Welcome back to the Monday Tennis Briefing, where The Athletic\u00a0will explain the stories behind the stories from the past week on court.<\/p>\n
This week, there were 11 incredible escapes in one match, grass courts created debate around tennis quality, and there was a masterclass in slice from one finalist.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019d like to follow our fantastic tennis coverage, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n How to save 11 match points?<\/strong><\/p>\n Just under a week on from Carlos Alcaraz saving three match points against Jannik Sinner in the French Open final<\/a>, Belgium\u2019s Elise Mertens went one \u2014 or actually eight \u2014 better in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n They weren\u2019t championship points, like the ones Alcaraz saved, but in saving 11 (eleven) match points against Ekaterina Alexandrova in the Rosmalen Grass Court Championships semifinal, Mertens equalled a WTA Tour record that has stood since 2001: the most match points saved by a player who has gone on to win a match this century. Zs\u00f3fia Gubacsi saved 11 against Tamarine Tanasugarn in the first round of that year\u2019s French Open. Mayar Sherif saved 12 match points in beating Jesika Male\u010dkov\u00e1 at the WTA Budapest Open in 2022, but that was a 125 event, not a full tour event.<\/p>\n Mertens, who has been ranked as high as No. 12 and has won four doubles Grand Slams, was trailing 6-2, 5-4 and down 15-40 on her serve when she faced the first of the 11 match points. After saving those two, Mertens, now ranked No. 24, produced a brilliant backhand winner down the line to fend off another of the three she faced that game.<\/p>\n Serving down 6-5 a couple of games later, Mertens saved five more match points to force a tiebreak. Once there, Alexandrova finally earned a match point on her own serve at 6-5, but that too came and went, and Mertens pinched the tiebreak 9-7.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a credit to Alexandrova that she didn\u2019t completely collapse in the third set after the heartbreak of all those missed opportunities. She actually had another lead, this time 4-3 with a break, but again couldn\u2019t convert it. She lost the match when Mertens took only her second match point for a 2-6, 7-6 (7), 6-4 win.<\/p>\n Alexandrova, the world No. 18, reached the Wimbledon fourth round in her last visit two years ago, but this will surely take some recovery.<\/p>\n Mertens, buoyed by her miraculous escape, went on to win the title in \u2018s-Hertogenbosch by beating Elena-Gabriela Ruse in Sunday\u2019s final. But her run will always be remembered for Saturday\u2019s extraordinary events.<\/p>\n Charlie Eccleshare<\/p>\n How to figure the quality of grass-court matches?<\/strong><\/p>\n In tennis, particularly grass-court tennis, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. For some, its staccato nature is what sets it apart; for others, that\u2019s what makes it the least appealing of the surfaces.<\/p>\n The slick, low-bouncing grass means it\u2019s the quickest of the outdoor surfaces. That generally means shorter points and matches with a higher ratio of winners to errors, certainly compared with the more attritional clay. The winner: error ratio is often used as a marker of tennis quality, but when used out of surface context, it can present a false impression of how good a tennis match is.<\/p>\n In one of last week\u2019s Rosmalen Grass Court Championships quarterfinals, one of the players hit 44 winners compared to 26 unforced errors. The other hit 22 winners compared to 12 unforced errors. Those are two very healthy ratios. In the French Open final between Sinner and Alcaraz, hailed as one of the greatest matches of all time, both players hit more unforced errors than winners.<\/p>\n But that\u2019s entirely normal for a clay-court match, and this grass-court quarterfinal would not have been to everyone\u2019s tastes. A high proportion of those winners were aces: 24 from Reilly Opelka of the U.S. and seven from his opponent, Russia\u2019s Daniil Medvedev. Their whole match lasted 98 minutes, despite both sets going to tiebreaks. The last set alone of the French Open final lasted 78 minutes.<\/p>\n Opelka and Medvedev\u2019s match is an extreme example of what grass-court tennis can look like, but even so, last week was a reminder of the drastic leap that happens when tennis switches over from the crushed brick.<\/p>\n Shorter rallies, points generally ended by explosive shots, more aces. And, like clay, a beauty that\u2019s very much subjective.<\/p>\n Charlie Eccleshare<\/p>\n In further celebration of Tatjana Maria\u2019s mastery<\/strong><\/p>\n Any professional tennis player could venture that this is the worst week of the year to have to play a qualifier.\u00a0<\/p>\n The transition from clay to grass is the toughest adjustment of the season, from the slowest surface to the fastest and the trickiest. While the top-ranked players will land straight in a main-draw match, anyone who comes through qualifying has already won two pressure-filled matches on the grass.<\/p>\n