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The contrasting playing styles of Andre Agassi and Stefan Edberg were on display in the final of the decade's first year-end championship.

In 1988, on the strength of six titles and two Grand Slam semifinals, American teenager Andre Agassi finished the year ranked No. 3 in the world.

His follow-up campaign was a far cry from that. The Las Vegas native only won one tournament in 1989 and barely made the field at the Masters, the year-end championship held in New York.

But as the new decade dawned, Agassi approached it with renewed focus. He reached the finals in three of his first four tournaments, winning two of them. That included his first “Super 9” title in Miami over Stefan Edberg, reversing the result of the prior tournament in Indian Wells. Agassi also reached his first two Grand Slam finals at the French and US Opens, the only Slams he played that year.

By the time the inaugural ATP World Championships in Germany rolled around, Agassi looked completely different from the player who went 0-3 in round-robin play at the last edition of the Masters in 1989. In his opening match, Agassi exacted revenge against his US Open conqueror, fellow American Pete Sampras. He then lost to Edberg in a third-set tiebreak, but rebounded to thrash Emilio Sanchez to reach the semifinals. There, he beat Boris Becker for the third time in 1990, after losing to the German the first three times they played, to reach another prestigious final.

The championship match would be another meeting between Agassi and Edberg, who went undefeated in round-robin play. The 1989 Masters winner played some of the best tennis of his career over the year, winning seven tournaments, including his second Wimbledon title.

In their first career encounter, only a year ago at the Masters, Edberg soundly defeated Agassi in the round-robin stage. The quick carpet in Frankfurt favored the net-rushing Edberg, but it was Agassi who struck first, going up an early break. The two exchanged multiple breaks late in the set before Edberg finally prevailed to take it 7-5.

In the second set, both players settled into a serving groove with no breaks recorded. Agassi captured it in a tiebreak and in the process, won his first set indoors against Edberg.

With the match now becoming a best-of-three encounter,  Agassi went up an early break in the third before Edberg gained it back on a controversial call. The two remained on serve until 5-5, when Agassi broke and then closed it out to go up two sets to one. The American staked himself to an early lead in the fourth set, but when Edberg threatened again to get back on course as he had throughout the match, Agassi didn’t buckle. Already considered a dangerous returner at this point in his career, Agassi found his timing on Edberg’s delivery and went on to close out the match with a 6-2 fourth-set win.

1

This was Agassi’s first career victory over a world No. 1. Edberg reached the ranking for the first time in August 1990 and held on to it for the rest of the year.

2

In his second career final played on carpet, Agassi won another title. His first came in his 1990 season debut in San Francisco.

12

Edberg was playing his 12th final of the year, but Agassi prevailed to make it a dozen titles for his career.

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