{"id":1268,"date":"2013-09-02T12:44:36","date_gmt":"2013-09-02T16:44:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/heavytopspin.com\/?p=1268"},"modified":"2013-09-02T12:44:36","modified_gmt":"2013-09-02T16:44:36","slug":"guaranteed-five-setters-exhausting-routes-to-r4-and-master-bakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/02\/guaranteed-five-setters-exhausting-routes-to-r4-and-master-bakers\/","title":{"rendered":"Guaranteed Five-Setters, Exhausting Routes to R4, and Master Bakers"},"content":{"rendered":"

With so many of the world’s top players in action yesterday, it’s only fitting to lead with Denis Istomin<\/a> and Andreas Seppi<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Istomin and Seppi have now met four times in the last 15 months, all at Grand Slams. \u00a0And thanks to yesterday’s effort, they’ve now gone five sets in all four of those matches.<\/p>\n

Cue the chorus: “That’s got to be some kind of record, right?”<\/p>\n

Yep, it is. \u00a0While their US Open third-rounder was Seppi and Istomin’s seventh meeting overall, it was only their fourth at a major, meaning that each time they’ve met in the best-of-five format, they’ve gone the distance. \u00a0Two pairs of players (Thomas Muster<\/a> and Albert Costa<\/a>, and Guillermo Canas<\/a> and Gaston Gaudio<\/a>) have met three times in a best-of-five and reached a decider each time, but no two players had ever gone four-for-four.<\/p>\n

In fact, Seppi and Istomin are only the eighth pairing in the Open era to record four or more five-setters. \u00a0Petr Korda<\/a> and Pete Sampras<\/a> played four five-setters in five matchups, but their first such meeting, a 1992 Davis Cup match, only went four sets. \u00a0Radek Stepanek<\/a> and David Ferrer<\/a> are also close, having played four five-setters in five best-of-five meetings.<\/p>\n

Most of the pairs that have played so many five-setters required many more meetings to do so. \u00a0You might be familiar with some of the guys who make up the three head-to-heads that have played\u00a0five<\/em> five-setters: Jimmy Connors<\/a>–John McEnroe<\/a>, Stefan Edberg<\/a>–Ivan Lendl<\/a>, and Roger Federer<\/a>–Rafael Nadal<\/a>. \u00a0But all of those pairs met more than 10 times in best-of-five situations. \u00a0In this context, all those three- and four-setters seem rather weak.<\/p>\n

When the Australian Open draw comes out, while everyone else figures out whose quarter Federer landed in, I’ll be checking Seppi’s proximity to Istomin.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

When Marcel Granollers<\/a> edged by Tim Smyczek<\/a> in five sets yesterday, the big story was the futility of American men’s tennis. \u00a0(Thankfully, for the depressed patriots among us, Sloane Stephens<\/a> was putting up a spirited challenge against Serena Williams<\/a> on another court.)<\/p>\n

However, the Spaniard was making a bit of history of his own. \u00a0In beating Jurgen Zopp<\/a>, Rajeev Ram<\/a>, and Smyczek, he’s won three five-setters in his first three rounds, becoming only the 15th man to do so in the Open era, the first since Janko Tipsarevic<\/a> did so at Wimbledon in 2007. \u00a0It’s only the third time someone has done it at the US Open. \u00a0The last man to do so in New York was Wayne Ferreira<\/a>, in 1993.<\/p>\n

Amazingly, three players have gone five sets in each of their first\u00a0four<\/em> matches in a slam. \u00a0The last such occurrence was when Dominik Hrbaty<\/a> reached the fourth round at the Australian, in 2006. \u00a0He fell to Nikolay Davydenko<\/a> in the fourth round.<\/p>\n

This is one bit of history that Granollers surely won’t be making. \u00a0As remarkable as it is to reach the fourth round of the back of all those five-setters, it isn’t a good sign when you lose two sets apiece to three players ranked outside the top 100.<\/p>\n

It certainly doesn’t bode well when your next opponent is Novak Djokovic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

As Federer, Nadal and Djokovic plow their way through the early rounds this year, none is wasting any time. \u00a0All three players have posted a 6-0 set in their second- or third-round matches, exclamation points amidst broader displays of dominance.<\/p>\n

A quick check of the database reveals yet another category in which Federer is charging toward the top. \u00a0The Open era record for bagel sets won at Grand Slams is held by Andre Agassi<\/a>, who retired with 49. \u00a0Fed’s bagel of Adrian Mannarino<\/a> on Saturday was the 43rd of his career.<\/p>\n

Here is the all-time list:<\/p>\n

Player           Slam bagels  \nAndre Agassi              49  \nRoger Federer             43  \nIvan Lendl                42  \nJimmy Connors             41  \nBjorn Borg                35  \nGuillermo Vilas           29  \nJohn Mcenroe              29  \nStefan Edberg             25  \nBoris Becker              23  \nRafael Nadal              22  \nNovak Djokovic            21<\/pre>\n
Andy Murray<\/a> is tied for 19th, with 16.<\/p>\n
This is one category which highlights the extreme dominance of some of the greatest female players in history. \u00a0Chris Evert<\/a> puts Agassi, Federer, and everyone else to shame, with a record 104 Grand Slam bagels. \u00a0Serena Williams’s first-round defeat of Francesca Schiavone<\/a> moved her past\u00a0Arantxa Sanchez Vicario<\/a>\u00a0into fifth place on the all-time list:<\/p>\n
Player                   Slam bagels  \nChris Evert                      104  \nSteffi Graf                       74  \nMartina Navratilova               70  \nMonica Seles                      51 \nSerena Williams                   49 \nArantxa Sanchez Vicario           47  \nMargaret Court                    44  \nGabriela Sabatini                 44  \nLindsay Davenport                 43  \nMaria Sharapova                   41<\/pre>\n
With a quarterfinal matchup against Carla Suarez Navarro<\/a>, it’s possible Serena isn’t done for the year. \u00a0Each of the two previous times the two women have played, Williams has won a 6-0 set.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With so many of the world’s top players in action yesterday, it’s only fitting to lead with Denis Istomin and Andreas Seppi. Istomin and Seppi have now met four times in the last 15 months, all at Grand Slams. \u00a0And thanks to yesterday’s effort, they’ve now gone five sets in all four of those matches. … Continue reading Guaranteed Five-Setters, Exhausting Routes to R4, and Master Bakers<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,39,93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bagels-and-breadsticks","category-five-setters","category-records"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1268\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}