Moose Malloy said:
Was just watching some Muster from '96, he absolutely bludgeons the ball. He broke down so many rally-all-day types. They would just eventually threw in the towel at some point(check out Muster's record vs Bruguera). Muster would love to play quitters like Gaudio & Coria. The match would be over in the warmup.
Too bad espn classic or the tennis channel never show older matches. The are a lot of misconceptions about players that are no longer on tour, that would be cleared up if people got a chance to see(or revisit) again.
Exactly. Bruguera actually slightly outplayed Muster in the Litpon final first set, should have won it, played just about a perfect and brilliant tie-breaker, and all he had to was put away a sitter overhead, but Muster wouldn't give up, he kept on tapping them back anyway he could like his life was on the line, it was Harhuis-Connors all over again, until finally after like three overheads in a row, Bruguera just quits, I mean literally quits, and taps the ball into the bottom of the net on purpose. Muster immediately starts pounding his chest like an enraged ape, I kid you not, and the commentators are going crazy, they can't believe it, "What was Bruguera thinking!!!" Meanwhile, Bruguera's competely hunched over, and concedes the tie-break in the next few seconds flat. After that, he tanks the rest of the match.
The funny thing is, even in bad physical condition like against Sampras at the 96 French, he didn't tank...but against Muster, after having played so brilliantly that week at the Lipton? He just threw it all away, just like that. He said after the match that when asked by Luke Jensen what happened, why'd he just go away, and he said that it was very hot, basically 100 degrees on the court, best of five sets? AND, the most important thing, he said he looked over at the man standing on the other side of the net.
Bruguera was a quiter like Gaudio and Coria too, the difference was that he had more firepower and hit a heavier ball than either of those guys, he covered the court better than Gaudio and at his best as well as Coria; and yet he still was owned by Muster. He said that Muster was by far the guy he hated playing most because he never lost his focus or intensity for even one second, that it was crazy. And that's how he was at his best. He looked like a crazed lunatic, and this QUICKLY weeded out the quitter types like Bruguera who weighed their options of how hard they were going to try. Also, because Bruguera was always up and down in his intensity level within the same match. He was like Pioline in that way, both guys would go through lulls in matches where they looked "he looks like he's dying" lethargic, then suddenly out of nowhere be all pumped like they were dancing with Richard Simmons on the Love Boat. In the Berasategui final, Bruguera got down early in the third, then just DOGGED the rest of it. Then, all of a suddenly out of nowhere, he turns it on, "maybe playing a little possum" as Bud Collins said, before all of a sudden going into hyper mode and just blitzing Berasategui to a 5-0, 6-1 victory.
Against Muster in the Lipton final, he tried the same thing. He acted all Poiline I'm hangdog and dying, then all of a sudden he turns it back on again trying to steal a break at end of the second. He ALMOST does it, BUT he just whiffs on one-forehand he had all set-up to crush...and then just giggles, and Muster close it out, as Bruguera returns to fish tank mode. He did that against Muster, because he couldn't just "turn it on" for a few games or a set here or there and win the way he could even Courier, which says something. In the 93 French final, he out hit and outplayed Courier in the first, but by the time the third rolls around he's in his "he looks like he's dying" mode as Bud Collins would say, and the commentars are going it's all over, Courier's superior fitness has worn him down. Then he comes alive again, on and off, on and off, but then by the time the fifth rolls around he's back in the Pioline my dog just died mode, but then all of a sudden he turns it on again, gets the break back, and thereafter he's "alive and well" to close out the match Rocky style and be the hero...um, err, you could NOT get away with that sort of thing against Muster.
Now Courier was a tough cookie, fit, and all that; but he simply did not have that crazed, deranged psycho feel to him where you felt like EVERY point was going to be a war and there was no cheating or escaping it.
Bruguera once said that "clay court tennis is a war," and yet he was kind of a cheater. He liked the Rocky aspect of it, the idea of it, but when it came down to it, he really didn't have the dig in the trenches ALL the time fortitude of Muster, he was a pretender who talked the talk but did not walk the walk, but in bits and spurts.
I really can't say oh this generation is so much better when I see a guy like Gaudio or Coria basically being the #2 or three guys on clay. To me, these guys have NOTHING over the past kings of clay. Muster at his peak would make them take a wiz in their pants, and teach them who's the teacher and who's the young turk school boy who only thinks he's a real man.
