The server has to factor in a kaleidoscope of different scenarios when attempting to hold serve in a match. The point, game and set scores are constantly in motion, as are the variety of serve strategies such as location, power and spin. This week’s Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis focuses on five specific serving scenarios for the Top 10 players from the 2016 season, uncovering exactly where they rise to the occasion. The five serve scenarios: Overall win percentage. Serving with new balls. Holding serve immediately after breaking. Serving for the set. Serving for the match. [ALSO LIKE] 1. Overall Win Percentage: Top 10 Average = 86% The Top 10 averaged holding serve 86 per cent of the time...
Tennis has always calculated first serves in and first-serve points won separately, but what would happen if we blended those two metrics together? This would essentially create a “first-serve efficiency” rating, specifically focused on discovering how many first serves you get in multiplied by the percentage won. The blended metric looks like this: First-serve efficiency = first serves in percentage x first-serve points won percentage. [ALSO LIKE] Some players don’t manage to get as many first serves in, but when they do, they win the point a lot. Conversely, other players make a lot of first serves, trading off power for consistency as they try to find the right balance for their game style and physical attributes. An Infosys ATP...
Nobody spoils more for a fight than Lleyton Hewitt. The bigger the match, the higher ranked the opponent, the more on the line, the better he was. The Aussie firebrand would summon his burning “fire in the belly” to raise his game to unprecedented levels when his opponent also occupied a spot in the coveted Top 10. Hewitt’s dogged determination to succeed produced the unthinkable at the height of his powers in 2001 – a better return record against Top 10 opponents than against the Top 50. If Hewitt looked over the net and saw one his peers ranked in the upper echelon of the Emirates ATP Rankings, his iron will to succeed became the single biggest weapon on the...
More than a million points of research. Every Top 100 player. It turns out that player development evolves from playing more points on serve to playing more points returning the further up the Emirates ATP Rankings you climb. An Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis reveals a hidden element of our sport we have never fully grasped. The majority of the points you want to play are not on your own serve. You want your opponents to go deeper into their service games, where your chances of breaking serve steadily increase. You want to keep your own service games short and sweet. The Infosys Information Platform uncovered that every single player in the Top 10 has played more return points...
The formula to becoming the No. 1 ranked player in the world is simple – there isn’t one. The rich diversity of playing styles that our sport produces creates many different pathways to the very top of the tree. Serving and volleying will help get you there. So will being solid as a rock from the back of the court. An Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis of year-end No. 1s from the 1991 season to present day shows remarkable variety in serve and return performance. Serving Pete Sampras finished year-end No. 1 for six straight years, from 1993 to 1998, with his last season in particular highlighting the extremes in how well he dominated with his first and second...