Flashback to 1996 ATP Championships
There has
been a touch of nostalgia surrounding the recent Nitto ATP Finals in London. It
was announced before the draw took place that the groups would be named after Pete
Sampras and Boris Becker in honour of the great matches they played in the ATP
Championships, not only against each other but their consistent success at the
tournament. Between 1990 and 1999 they appeared in eight of the ten finals
winning seven and played each other in the 1994 and 1996 finals. Sampras wrote a piece on the ATP website
reminiscing about that 1996 final and Sky Sports put highlights of the match on
their website. The perfect situation for one of my flashbacks as this is
considered the greatest ever indoor match.
The 1996
edition of the ATP Championships is significant. It was the first of four years
the tournament would be played in Hanover, Germany; moving from Frankfurt where
it was held at the Festhalle. The venue was built for Expo 2000 which was a world
trade fair that would be held between June and October 2000. 1996 was also the last year the tournament would
be played on indoor carpet, from 1997 the surface moved to indoor hardcourt;
this was a change that was unanimously voted for by the players. There is
always the perception that surfaces magically slowed down in the 2000s after
the millennium but this was an ongoing process from the mid 1990s onwards.
Becker got incredible home support so it was always difficult for his opponents
as he was one of the best indoor players in the world.
The players
qualified for this event were:
- Pete Sampras
- Michael Chang
- Yevgeny Kafelnikov
- Goran Ivanišević
- Thomas Muster
- Boris Becker
- Andre Agassi
- Richard Krajicek
- Thomas Enqvist (alternate)
As always
with indoor tournaments, the surface favours attacking players but not
necessarily, as Agassi won the event in 1990 and was losing finalist in 1999
and 2000. Jim Courier was finalist in 1991 and 1992, whilst Chang lost to
Becker in the previous final in 1995 after beating Sampras in the
semifinal. It was a surface (taraflex)
that gave everyone an opportunity to play good on it.
In the
semifinals, Becker beat Krajicek in three very tight sets. Krajicek won the first
set tiebreak, Becker responded taking the second set tiebreak and broke quite
late on to take the third set 6:3. The second semifinal had a very similar
pattern between Sampras and Ivanisevic. Ivanisevic took the first set tiebreak;
Sampras responded taking the second set tiebreak and made a breakthrough late
on to take the third set 7:5. With four
big servers, you would expect lots of tiebreaks.
However, the
Germans and the sports world in general got the final they wanted, the two best
indoor players who won the last two ATP championships, Sampras v Becker was a rivalry
that produced some of the best tennis of that era and they contested many
finals between each other on all surfaces; hardcourts, grass, clay and indoor
carpet. What marked this rivalry out from the others was the fact that both
players were comfortable from the baseline.
For instance, had Ivanisevic played Krajicek in the final, there would
have been minimal to no rallies whatsoever; both Sampras and Becker were
ultimate examples of all court players.
Becker also went into this match having won their previous two meetings,
in the round robin of the championships and the final in Stuttgart a month
before; the first time Becker beat Sampras in a final. What was interesting
about that final was that it was a five set battle with no tiebreaks and quite
a lot of breaks of serves, the first set alone had three breaks; the surface
was described beforehand as a deliberately slower indoor carpet surface.
The venue was
packed and you could feel the buzz well before the first ball was struck, and
the way the match began clearly indicated it would be a great one as Becker hit
four aces in a row in the first game! I
haven’t seen anyone start a match with four aces before and I haven’t seen it
since. This might have surprised Sampras because he got broken quite early on
at 2:1 and was under immediate pressure, Sampras was not a big fan of having to
deal with the raucous German crowd but he dealt with it before, knowing that at
the end of the day they appreciated good tennis and were fans of his; but this
was Boris! Plus with Sampras being the top dog, they were like the 12th man on
the pitch for Becker. The great and the
good were also in attendance, including then Formula 1 Chief Bernie Ecclestone,
pop icons Seal and Lionel Ritchie, members of the rock group Scorpions among
others. Becker served for the set and finished it with a rally which epitomised
their tennis. A rally where both players stretched each other out on the court,
I always liken a rally like this to noughts and crosses, figuring out the
puzzle and delivering the killer strike. Sampras stretched Becker out with his
famed cross court forehand, Becker responded with a down the line forehand,
Sampras then hit a cross court backhand to Becker’s backhand. Becker then saved
his best for last with a brilliant off backhand down the line, completely wrong
footing Sampras.
The second
set tempo was pretty high with Sampras trying his best to respond, in the sixth
game Sampras made two break points but was snuffed out by great serving from
Becker who won four points in a row from 15:40. In fact Becker was serving at
his best, consistently hitting up to 128mph (205kph) but with a lot of spin so
very difficult to deal with. There were to be no breaks so this set went to a
tiebreak which Sampras took after just one mini break when Sampras hit a great
down the line forehand passing shot, Sampras closed out the set with a volley
into the open court and then let out a big roar.
The third set
also went to a tiebreak, but not before a few dramas along the way, where
Sampras had to fight back from 0:30 in the fourth game and save two break
points in the sixth game. However,
Sampras served his way out of trouble and the shot making was still of the
highest order, with some excellent rallies where both guys were probing the
other, trying to create angles or generate short balls which they could use to
attack the net and use their touch and athleticism to hit cut off volleys. The third set tiebreak was very cagey with
three mini breaks, which led to Becker double faulting at a critical moment, leaving
Sampras to serve out the set with an ace out wide and a backhand passing shot
off a Becker chip charge.
Sampras by
now would have figured he had control of the match but would have recalled he
was two sets to one up in the Stuttgart final and lost. After another intense
twelve game battle we were to have a third successive tiebreak. This was the
best tiebreak of the lot and with, Sampras reaching match point on his serve at
6:5, you would assume that would have been curtains for Becker but Sampras
played a very tentative point and pulled his backhand just wide on the sixth
shot... Becker then set up set point with a stunning return of serve then
forehand the other way with Sampras out of position, Sampras saved that with a
forehand return which was too good for Becker. At 10:10, Becker produced a
brilliant backhand cross court drive passing shot which seemed to go at 100mph
but Sampras again responded with an equally stunning forehand crosscourt
passing shot after a fine rally. After a cluster of match points for one and
set points for the other, Sampras messed up his volley which allowed Becker to
take the tiebreak 13:11 and take the match to a fifth set, which sent the crowd
into raucous raptures.
It was
fitting such a high quality final would go to a fifth set. Both guys were feeling the pressure, each having
to get out of love 30 situations early on the fifth set and then after a long 9th
game which had four deuces, Sampras got the decisive breakthrough with a
backhand down the line passing shot. At 40:15 in the tenth game, Becker saved
yet another match point with a stinging crosscourt backhand. The final point of
the match summed up the contest, a 24 shot rally where both guys tried to
stretch and manoeuvre each other out of position, Becker finally hitting his
down the line backhand into the net. The
best thing about it was the embrace at the net and crowd reaction, both players
knew they were involved in something special which lasted just over 4
hours.
I think
Sampras summed it up nicely when the ZDF interviewer suggested Sampras and
Becker should play each other more often, to which Sampras replied “maybe not
in Germany”. Tongue in cheek as he previously acknowledged the fairness of the
German fans even though they were raucous and chanting Becker’s name at vital
periods.
I would have
preferred to use the statistics from the ZDF broadcast but I didn't capture it therefore provide the stats from the ATP website. Sampras served at
64% first serves, and won 79% of those deliveries. Sampras won 58% of his 2nd serves and hit 15 aces which is very good. Sampras also won 41% of returns on
Becker’s 2nd serve converting one of five break point opportunities.
Meanwhile, Becker served 59% first serves and won 90% of those points. Becker
hit double the aces at 30 and won 59% of his 2nd serve points.
Becker won 42% of 2nd serve return points and converted one of five
break point opportunities. All in all a very high quality match reflected in
the statistics.
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