From: clin@eng.umd.edu (Charles Lin)
Subject: Final results -- Canadian Open
Date: Sat, 25 Jul 92 22:12:52 GMT
Organization: College of Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park
Originator: clin@coke.eng.umd.edu


   First, apologies to Clark (who, unlike me, has local listings :) ).
At Saturday at 1 am, I was treated to some rain drenched baseball.
In fact, the match between Agassi and Washington was played at
1 pm Satuday, and the final played at 3 pm.  Just like Clark
said.   I missed the Agassi-Washington match (others were watching
the tv).

   Onto the match.   Well, as a Lendl fan (Agassi has already won
his Wimbledon, so I can root for Lendl now), this was really a
disappointing match.   Of course, by saying that, Lendl lost
to Agassi 3-6, 6-2, 6-0.   

    I get the feeling that Lendl plays baseliners differently from
serve and volleyers, or even from those who don't have power
groundstrokes.  Against a serve and volleyer like McEnroe
or Masur,  Lendl tries to hit quite hard, trying to end points
early, and keep his opponent off balance.

   Against Agassi, Lendl seemed to start to play that way, for
a game or so, as they slugged it out at the baseline for long
rallies.  But early on, Lendl wanted to play his chip backhand
and play it, and play it, and play it.   For some reason, either
he lacks the confidence to hit out against someone who can feed
on that, or I don't know what.

    For the first set, this worked.  Agassi missed quite a bit
of his shots (Lendl did as well, but no as many) making
something like 15 unforced errors in the first set.  There
appeared to be a chance for Lendl to win this if he could
keep even in the second.   However, as Lendl was serving to
tie the match at 1-0, he traded rallies and approached
deep to Agassi's backhand.  Agassi knocked a passing shot up
the line, and got his first break.

   The point of the match (for the broadcasters) was that point.
It was that point that turned the match around.  Agassi began
to miss a lot less, and Lendl kept to the same strategy of chipping
the shot.   To Agassi's credit, he mixed it up quite a lot.
He played wide shots, drawing Lendl off-court, played drop
volleys, served and volleyed effectively.   But on the other
hand Lendl did not seem to play well either.  The commentators
felt that Lendl got tired from an especially long rally in
the early parts of the second set where Lendl had to run down
a drop shot, and eventually lost the point.

   Another possibility was that his leg was bothering him (though
it didn't appear that way) since he didn't attempt to run down
shots.  Late in the second set, after being down two breaks,
Lendl did an Agassi by dropping the 5-2 game (with Agassi serving)
by hitting several easy backhands out, presumably so he could
start the third set serving.

   Unlike Agassi, though, who was still playing well as he
entered the fifth set with Ivanisevic,  Lendl was not playing
well in the second set, and this play continued to the third.
Unforced errors, and an unwillingness to change strategy
hurt Lendl.   Lendl continued to hit sliced backhands, and
then started to miss shots.   Agassi built up a 3-0, 2 break
lead, and I thought Lendl was done for.  In the fourth game
they played something like 7 or 8 deuces.  Lendl would play
great shots in the deuce court to bring up break point while
Agassi would set up great serves in the ad side (Lendl missed
everything on that side, except when he was down game point).
This became very reminiscent of Lendl's losses at Wimbledon,
where he just could not convert on break points.

   I mean I was there thinking, either bash the ball, or
serve and volley, but it was not to be.   A very disappointing
match indeed.   Still, it should be nice for Agassi to start
winning tournaments again.  This is his third title (Atlanta
and Wimbledon being the other two) this year.   He seems
to be back to his winning ways.  It will be interesting to
see if Courier can start playing well since he seems to
have come out playing poorly.   How fortunes change in just
a few months.

   Oh, yes, Agassi and McEnroe made it to the finals of the
doubles.  I'm not sure who they play in the final.

--
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  / ____ \  |  |  |__| |   \ |  |    Charles Lin
 | /    \_| |  |   __  |    \|  |    e-mail: clin@eng.umd.edu
 | |        |  |  |  | |  |\    |   
 | |     _  |  |  |__| |__| \___|    University of Maryland
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