Where should your primary first serve location be? Straight down the T, or out wide to initially pull your opponent off the court? An Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis of the 2017 Nitto ATP Finals clearly shows that players who won their matches at The O2 utilised the first serve out wide more than down the T in their quest for victory. It begs the question: when players are behind in a match, does the scoreboard pressure them to go down the T more often to try and secure quick points to get back into the match? Serving wide is a higher percentage serve than down the T, offering a bigger target area to aim at, but down the...
Continuing our Season-In-Review series, ATPWorldTour.com revisits the fiercest rivalries of 2017. Today we feature Grigor Dimitrov vs. David Goffin What makes a rivalry — is it the mix of playing styles or personalities, the intensity of each battle or something different? In 2017, two perennial grafters with great potential clashed on five occasions, improving both tactically and mentally for year-end Top 10 finishes in the Emirates ATP Rankings. While Grigor Dimitrov beat David Goffin in four of their five FedEx ATP Head2Head series meetings this year, the statistic as read is too simplistic to be dismissed as one-sided — a non-rivalry. For while Dimitrov and Goffin are never going to relentlessly overpower an opponent, the fluency of their games and...
Dominic Thiem and David Goffin decide who has the better backhand and who is the better dresser in this fun game of Me or You on ATP World Tour Uncovered presented by Peugeot as part of ATPWorldTour.com's Best of 2017 series.
Continuing our Season In Review series, ATPWorldTour.com revisits the fiercest rivalries of 2017. Today we feature Nick Kyrgios vs. Alexander Zverev: One of the great rivalries in ATP World Tour history was thrust into the spotlight once again in 2017, with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal sweeping the Grand Slams and returning to the Top 2 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. But that wasn't the only matchup that attracted attention. The curtains opened in what might be one of the next great FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalries. Alexander Zverev and Nick Kyrgios, 20 and 22 years old, respectively, are the two youngest players near the top of the Emirates ATP Rankings. They each were at one point the top-ranked junior in...
It was well worth the wait. As the book began to close on the ATP Challenger Tour season, Sumit Nagal had one final chapter to write. The 20-year-old Indian captured his maiden Challenger crown on Saturday, prevailing in front of a raucous home crowd in Bengaluru. Nagal, the youngest player from his country in the Top 500 of the Emirates ATP Rankings, defeated fellow budding #NextGenATP Jay Clarke of Great Britain 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 in the final. With one day remaining in the 2017 Challenger season, Nagal claimed his moment of glory. Hailing from a nation of 1.3 billion people, pressure is an unavoidable part of life in the sporting-rich culture of India. But for Nagal, it was nonexistent as...