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Nadal's Surprising Stat That Pushed Him To No. 1

  • Posted: Oct 03, 2017

Nadal's Surprising Stat That Pushed Him To No. 1

Oct032017

Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers explains how the Spaniard overcomes the odds returning first serves

As a returner, everything is stacked against you.

Firstly, you are facing the hardest shot hit on a tennis court, sometimes upwards of 140 mph. Blink, and it’s gone. Secondly, you begin in a statistical black hole, not even forecast to win three out of every 10 points you play.

Returning first serves is one of the toughest elements of our sport, with only a handful of players able to nudge their win rate higher than 30 per cent in this key strategic area. Depending on court surface and speed, average first-serve return win percentages for the Top 100 are typically between 26-30 per cent, with the average right at 28 per cent.

An Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis of Rafael Nadal’s resurgence to No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Rankings this season shows that the Spaniard’s performance in this key battleground has certainly aided his comeback.

Nadal is also No. 1 on tour in 2017 winning return points against first serves, at 35.2 per cent (971/2761). That metric bumps up to an astounding 43.4 per cent (454/1045) when you focus on just his clay-court matches.

2017 Season: Top 10 Points Won Returning First Serves

Ranking Player Win Percentage
1  Rafael Nadal 35.2%
2  Andy Murray 34.7%
3  Diego Schwartzman 34.5%
4  Benoit Paire 33.7%
5  Novak Djokovic 33.5%
6  Roberto Bautista Agut 32.8%
7  Roger Federer 32.5%
8 Fabio Fognini 31.9%
9 Dominic Thiem 31.8%
10  Marin Cilic 31.6%
 – AVERAGE 33.2%

Andy Murray, who started 2017 as the No. 1 player in the Emirates ATP Rankings, is second best this season winning return points against first serves, at 34.7 per cent (640/1847).

Diego Schwartzman is the best returner on tour so far in 2017, winning an impressive 36 per cent (195/544) of his return games. He comes in third best winning return points against first serves, at 34.5 per cent (724/2099).

Other players in the Top 10 in first-serve return points won this season include Novak Djokovic (33.5 per cent), Roberto Bautista Agut (32.8 per cent), Roger Federer (32.5 per cent), Fabio Fognini (31.9 per cent), Dominic Thiem (31.8 per cent) and Marin Cilic (31.6 per cent).

Nadal, Djokovic and Murray have been No. 1 in this statistic for the past six seasons, dating back to 2011.

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The technique used to succeed in this area is built around rebounding the power coming at you rather than trying to generate it all yourself. Blocking first serves with a short backswing and a defencive mindset lets these players neutralise the power of the first serve as quickly as possible in the rally.

The halo effect of the serve typically lasts for two more shots in a rally, where the server can lean on their groundstrokes and play aggressively because of the offence created behind their first serve. But these peak returners typically take that two-shot advantage away, often times pushing the server immediately onto their back foot for their Serve +1 groundstroke.

The primary target is straight back at the server, not changing direction at all, and trying to get the return as deep as possible to make the server have to move away from the shot instead of towards it.

There is no other strategy in our sport that makes you feel good winning only three out of ten times. It’s all about defence first, and looking to get back to neutral as quickly as possible through depth and direction right back at the server.

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Dan Evans: British tennis player banned for one year for positive cocaine test

  • Posted: Oct 03, 2017

British tennis player Dan Evans has been banned for one year after testing positive for cocaine, which he explained had accidentally mixed with his medication in a washbag.

The British number four provided the positive sample at the Barcelona Open on 24 April and his suspension is back-dated to begin from that date.

Evans, 27, will therefore be free to return to action from 24 April 2018.

“I am determined to return to the sport I love,” said the Briton.

“I want to thank everyone who has supported me throughout this difficult period.”

Governing body the International Tennis Federation (ITF) explained that, because cocaine is not performance enhancing and it was taken out of competition, a potential four-year ban was instead 12 months.

The ITF decision said Evans “promptly admitted his violation” and it accepted his account of how the cocaine got into his system, adding that he bore “no significant fault or negligence for the violation”.

The Briton has also had to forfeit 103,890 euros (£92,205) of prize money won and the ranking points gained between the date of his test and the announcement of the positive finding on 23 June.

According to the ITF decision announced on Tuesday, Evans said “leftover” cocaine had accidentally mixed with permitted medication in the “same pocket of his washbag”.

He said he took those tablets daily from 20 April 2017 to 24 April 2017, the date on which he provided his sample.

It was successfully proven by Evans’ expert, Dr Pascal Kintz, that the amount of cocaine ingested by Evans was no more than 1‐3 mg – a quantity “inconsistent with knowing ingestion and consistent instead with inadvertent contamination”.

Evans had reached a career-high ranking of 41 in March but is now down to 108th, and will slip further before he is able to return to competition in April.

Dan Evans factfile
Born 23 May 1990, Birmingham
Turned pro 2006
Best Grand Slam performances Australian Open: 4R (2016)
French Open: 1R (2017)
Wimbledon: 3R (2016)
US Open: 3R (2013) and (2016)
ATP Tour titles 0
ATP Tour finals 1 (Sydney 2017)
Career prize money £1,053,266
2017 prize money £319,132

Analysis

Russell Fuller, BBC tennis correspondent

Evans will be very pleased at the outcome, having admitted taking cocaine just four days before he played his first match in Barcelona – in the heart of the clay-court season.

First, the 27-year-old successfully argued he took the drug in a context unrelated to tennis, and then convinced the ITF he was not guilty of significant fault as the legal medication he was taking at the time had been contaminated by the leftover cocaine.

The ITF’s more emollient approach to this case contrasts noticeably with the way they have prosecuted other recent doping violations. Maria Sharapova, Marin Cilic and Viktor Troicki all appealed the verdict of independent tribunals to the Court of Arbitration for Sport – and all had their bans reduced.

The ITF will have been very keen to avoid this case going the same way, and as Evans agreed to the ban they proposed, the governing body did not push for an independent hearing.

Evans now has a good opportunity to re-establish himself as a top-100 player. It won’t be glamorous returning to the lower tiers of the Futures circuit to scrap for ranking points, but he has proven before he can do it.

In May 2015, after a spell out through injury, Evans stood at 772 in the world. He was back in the world’s top 100 within a year.

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Zverev Moves Closer To London Bid

  • Posted: Oct 03, 2017

Zverev Moves Closer To London Bid

Oct032017

German is in third place in the Emirates ATP Race To London

Alexander Zverev inched closer to clinching his debut appearance at the Nitto ATP Finals in London on Tuesday.

The second seed started his China Open with a 6-3, 7-6(3) victory against 22-year-old Kyle Edmund of Great Britain in a match that finished after midnight local time. The 20-year-old Zverev broke in the third and ninth games of the first set.

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Edmund raised his level in the second set and had a set point on his racquet at 5-4 after breaking Zverev. But the German broke back and sprinted through the tie-break, winning the final four points for the straight-sets win.

Zverev improves to 2-0 against Edmund in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series. The 6’6” German is in third place in the Emirates ATP Race To London with 4,220 points, behind Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. Fourth-placed Dominic Thiem, who lost on Tuesday in Tokyo, is 505 points behind Zverev.

The Hamburg native will next meet Italian Fabio Fognini. Zverev leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 1-0, a 6-3, 6-3 win earlier this year in Rome en route to his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title.

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Nadal saves match points in win over Pouille

  • Posted: Oct 03, 2017

World number one Rafael Nadal saved two match points as he came from a set down to beat France’s Lucas Pouille in the first round of the China Open.

Nadal, making his first appearance since last month’s US Open win, was 4-6 down in the second set tie-break before winning four consecutive points.

The Spaniard, 31, then converted his only break point of the match in the final set to win 4-6 7-6 (8-6) 7-5.

“I am very, very happy to be through,” said Nadal.

“He played well, I think, very aggressive. He’s serving well. For me it was a little bit difficult at the beginning, then I started to play better.

“But still, I didn’t have the control of the match for almost all the time.”

Nadal, who won his 16th Grand Slam title in New York three weeks ago, goes on to play Russia’s Karen Khachanov in the next round.

Elsewhere in Beijing, Australia’s Nick Kyrgios beat Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-1 6-2, Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov beat Bosnia’s Damir Dzumhur 6-1 3-6 6-3 and Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro is also through after a 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 win against Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay.

American John Isner reached the second round with a 6-2 6-3 victory over Tunisia’s Malek Jaziri, while Czech Tomas Berdych beat American Jared Donaldson 6-3 0-6 6-2.

Raonic returns with a win

In Tokyo, Canada’s Milos Raonic made his return to action following a wrist problem with a 6-3 6-4 win over Serbia’s Viktor Troicki at the Japan Open.

“It was a good match for me in a lot of ways disciplined, competed well – considering the circumstances,” said Raonic, who missed the US Open during a seven-week lay-off.

“The injury developed over the past 10 years, the pain had been manageable. But I hit a breaking point and the pain was not tolerable.”

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Injured Konta pulls out of Hong Kong Open

  • Posted: Oct 03, 2017

British number one Johanna Konta has pulled out of next week’s Hong Kong Open with a foot injury, but hopes to return in Moscow the following week.

Konta, 26, currently holds the eighth and final qualifying position for this month’s season-ending WTA Finals.

Losing to Monica Niculescu in this week’s China Open took her losing streak to five matches and opened the door for other players to overtake her.

Her Finals place could be sealed depending on results at the China Open.

She was beaten by Romania’s world number 65 Niculescu in her opening match in Beijing on Sunday, continuing a winless run that will now extend to at least eight weeks.

The world number seven described herself as “very disappointed” after a left-foot injury forced her to pull out of Hong Kong.

The WTA Finals get under way in Singapore on 22 October, and Konta might still need to earn points in Moscow the week before to secure her place.

She missed out on qualifying for the first time on the last day of the regular season in 2016.

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Nadal Saves Two M.P. In Beijing Opener

  • Posted: Oct 03, 2017

Nadal Saves Two M.P. In Beijing Opener

Oct032017

Spaniard kicks off his Asian swing

Rafael Nadal returned to tour-level action with a dramatic victory on Tuesday, saving two match points to oust Frenchman Lucas Pouille 4-6, 7-6(6), 7-5 at the China Open in Beijing.

The top-seeded Spaniard was down 4/6 in the second-set tie-break, but won four consecutive points to even the match at one set-all. In the decider, Nadal earned his lone break of the match in the 11th game and served out the first-round contest a game later to 15.

The World No. 1 extends his match win streak to eight after reeling off seven in a row last month to win the US Open, his 16th Grand Slam title. The Spaniard, a 2005 champion in Beijing, improves to 21-5 in the Chinese capital.

You May Also Like: Raonic Makes Winning Return In Tokyo

Pouille had won their most recent FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting and their only prior match-up on hard courts, outlasting Nadal in a fifth-set tie-break during the fourth round of the 2016 US Open. The Frenchman was aggressive in Beijing as well, blasting 46 winners to 47 unforced errors.

But it was the World No. 1 who steadied his nerves the most in the big moments. Nadal finished 10/10 at the net and converted his lone break opportunity in the third set.

The top seed will next face #NextGenATP Karen Khachanov or Chinese wild card Di Wu.

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