2 Responses to olymp92rosset_arrese.

1. Voo de Mar says:

   June 8, 2026 at 5:45 pm

   Points won by each set: | 49-50, 28-23, 27-36, 30-34, 40-35 |
   Points won directly behind the serve:
   38 % Rosset – 69 of 177
   18 % Arrese – 32 of 175

   5 hours 3 minutes – the longest match in the Olympic history, already after the first two editions it was almost certain the record wouldn’t be broken because from Atlanta ’96 onwards, the format would be shortened from Bo5 to Bo3 (at least for all matches except the final in the years 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016). Nonetheless Federer and Del Potro timidly approached the 5-hour mark in 2012…
   Rosset struck 35 aces [15 (three in TB), 1, 4, 6, 9] – over many years it was the clay-court record. The opener was quite peculiar given the wasted chances to break (especially on clay): the Swiss survived four games facing 7 break points in total (Arrese withstood 4 BPs in two games) before finally breaking in the first game of the 2nd set. The 3rd set was decided its middle section – Arrese held twice with the help of 4 deuces in each game, breaking Rosset in between. There was 4-all in the 4th set when the Spaniard took two straight games. In the decider Rosset led 4:1* (deuce) – the only ‘deuce’ in that set before the last game of the match. Arrese levelled at 4-all, but Rosset put himself in front thrice with an abundance of unreturned serves. In the last game, Arrese led 40/15, but Rosset got to ‘deuce’ thanks to errors, and won the last two points with forehand winners. “A couple of times, I wanted to go to the locker room and have a couple of Cokes,” Rosset said, “but then, I knew if I did that, everybody would want to kill me. You can’t quit just because you are tired.” The 22-year-old Rosset was ranked 44 at the time, while the 28-year-old Arrese No. 30. Already reaching the semifinals meant a huge achievement for them both! Two years later they face each other in Nice, another clay-court thriller, this time three hours, and Rosset wins 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(6) trailing 1:6 in the tie-break!

   [SUI] Rosset’s route to the Gold medal:
   1 Karim Alami [MOR] 6-2, 4-6, 2-1 ret.
   2 Wayne Ferreira [RSA] 6-4, 6-0, 6-2
   3 Jim Courier [USA] 6-4, 6-2, 6-1
   Q Emilio Sanchez [ESP] 6-4, 7-6(2), 3-6, 7-6(9)
   S Goran Ivanisevic [CRO] 6-3, 7-5, 6-2
   W Jordi Arrese [ESP] 7-6(2), 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 8-6

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2. Voo de Mar says:

   June 8, 2026 at 5:48 pm

   ☆ Bronze medals for the Slavs: Andrey Čerkasov and Goran Ivanišević, who as the only player in history, managed to win four consecutive five-setters… to guarantee a medal for himself; they both represented newly created nations: CIS – the short-living state between USSR and Russia, and Croatia respectively

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