Del Potro, Other Top Players Find Success Behind Second Serves

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