{"id":875,"date":"2012-08-21T10:22:47","date_gmt":"2012-08-21T14:22:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/heavytopspin.com\/?p=875"},"modified":"2012-08-21T10:22:47","modified_gmt":"2012-08-21T14:22:47","slug":"the-unbreakable-and-record-setting-cincinnati-finalists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/2012\/08\/21\/the-unbreakable-and-record-setting-cincinnati-finalists\/","title":{"rendered":"The Unbreakable and Record-Setting Cincinnati Finalists"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Roger Federer<\/a> and Novak Djokovic<\/a> met in the Cincinnati final on Sunday, they represented a unique event in tennis history: Neither one had been broken. \u00a0Four matches each, no breaks of serve.<\/p>\n

That’s not just a Masters-level record, it’s a first for the ATP tour, at least since 1991, the time span for which point-level stats are available. \u00a0 \u00a0That’s over 1500 tournaments, including nearly 200 Masters events.<\/p>\n

It’s very rare to even come close. \u00a0Of the 195 Masters tournaments for which data is available, only four pairs of finalists entered the title match with three or fewer breaks. \u00a0Djokovic leads the pack: When he met Rafael Nadal<\/a> in the 2011 Miami final, Nadal had been broken once, Djokovic not at all. \u00a0When Djokovic and Federer met in the 2007 Montreal final, each player had only been broken once. \u00a0The Miami achievement is particularly notable because each player had won five pre-final matches, compared to only four each in Cincinnati and Montreal.<\/p>\n

Federer set some records on his own, as well. \u00a0By holding his serve against Djokovic, he made it through an entire Masters tournament without suffering a break. \u00a0That’s the first time it has ever happened at this level. \u00a0Eight other times the winner has only been broken once–twice that winner was Federer, including Cincinnati two years ago. \u00a0Ten additional times, the winner was only broken twice–and Roger is responsible for three of those.<\/p>\n

At lower level tournaments, it’s somewhat more common–the winner of a non-Masters event has made it through without losing serve a total of 17 times. \u00a0Surprise, surprise: Two of those are Federer, at Doha in 2005 and Halle in 2008. \u00a0Four other men have done it twice: Andy Roddick<\/a>, Joachim Johanssen, Richard Krajicek<\/a>, and Ivan Ljubicic<\/a>. \u00a0Milos Raonic<\/a> did it earlier this year in Chennai.<\/p>\n

Federer set at least one more record last week, and it might be the most impressive of all. \u00a0He only faced three break points all week–the lowest known total at a Masters tournament. \u00a0The previous record was four, set by Andre Agassi<\/a> at the 2002 Madrid Masters. \u00a0Fed’s total in Cinci was only the 10th ever in single digits–and Roger is now responsible for four of those top ten results.<\/p>\n

At lower-level events, Fed’s mark has been bettered a couple of times. \u00a0At the 2007 Memphis tournament, Tommy Haas<\/a> claimed the trophy without facing a single break point. \u00a0 At San Jose this year, Raonic faced only two break points, though Tobias Kamke<\/a> converted one of them. \u00a0Two other players–Andy Murray<\/a> at 2009 Queen’s Club and Roddick at Lyon in 2005–got through an event facing only three break points.<\/p>\n

No breaks, and record-settingly few break points. If hard courts are truly becoming slower<\/a>, it seems that someone forgot to tell Roger.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic met in the Cincinnati final on Sunday, they represented a unique event in tennis history: Neither one had been broken. \u00a0Four matches each, no breaks of serve. That’s not just a Masters-level record, it’s a first for the ATP tour, at least since 1991, the time span for which … Continue reading The Unbreakable and Record-Setting Cincinnati Finalists<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","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":[17,93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cincinnati","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\/875","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=875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}