Continuing our Season In Review series, ATPWorldTour.com revisits the fiercest rivalries of 2016. Today we feature Dominic Thiem vs. Alexander Zverev:

The future superstars of the ATP World Tour made their presence known with significant statements in 2016. Players aged 19-23 accounted for 11 titles in total and two of them wasted no time in kicking off a budding rivalry.

Longtime sporting adversaries Austria and Germany added Dominic Thiem and Alexander Zverev to the fray, with the pair meeting on four occasions this year. Each encounter proved to be an intense clash of exuberance and shotmaking, as 23-year-old Thiem and 19-year-old Zverev contested a trio of three-set clashes on the ATP World Tour, in addition to a four-set battle at Roland Garros.

With three meetings in a mere five-week span during the European clay-court swing, Thiem and Zverev got acquainted early and often this year. The Austrian would take all three encounters, prevailing in the Munich semi-finals, Nice final and Roland Garros third round, but it was far from straightforward.

Thiem rallied from a set down, saving eight of 11 break points for a 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 win in Munich and was pushed the distance in retaining the Nice title. It was the first career final for #NextGen star Zverev, who fell to the reigning champ 6-4, 3-6, 6-0. With a combined age of 41, it represented the youngest final on the ATP World Tour this year.

“Against a player like Dominic, who is one of the best clay-court players right now, you have to be at your best to beat him,” said Zverev. “There’s not a lot of chances.”

With Thiem hurtling towards the Top 10 of the Emirates ATP Rankings and Zverev rapidly ascending to the Top 20, the pair carried the momentum from the Nice final into Roland Garros for the second Grand Slam of the year. Both would enjoy their best major results and a third round encounter brought their growing rivalry to one of the biggest stages in the game. Court Suzanne-Lenglen welcomed Thiem and Zverev, with a Round of 16 berth at stake, and they did not disappoint the French faithful.

Like he did in Munich, Thiem was forced to battle back from an early deficit. He missed six break chances late in the first set as Zverev went on to snatch the opener and grab a quick break in the second. But Thiem struck back, reeling off five straight games and eventually putting the match out of reach with a 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 victory after nearly three hours.

“I knew already before the match that it was going to be a very tough one against such a great player like Sascha,” said Thiem. “I think the little difference today was probably the three years’ age difference.”

The pair would wait five months before capping their season series with a first-round meeting at the ATP World Tour 500 event in Beijing. Fresh off claiming his first tour-level trophy at the St. Petersburg Open, stunning Tomas Berdych and Stan Wawrinka in the semis and final, Zverev scored his third Top 10 win in four days with a 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 win over Thiem.

With both players continuing to plot their ascent up the Emirates ATP Rankings, look for many more encounters in the years to come.

View FedEx ATP Head2Head (Thiem Leads 3-1)

Thiem vs. Zverev: 2016 Meetings

Twenty years ago was the golden age of the big server.

Players such as Goran Ivanisevic, Pete Sampras, Richard Krajicek and Boris Becker dominated during an unprecedented period of first-serve dominance, the mid- to late 1990s. Today, it’s superiority behind the second serve that has risen to prominence as players look to climb the Emirates ATP Rankings.

An Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis of first- and second-serve win percentages beginning in 1991, when such statistics were first kept in tennis, to the 2016 season, shows a clear and dramatic transition of where players are excelling to begin the point.

Performance categories were created with the following criteria:

• First-serve points won at 80 per cent or higher;

• Second-serve points won at 55 per cent or higher.

1996 = Best Year For First-Serve Performance

The evolution of sport is not always linear. We think today’s players should be better than yesterday’s, but that’s simply not the case. You have to go back 20 years, to 1996, to find the last season in which at least eight players won 80 per cent of their first-serve points.

1. Goran Ivanisevic (85.5%)

2. Pete Sampras (82.9%)

3. Richard Krajicek (82.7%)

4. Boris Becker (82%)

5. Mark Philippoussis (80.9%)

6. Greg Rusedski (80.7%)

7. Marc Rosset (80.7%)

8. Michael Stich (80.3%)

2011 = Best Year For Second-Serve Performance

The year 2011 saw the most players (11) win 55 per cent or better of their second-serve points. That same year also had the greatest disparity in favour of second-serve performance, with only two players (Ivo Karlovic, 80.3%, and Gilles Muller, 80%) at or above the 80 per cent mark on first-serve points won. The 11 players who won at least 55 per cent of their second-serve points in 2011:

1. Juan Carlos Ferrero (57.3%)

2. Roger Federer (57.1%)

3. Federico Delbonis (56.9%)

4. Rafael Nadal (56.7%)

5. Andy Roddick (55.7%)

6. Novak Djokovic (55.6%)

7. John Isner (55.4%)

8. Juan Martin del Potro (55.4%)

9. Janko Tipsarevic (55.4%)

10. David Ferrer (55.4%)

11. Tommy Robredo (55%)

Tipping Point = 2001

In the 10 years from 1991 to 2000, there was only one year (1991) where the total number of players who won 55 per cent of their second-serve points was more than the total number of players who won 80 per cent of their first-serve points. Then in 2001, players’ second-serve performances surged ahead, and it has stayed that way since.

The last two seasons (2015 and 2016) have seen four players each year win at least 80 per cent of their first-serve points, which is the best since 2000. It is definitely a resurgence, but interestingly it has not been at the expense of second-serve performance, which has stayed solid, with 10 players winning 55 per cent plus in 2015, and nine in 2016.

Summary

The cyclical nature of tennis is influenced by new technology as well as the strategic chess moves and counter-moves that players make to find a critical edge. There is no denying that proficiency behind your second serve is our sport’s current global phenomenon.

How First Serve Dominance Has Changed From 1991-2016

Juan Martin del Potro has endured more pain than most tennis players during his injury-stinted career, including four wrist surgeries during the past seven years. So of course he wasn’t going to let a broken left pinky finger stop him during his final match of the season on Sunday.

Del Potro and Marin Cilic were tied two sets a piece during their Davis Cup match when the Argentine broke his smallest left finger while trying to catch a missed Cilic serve off the bounce.

Del Potro played through the injury, though, and improved upon his already impressive 2016 by coming back from two-sets down for the first time in his career to beat Cilic 6-7(4), 2-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-3 in four hours and 53 minutes. Del Potro’s win forced a fifth rubber in the Davis Cup final between Argentina and Croatia, and his teammate Federico Delbonis completed the turnaround by beating Croatia’s Ivo Karlovic to give Argentina its first Davis Cup title.

“My finger is broken but I won’t mind one bit if we win the Davis Cup,” del Potro told reporters after his win, while Delbonis was still on court. “This was an emotionally exhausting match and one of the biggest wins of my career. Thanks to all those who prevented me from retiring. I was very close to never playing again and, well, here I am.”

The 28 year old has said he thought about giving up tennis during his latest comeback. But he didn’t, and tennis fans were the beneficiaries this season.

Del Potro, No. 38 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, has climbed 1,007 spots since February. He beat Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Stan Wawrinka and Rafael Nadal this season. Del Potro also became a titlist again this year, hoisting his first ATP World Tour trophy since January 2014 by winning the If Stockholm Open in October (d. Sock).

All of his accomplishments earned him his second Comeback Player of the Year honour in the 2016 ATP World Tour Awards presented by Moët & Chandon. Del Potro also received the award in 2011 after coming back from right-wrist surgery that he underwent in May 2010. The Tandil native also had three surgeries on his left wrist in 2014 and 2015.

Join us in coming weeks as we re-live the drama and excitement of 2016 in our annual review of the ATP World Tour season.

We begin this week with the five most intriguing rivalries of 2016. We’ll also look at the best matches, biggest comebacks, most stunning upsets, statistics, hot shots, off-court fun and more.

Look for new content each day as we reflect on a great year and count down to the start of the 2017 season, which begins January 1st in Brisbane (and Jan. 2 in Doha and Chennai).

The Rivalries
Andy Murray v Milos Raonic

More to come…