Stats for 1993 Wimbledon SF(Courier-Edberg)

[Moose Malloy]

Courier d Edberg 4-6, 6-4, 6-2, 6-4

Courier served at 58.5%(65 of 111)
He won 50 of 65 pts on 1st serve(77%)
and 23 of 46 pts on 2nd(50%)
5 aces, 5 df's
drew 30 return errors(I judged 3 service winners)
of the 30 return errors Edberg made 14 were fh, 16 were bh
10 were on 2nd serve

Edberg served at 66%(88 of 133)
He won 61 of 88 pts on 1st serve(69%)
and 14 of 45 on 2nd(31%)
6 aces, 8 df's
drew 31 return errors(I judged 7 service winners)
of the 31 return errors Courier made 17 were fh, 14 were bh
5 were on 2nd serve

Courier had 48 non service winners: 23 bh, 15 fh, 7 fhv, 1 bhv, 2 ov
Edberg had 31: 15 fhv, 11 bhv, 1 fh, 1 bh, 3 ov

Courier had 31 passing shot winners: 21 bh, 10 fh

Edberg had 27 unforced errors(including a few of the worst volley errors I've seen him make)
Courier had 14(only 4 in last 2 sets)

net pts
Edberg - 74/130(57%)
Courier - 27/38(71%) - 24 S&V pts

Courier was 7 of 14 on break points(Edberg made his 1st serve on 10 of them)
Edberg was 4 of 6(Courier made his 1st serve on 5 of them. He wasn't broken in the last 2 sets)

Courier won 131 pts, Edberg 113

 

[I get cramps]

Moose, Jim really killed Edberg with his backhand (his supposed weakness) that day, didn't he not? What is your overall perception of the match? Where was Jim returning?, how close are far to the baseline? How fast, dry and high bouncing was the court (in principle, that should have helped Edberg's kick serve a lot)?

 

[urban]

I recall the match, and yes, Edberg was killed by Courier's backhand that day, especially on second serves. Edberg was always a bit predictable in going to the backhand with his kicker serve (and prone to double faults). When Becker was really on, his backhand return could spell trouble for this kicker, too. And i recall some Agassi-Edberg matches around this time (1993), when Agassi also was punishing those sitting up second serves of Edberg.

 

[Moose Malloy]

Moose, Jim really killed Edberg with his backhand (his supposed weakness) that day, didn't he not?

yes, he had 23 bh winners(21 were passing shots) to 'only' 15 fh winners.

Where was Jim returning?, how close are far to the baseline?

pretty close. check out where he was on match point.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnX5VzWI9HE&feature=player_detailpage#t=798s

 

[krosero]

A boxscore in the press.

Source: -- ASSOCIATED PRESS
Statistics from Jim Courier's 4-6, 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 victory over Stefan Edberg:
Category Courier Edberg
Aces 5 4
Double Faults 5 8
1st Serve Percentage 59 66
Pct. 1st Serve Points Won 77 69
Pct. 2nd Serve Points Won 50 31
Service Games Held 15 12
Break Points Against 6 14
Service Games Broken 4 7
Pct. Backcourt Points Won 42 34
Points Won at Net 19 51
Total Points Won 131 113
Time of match: 2 hours, 40 minutes.

 

[krosero]

Edberg served at 66%(88 of 133)
He won 61 of 88 pts on 1st serve(69%)
and 14 of 45 on 2nd(31%)
6 aces, 8 df's

To echo what Urban said, Edberg did poorly on second serve, and he had a lot of double-faults.

A couple of months later Mary Carillo said that Edberg really had not served well at Wimbledon. According to her, by Edberg's own admission his serve did not have the bite it used to.

of the 31 return errors Courier made 17 were fh, 14 were bh
5 were on 2nd serve

We always think of Edberg serving to the BH, but he got a lot of errors from Courier's FH (the same wing that Sampras liked to serve to when playing Jim).

Impressive that Courier failed only 5 times to put Edberg's 2nd serve back in play.

And those were hardly UE's, since Edberg was coming in.

net pts
Edberg - 74/130(57%)
Courier - 27/38(71%) - 24 S&V pts

Courier was essentially playing like Agassi had the previous year, trying to win Wimbledon from the baseline. Didn't do too badly, though both he and Agassi lost to Sampras in '93 with this strategy (not that they had the skill to do better with a SV strategy).

 

[Setmatch45]

Courier the man!

 

[Moose Malloy]

Courier was essentially playing like Agassi had the previous year, trying to win Wimbledon from the baseline.

Well, Courier did have 24 S&V attempts in this match(& about the same in the final), that's not an insignificant number, while Agassi was virtually never coming in (Courier probably S&Ved more in these 2 matches than Fed did vs Djokovic & Murray at Wimbledon. and a surprising amount of them were 2nd serve S&V)

Impressive that Courier failed only 5 times to put Edberg's 2nd serve back in play.

did you calculate 'rally' pts? subtracting df's & return errors.

 

[krosero]

Well, Courier did have 24 S&V attempts in this match(& about the same in the final), that's not an insignificant number, while Agassi was virtually never coming in (Courier probably S&Ved more in these 2 matches than Fed did vs Djokovic & Murray at Wimbledon. and a surprising amount of them were 2nd serve S&V)

I was thinking of Courier's 38 total approaches of all kinds. Agassi seems to have approached 30-plus times in the '92 final, and 30-plus again in the '93 quarterfinal vs. Sampras. Those were five-setters and a little longer than Courier-Edberg; but still the numbers look comparable.

However Courier's 24 SV attempts -- I'm sure that's much higher than whatever Agassi's SV count was. Courier, much more than Agassi, seems to have gotten to the net behind his serve.

did you calculate 'rally' pts? subtracting df's & return errors.

Courier was 62.5% on 1st serve (25/40) and 42.0% on 2nd serve (13/31), when his serves were returned.

Edberg was 51.8% on 1st serve (29/56) and 28.1% on 2nd serve (9/32).