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#Post#: 4557--------------------------------------------------
Surface Slants: Carpet Chiefs, Capables, and Crums
By: masterclass Date: December 1, 2013, 7:57 am
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Do you recall the days of tennis on Carpet?
Who excelled? Who was dismal?
Talk about the players, the surface itself, whatever holds your
fancy!
Enjoy!
Respectfully,
masterclass
#Post#: 4560--------------------------------------------------
Re: Surface Slants: Carpet Chiefs, Capables, and Crums
By: Clay Death Date: December 1, 2013, 8:06 am
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what exactly is johnny mac's winning streak there general?
I forget now but is it something like 77 matches in a row?
I do know that he has 77 singles titles and 77 doubles titles to
his name.
#Post#: 4566--------------------------------------------------
Re: Surface Slants: Carpet Chiefs, Capables, and Crums
By: masterclass Date: December 1, 2013, 8:45 am
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General Hercules, by my count, he had 65 ATP wins in a row on
carpet between 1983 and 1985, between the losses to Ivan Lendl
in San Francisco final in September of 1983 and Joakim Nystrom
in Dallas 1st round in April of 1985. There was a walkover win
toward the end, which doesn't count as ending the streak, but
technically doesn't count as a win either.
The other thing is at that time there were more than just ATP
tournaments, so he may have had more wins and losses during that
time, but I'm not counting those.
In any case, McEnroe ranks right up there as one of the greatest
carpet players of all time. His ATP match record was 346-54
(.844) and won 43 titles on carpet.
It's a shame carpet was phased out. One can only guess why.
>:(
Respectfully,
masterclass
#Post#: 4576--------------------------------------------------
Re: Surface Slants: Carpet Chiefs, Capables, and Crums
By: Emma Date: December 1, 2013, 9:59 am
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I liked the carpet. Loved it in fact. Did you know the last WTF
that was played indoor carpet was in 1996? Sampras won it. The
following year, in 1997, it was played on hard (still indoors of
course) and Sampras won it again. In fact, Sampras won his first
WTF (used to be known as Grand Slam Cup) in 1990, the year he
also won his first Major - USO. And it was played on carpet.
In 1990, Sampras won 4 titles (including USO and Grand Slam Cup)
and 2 of them were on carpet. He won the other two on grass and
hard.
In 1991, when it was called ATP Tour World Championship, he beat
Courier in the final to win it, again on carpet. In the RR,
which was called "John Newcombe Group", he beat Agassi and Stich
but lost to Becker therefore, his standing was 2nd in the group.
Agassi was first. And the other group, which was called "Ilie
Năstase Group", Lendl was the winner and Courier took the
2nd place. Sampras then beat Lendl and Courier beat Agassi.
Sampras then beat Agassi in the final.
Sampras won 6 of these in total in which 4 of them were played
on carpet and 2 on hard.
#Post#: 4963--------------------------------------------------
Re: Surface Slants: Carpet Chiefs, Capables, and Crums
By: masterclass Date: December 5, 2013, 4:30 am
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Yes, Pete was excellent on carpet, but overall he was probably
better on hard and grass. I think Sampras was a bit more
vulnerable to big hitters on faster carpets like a Becker or
Rusedski though he could win as often as not.
One correction to the above post. The last Masters Cup to be
played on carpet was in 2005 in Shanghai in an unforgettable
match between David Nalbandian and Roger Federer, which
Nalbandian, down 2 sets to love, came back to win in the 5th set
decider: 6–7(4–7), 6–7(11–13), 6–2, 6–1, 7–6(7–3).
Federer was nursing a sore ankle coming into the mid-November
year ending championships, and hadn't played a tournament since
beating Murray in Thailand near the end of September. He was
spotted still wearing crutches 3 weeks before the Masters Cup.
But he felt the pressure to compete due to many of the top
players also citing injuries (Nadal, Roddick, Hewitt, Agassi,
Safin). Federer beat Nalbandian in the 1st match of the round
robin phase - 6-3, 2-6, 6-4, before losing to him in the final.
It was Federer's 4th and last match loss of the year, after 81
wins. If not for this loss, Federer would won 5 straight Masters
Cups from 2003-2007, and would have tied John McEnroe's 1984
match record for best winning percentage in a single year with
the same results (82-3 96.47%). Federer's only losses were to
Marat Safin at the Australian Open (SF), Rafael Nadal at Roland
Garros (SF), to Richard Gasquet in Monte-Carlo (QF) and finally
to Nalbandian in the Masters Cup final.
Here is a great video of the full match. Enjoy!
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=madGkfRQ2rk
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=madGkfRQ2rk
I also found these videos of the 1996 ATP Tour World
Championships in Hannover, Germany on carpet with Sampras
defeating Becker in the twilight of his career. Becker had just
beaten Sampras in Stuttgart on indoor hard court for what would
turn out to be Becker's final win in a Grand Prix Championship
Series event (Masters Series) and next to last title win.
Enjoy!
English commentary
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCkFJgE_VL0
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCkFJgE_VL0
German commentary (but somewhat better quality video than the
English version)
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKBY2HgySmQ
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKBY2HgySmQ
Respectfully,
masterclass
#Post#: 4979--------------------------------------------------
Re: Surface Slants: Carpet Chiefs, Capables, and Crums
By: thetruth Date: December 5, 2013, 12:37 pm
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Interesting information.
I don't think I paid attention to the surfaces back then, unless
they were obvious.
#Post#: 5150--------------------------------------------------
Re: Surface Slants: Carpet Chiefs, Capables, and Crums
By: Emma Date: December 8, 2013, 6:39 pm
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Actually, the Masters Cup was played on hard and carpet on and
off but yes, it was last played on carpet in 2005 but starting
from 1996, it was mostly played on hard surface.
As to Sampras and Becker - they met on carpet 13 times. It’s 7-6
In Becker’s favour. But 5-4 in Pete’s favour since 1993 Pete’s
peak years. 15 titles on carpet for Sampras out of 64 titles and
that's 23% so that's pretty good.
As to Rudeski, Sampras is 9-1 in overall H2H but on carpet it’s
1 all, hardly a sample size to measure if Rusedksi’ big hitting
was an obstacle factor for Sampras. And it was the notorious
Paris event and that’s Rusedski’s only masters in his entire
career. Even Ferrer won it to make a point.
Federer has only 2 titles on carpet but of course the surface
started disappearing since the early 00s. Only the Challenger
events may have a couple of indoor carpet here and there these
days and I am not even sure about that. All the varieties and
styles of play are all gone.
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