When was the toughest time to break Kei Nishikori in the 2018 season? Right after he just broke serve.

An Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis of the year-end Top 10 identified that Nishikori led this elite group by improving his hold percentage the most right after breaking serve compared to his 2018 season average.

Nishikori held 81.4 per cent (638/784) of the time in 2018, which was actually the lowest hold percentage out of the Top 10. But his hold percentage jumped a substantial 5.9 percentage points, to 87.3 per cent (151/173), in the ensuing service game right after breaking. Nobody improved as much as Nishikori did.

Eight of the players inside year-end Top 10 also improved holding in this specific situation, with only Roger Federer and Kevin Anderson unable to hold more after breaking serve than their season average.

Top 10: 2018 Season Average Holding Serve vs Right After Breaking Serve

The player with the second highest improvement holding serve after breaking compared to his season average was Alexander Zverev, who had a 3.6 percentage-point jump. Zverev won the biggest title of his career at the Nitto ATP Finals in London last month, impressively holding serve seven out of eight times (88%) at The O2 right after breaking serve.

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic was in third place with a 3.3 percentage-point jump. Djokovic’s last title of 2018, a victory at the Rolex Shanghai Masters, saw the Serbian hold 100 per cent (13/13) of the time after breaking serve for the tournament.

Holding after breaking is all about cementing an advantage and building momentum as the match unfolds.

Editor’s Note: Craig O’Shannessy is a member of Novak Djokovic’s coaching team.

Celebrating 50 Years Of Open Tennis
Fifty years ago, tennis was a non-commercial enterprise with amateur players receiving tournament expenses, often better than the living wage, and were still able to compete in the world’s leading tennis tournaments. Across the great divide, ever since the first pro tour in 1926, were a small band of former amateurs turned contract pros, who had been banished from the public spotlight and criss-crossed the globe in search of a pay cheque.

Over the course of one eventful decade, starting in the late 1950s, a handful of leading powerbrokers began to effect a change in the way the sport was promoted, for a free, shared market that led to the modern professional game of superstar athletes. On Monday, 22 April 1968, that all changed. Read Exclusive Feature

A Shared Dream: 50 Years Of Tennis In Washington, D.C.
The Citi Open celebrated its 50th edition this year with one of the best fields in the history of the ATP World Tour 500 tournament. While the muggy heat of Washington, D.C., which tests out every players’ physical conditioning, endures, back in 1969, in the infancy of Open tennis, when doors were — in some cases, reluctantly opened to amateur, contract and professional players — a small group of dedicated individuals took tennis out of the traditional country clubs to a racially integrated district of the city. The original tournament team was small in number and facilities at Rock Creek Park were far from world-class, as they are today. Read & Watch Exclusive Tribute

45 Years Of The ATP Rankings
The ATP Rankings were born on 23 August 1973. After quickly earning legitimacy and credibility, the Rankings have become an indispensable part of tennis accepted universally by players, tournaments and fans. Read Exclusive Feature

30 Years Of The Tour Born In A Parking Lot
Few tennis media conferences have resonated like ‘The Parking Lot Press Conference’, held 30 years ago on 30 August 1988, a seminal moment in ATP history. Read Exclusive Feature

Djokovic Completes Career Golden Masters & Match Wins Milestones

It took more than five years, but victory never tasted so sweet for Novak Djokovic. The Serbian etched his name in the history books on 19 August, clinching his first Western & Southern Open title. Five years after securing his eighth different ATP World Tour Masters 1000 crown in Monte-Carlo, Djokovic completed the full set in Cincinnati, capturing the Career Golden Masters with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Roger Federer. Read & Watch Tribute

Djokovic also played the 1,000th tour-level match of his career on 13 October when he beat Alexander Zverev for a place in the Rolex Shanghai Masters final.

Federer & Mike Bryan Return To No. 1
By overtaking Nadal on 19 February at 36 years old, Federer became the oldest player to capture the No. 1 ATP Ranking since the Rankings were created in 1973. It had been five years and 106 days since the Swiss had previously held top spot, a record for longest time between stints atop tennis’ mountain.

At 40 years and 78 days old, Mike Bryan also became the oldest player to top the ATP Doubles Rankings on 16 July. While the American already owned the record for the most weeks atop those standings, Bryan has not let go of the spot since, and he has now spent 475 weeks as World No. 1.

More Milestones
Rafael Nadal (900), Djokovic (800) and Richard Gasquet and Fernando Verdasco (both 500) recorded match wins milestones in 2018, while 45-year-old Leander Paes notches 750 doubles victories.

John Isner struck his historic 10,000th ace in the fourth game of the deciding set in his quarter-final in Houston against compatriot Steve Johnson. The American became just the fourth player to join the elite group, which includes Ivo Karlovic, Roger Federer and Goran Ivanisevic.

Delivering a world-class anti-corruption regime for professional tennis remains a paramount priority for the international governing bodies of tennis.

The Independent Review Panel’s Final Report, published today (19 December 2018) at www.tennisirp.com maps out a comprehensive route for the sport to follow in combatting betting-related corruption, particularly the vulnerabilities highlighted at the lower levels of the game.

It also confirms that the Panel has seen no evidence of any institutional corruption or cover-up by the international governing bodies or the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU).

Having already confirmed our agreement in principle to the draft recommendations contained in the IRP’s Interim Report of April 2018, we will now work collectively to prioritise timely implementation of the Panel’s final integrity and governance recommendations.

The Panel acknowledges and credits progress already made in important areas, such as the number of successful prosecutions secured by the TIU; its expanded relationships with the betting industry; a major commitment to education and increased staffing levels. There is also recognition of structural changes made to improve the player pathway by the ITF and ATP.

Alongside the continued development and increased funding of the TIU, the sport has also acted on the Panel’s governance recommendations, and the recruitment process for a Chair to lead the new, independent Supervisory Board that will provide the highest quality strategic oversight, direction and guidance for the TIU is under way.

We aim to make this important appointment in early 2019, to be closely followed by selection of the remaining Board members.

Statement issued on behalf of:
Steve Simon, Chief Executive Officer of the WTA and Chairman of the Tennis Integrity Board
Chris Kermode, Executive Chairman and President of the ATP
David Haggerty, President of the ITF
Philip Brook, Chairman, Wimbledon
Katrina Adams, Chair, US Open
Bernard Giudicelli, Chairman, Roland Garros
Jayne Hrdlicka, Chair, Australian Open

Continuing our Season In Review series, ATPTour.com pays tribute to six players who retired in 2018. In part one, we looked back at the careers of five other players, including Tommy Haas.

Mikhail Youzhny (Retired: 21 September), career-high No. 8
The Russian finished his career one victory shy of 500 match wins, but it didn’t matter to Youzhny, who spent 13 straights seasons in the Top 50 of the ATP Rankings. As the son of a Soviet Army Colonel, his salute celebration at the end of his 499 match wins became his trademark. Arguably, the match that made him came in November 2002, when he rallied from two sets down to beat fellow 20-year-old Paul-Henri Mathieu in the fifth rubber to give Russia its first Davis Cup trophy.

Having won his first ATP Tour title earlier that year on Stuttgart clay, Youzhny grew in confidence winning a further nine trophies from 20 finals. He reached his first Grand Slam championship semi-final at the 2006 US Open (also 2010) and 18 months later rose to No. 8 in the ATP Rankings (on 28 January 2008). Youzhny also advanced to the quarter-finals of the three other major championships. Read & Watch Tribute  

Florian Mayer (Retired: 27 August), career-high No. 18
With long backswings, the German’s style of play was unorthodox but effective. The 2004 ATP Newcomer of the Year and a two-time Wimbledon quarter-finalist rose to a career-high No. 18 in the ATP Rankings on 6 June 2011. Last month, Mayer told ATPWorldTour.com, “Having gone 0-4 in my first four finals, I began to question whether I was good enough to win a coveted ATP title. I needed to wait until 2011 in Bucharest to lift a trophy, but my final victory over Alexander Zverev in 2016 [at the Gerry Weber Open in Halle] will be the one I always remember as it was on my comeback from injuries, after almost two years on the sidelines.”

In 2009, Mayer fell as low as No. 450 in the ATP Rankings, but finished the year at No. 61. He recorded 12 Top 10 wins during his career and went 2-5 in ATP Tour finals. The German also won 14 titles from 25 finals on the ATP Challenger Tour.

Gilles Muller (Retired: 27 August), career-high No. 21
In order to succeed as a tennis player, Muller had to leave his native Luxembourg. He did so of his own violation (his parents did not push him) and he would later finish 2001 as the year-end junior World No. 1. Thereafter the serve-volleyer forged a career that was centred on a strong work ethic, which included quarter-final runs at the 2008 US Open (as a qualifier) and 2017 Wimbledon (including a 15-13 fifth set win over Rafael Nadal in the fourth round).

Having reached his first ATP Tour final in July 2004 at the Citi Open (l. to Hewitt), Muller needed to wait 13 seasons until he snapped a five-final losing streak. In an emotional 2017 Sydney International final, with his family courtside, 34-year-old Muller beat Daniel Evans to lift the trophy and later, in June, he captured his second crown at the Libema Open (d. Karlovic). Read & Watch Tribute

Julien Benneteau (Retired: 26 October), career-high No. 25
The softly spoken Frenchman was a throwback to a bygone era, who played as he dressed – with great style and flair – to rise to a career-high No. 25 in the ATP Rankings (17 November 2014). His 0-10 record in ATP Tour finals is an unwanted Open Era record, with his closest shot coming at Kuala Lumpur in 2013 when he failed to convert a match point against Joao Sousa. But Benneteau troubled all-time greats, with victories over Roger Federer, Nadal and Novak Djokovic among 18 Top 10 wins on all surfaces.

His 12 doubles crowns from 21 finals included ended France’s 30-year title wait at 2014 Roland Garros (w/Roger-Vasselin) and two crowns at ATP Masters 1000s, at the 2009 Rolex Shanghai Masters (w/Tsonga) and the 2013 Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters (w/Zimonjic). The former doubles World No. 5 also secured the bronze medal for France with Richard Gasquet at the 2012 London Olympics at Wimbledon and helped his nation win the 2017 Davis Cup crown. Benneteau will now focus on his role as France’s Fed Cup captain. Read & Watch Tribute

Max Mirnyi (Retired: 29 November), career-high doubles No. 1
Nicknamed “The Beast”, Mirnyi had everything to succeed as an athlete: a strong work ethic and great physical attributes. Mirnyi climbed to the top of the ATP Doubles Rankings for the first time on 9 June 2003, and he would spend 57 weeks atop the doubles mountain, good enough for 15th all-time. The Belarusian won 52 tour-level doubles titles (52-46), and Mirnyi recently finished his 20th consecutive doubles campaign inside the Top 100.

As a singles player, he ascended as high as No. 18 in the ATP Rankings, and won 244 tour-level matches, including 16 victories against Top 10 opponents. He also captured the 2003 ABN Amro World Tennis Tournament crown. The six-time men’s doubles Grand Slam winner and 2012 mixed doubles Olympic gold medallist (w/Victoria Azarenka) qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals 10 times, lifting the trophy in 2006 with Jonas Bjorkman and in 2011 with Daniel Nestor. ‘The Beast’ also captured 16 Masters 1000 doubles titles, including the 2003 Miami crown with Roger Federer. Read & Watch Tribute