Every week, Tennis Analytics dives deep into the data, bringing you a stat of the week to help you understand tennis better and become a little smarter.
July is return month!
Every Wednesday this month, we’ll be releasing new data on the return of serve.
Stat of the Week: 15%
A few weeks ago we saw that men miss 23% of returns on the deuce side when facing a first serve.
On second servers, that number drops all the way to 15%.
The men also see a lot more forehands when facing a 2nd serve in the deuce court. It was about 50/50 on first serves, but it’s a 57/43 split in favor of forehands on 2nd serves.
Perhaps the run-around forehand?
Still, the error rate is higher on the forehand side than the backhand side.
Here are the stats for NCAA men in the 2019-2020 season.
| 2nd Serve Returns Deuce Court | % of Total | Rate |
| BH Error | 6% | 15% |
| FH Error | 9% | 17% |
| BH Winner | 0.6% | 1.4% |
| FH Winner | 1.4% | 2.4% |
| BH Made | 36% | 84% |
| FH Made | 46% | 81% |
Note: The rate is calculated by dividing by the total number of forehand or backhand returns. For example, if you hit 3 forehand winners out of 100 forehand returns, your FH winner rate is 3%.
On the women’s side, 15% of returns are errors against 2nd serves in the deuce court. The same as the men.
The biggest difference is the percent of forehands. 70% of all 2nd serve returns in the deuce court are hit as forehands for the women.
The error rate is slightly higher on the forehand side. This was not the case on first serves.
Here is the full data for the women.
| 2nd Serve Returns Deuce Court | % of Total | Rate |
| BH Error | 4% | 14% |
| FH Error | 11% | 16% |
| BH Winner | 0.6% | 2.0% |
| FH Winner | 2.4% | 3.4% |
| BH Made | 26% | 84% |
| FH Made | 56% | 80% |
Note: The rate is calculated by dividing by the total number of forehand or backhand returns. For example, if you hit 3 forehand winners out of 100 forehand returns, your FH winner rate is 3%.
Point of the Week
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Photo of the Week
Caroline Garcia’s forehand.
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