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.
Stat of the Week: 61%
Last week we looked at the first 4 shot breakdown at the 2021 US Open for the men. This week we look at the women’s draw.
The winner of the first 4 rally battle almost always wins the war. For the women’s draw, we collected data from 13,290 points played. Of these, 61% ended within 4 shots.
Here’s a deeper dive into what happened during these 4 shot rallies.
- Except for the serve, the numbers were very similar to the men
- More winners (38%) were hit by the server on the second ball (serve +1) than on the serve (34%)
- Most errors in the first 4 shots happen on return (44%)
- 1.1x serve winners to errors (aces to double faults) – Men was 2.5x
- 9.3x return errors to winners – Men was 15.6x
- 1.8x serve +1 errors to winners
- 3.8x return +1 errors to winners
- Overall, 2.8 errors to winners for points ending in 4 shots or less – Men was 2.3
Point of the Week
The biggest difference in the men’s game and the women’s game is the serve.
Generally, the second serve is a liability in the women’s game – advantage is to the returner. This can be looked at in two ways:
- Work on developing the serve, especially the second serve as a weapon, or…
- Take advantage of this fact and pay special attention to your return
While both strokes are equally important, the “lower hanging fruit” from a technical standpoint is the return.
How do you stack up? Send us your match footage to tag and then use these numbers to drive the practice court.
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Photo of the Week
Rafael Nadal’s forehand swing path.
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