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...
The 2017 Nitto ATP Finals brought a spectacular close to a memorable 2017 season that saw more fans come out and watch the world’s best tennis players on the ATP World Tour than ever before. More than 4.5 million fans attended ATP World Tour events in 2017, an all-time record. The season finale in London attracted a total attendance of 253,642, including six sold-out sessions, making it the ninth successive year that the tournament has broken the 250,000 attendance mark. Cumulative attendance since the tournament moved to London in 2009 stands at more than 2.3 million fans. This year’s tournament saw a host of three set-matches across the eight days of competition in a tournament that pitted established stars such...
Immediately after capturing the Nitto ATP Finals title, Grigor Dimitrov stormed into the stands and embraced Daniel Vallverdu, his coach since midway through 2016 and the man who finally harnessed the potential of Dimitrov and channeled it into the most successful year of his career. No one had ever doubted Dimitrov's talent. The Bulgarian was known worldwide for his must-see groundstrokes and his abundance of skills. But before he and Vallverdu paired up last year, Dimitrov almost had too much talent, too many options. He admits to being unclear about how to approach his game and on the best way forward for his tennis. Enter Vallverdu, who has helped simplify Dimitrov's game and guided the Bulgarian to his best season yet....