the first Swedish finalist since Borg lost to John McEnroe in 1981.

To reach the 1981 final, Borg had to come back from two sets down against Jimmy Connors in the semifinals. Edberg did the same against Mecir, who didn't play for two months before Wimbledon because of back problems.

The ninth-seeded Czechoslovak, nicknamed the "Swede Killer" for his success against top Swedish players, blasted 31 service return winners and won two more points than Edberg in the 3-hour, 10-minute match. But that wasn't enough to beat Edberg, who had lost his last three Grand Slam semifinals.

Edberg, who won the Australian Open on grass in 1985 and 1987, is so laid back and soft spoken that some have accused him of being gutless. But he answered all questions about his character on Centre Court _ the most pressure-packed tennis venue in the world.

"Believe it or not, I do have guts," said Edberg, who has a London home a short cab ride away from Wimbledon. "If I didn't have guts, I wouldn't have won today."

His coach, Tony Pickard, was more blunt.

"Everybody's been knocking him, saying he hasn't got any guts and there's no fire in his belly," Pickard said. "This has made an awful lot of people look a bit silly."

Mecir, whose only Grand Slam final was the 1986 U.S. Open, had 12 break points in the third and fourth sets and failed to convert any of them.

"If I didn't have so many chances, if I was not so close to winning, I would not be so disappointed," he said.

Edberg's comeback was reminiscent of the one he made against Mecir in a Davis Cup quarterfinal in April. Down 4-1 in the final set, Edberg rallied for a 4-6, 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, 9-7 victory.

"I had that in mind when I was down 3-1 in the last set," he said. "If I hadn't won that Davis Cup match, I wouldn't have won the match today."

The last time Edberg came back from two sets down was the 1985 Australian Open, when he beat Wally Masur in the fourth round. That was also the last time a player trailed by two sets in a Grand Slam tournament and went on to win the title.

The turning point of Friday's match took place with Edberg trailing 0-40 at 3-3 in the third set.

Mecir, who squandered six break points in the set, committed four straight errors before Edberg missed a backhand volley to make it deuce. After Mecir netted a service return, Edberg put away a forehand volley to hold serve and break at love in the 10th game to win the set.

Mecir, an avid fisherman, never recovered after letting Edberg off the hook.

After fighting off six more break points in the fourth set, including four in one game, Edberg made the most of his own break opportunity in the eighth game with a winning backhand lob that gave him a 5-3 lead. He then won the set with a love service game that ended with a netted volley by Mecir.

Mecir ripped three service-return winners past Edberg to break for a 3-1 lead in the final set. But the 22-year-old Swede broke back in the next game with a backhand stab volley, held serve and broke again to move ahead 4-3.

After both players held serve, Edberg served out the match. On the final point, he tracked down a deep lob and swatted it back toward Mecir, who casually hit a backhand volley into the net.

Edberg, whose momentum had carried him into the green tarpaulin at the end of the court, broke into an ear-to-ear smile as the match ended.

"I didn't feel I could do anything in the beginning," said Edberg, who has won seven of 11 matches against Mecir. "Everything was very flat. But then I got my chances and I took care of them."

After winning the first two sets, Becker moved to double-match point in the tiebreaker at 6-4 when Lendl netted a running forehand.

On the next point, Becker rushed the net behind a big first serve and appeared ready to put away a match-ending forehand volley. But the 20-year-old West German hit the ball into the net, giving Lendl another chance.

Lendl won the next two points with a volley and a delicate half-volley drop shot to move to set point, but his wide backhand return made it 7-7.

Becker, who had six aces and eight double faults, gained a third match point when Lendl hit a service return long, but he couldn't convert it. After a wide return by Becker and a winning volley by Lendl, Becker hit a backhand volley wide to end the set.

Lendl broke Becker in the opening game of the match, but Becker broke back in the eighth game when Lendl netted a forehand. After Becker held on a service winner for 5-4, he broke for the set on Lendl's sixth double-fault.

Serving to open the next set, Becker saved break points with an ace and a service winner. During the changeover after the fifth game, he pulled out a pair of scissors and trimmed his flowing red bangs, which were apparently hindering his vision.

Carefully coiffed, Becker went out and broke in the eighth game to go up 5-3 and served out the set with his second ace.

 

[Murray_Maniac]

Great stats! But man, how long does it take you guys to do stats for 5 setters? The two 3 setters that Ive done so far took me like 5 hours. (I was less experieced, so I had to go back to fix mistakes. Now I bet I could do them in 3 hours.)

 

[krosero]

Great stats! But man, how long does it take you guys to do stats for 5 setters? The two 3 setters that Ive done so far took me like 5 hours. (I was less experieced, so I had to go back to fix mistakes. Now I bet I could do them in 3 hours.)

No question, you get faster the more matches you do. How it long it takes me to do a five-setter, I'm not sure, because almost every one has been different, in terms of whether I count errors as well as winners, or try to find out specific things like service winners, net stats, comparisons with published stats, proofing my work, etc. I will say, that no matter what I'm doing, all the five-setters I've done have taken at least a few hours.

And it's worth it, to get accurate numbers. My only concern with the time is fatigue; I try not to do too much in one sitting because my concentration is bound to falter.

 

[Moose Malloy]

Great stats! But man, how long does it take you guys to do stats for 5 setters? The two 3 setters that Ive done so far took me like 5 hours. (

Well, I don't do unforced errors, so that cuts down on time for me. This match was a very quick pace though, & frankly just so much fun to watch, it was easy.

My only concern with the time is fatigue; I try not to do too much in one sitting because my concentration is bound to falter.

Yeah, I usually can't do more than 3 sets in one sitting, I get tired. And then start missing serves, etc.

Going by your service percentages, Moose, it looks like Mecir won 155 points, Edberg 153.

How were you able to figure that out? I didn't count how many points either player won on serve or anything.

 

[krosero]

How were you able to figure that out? I didn't count how many points either player won on serve or anything.

What I meant by your service percentages was that you provided the total number of points played: 171 served by Edberg, 137 by Mecir. Total of 308 points in the match.

So if Mecir won two more points than Edberg, it must be he won 155, Edberg 153.

 

[Murray_Maniac]

Yeah, I usually can't do more than 3 sets in one sitting, I get tired. And then start missing serves, etc.

So far, I can only do 1 set in a sitting. But, its probably because you're a pro at this.