Winning at the Nitto ATP Finals often requires players to raise their games to another level. And with the 2018 season finale less than two months away, Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers investigates which players have best lifted their games during the most recent season finales.

During the past three Nitto ATP Finals, only two players have won a higher percentage of points at the season-ending event than they did during the regular season. An analysis of who competed in the 2015, 2016 and 2017 Nitto ATP Finals at The O2 in London highlights that the elite level of competition for every match dictates that most players walk away from the tournament losing more points than they win.

Grigor Dimitrov leads the pack in the past three years with the highest percentage of points won in London at 55.4 per cent. Last year, Dimitrov won a very respectable 53 per cent of points in the regular season, and improved that by 2.4 percentage points to capture the biggest title of his career.

The only other player to perform better in London in November than everywhere else from January to October was Novak Djokovic in 2016. He won 54.9 per cent of his points in the regular season, and inched a little higher to win an even 55 per cent of his points in the last ATP World Tour tournament of the year.

During the past three years, no other player has been able to increase the percentage of points won at the Nitto ATP Finals over their regular season performances.

2015-2017 Percentage Points Won: Regular Season vs. Nitto ATP Finals

All players who have competed in the Nitto ATP Finals in the past three seasons have enjoyed winning more points than they have lost during the regular season. But only eight times out of 26 attempts has a player walked away with winning more than 50 per cent of their points at The O2.

Editor’s note: Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers author Craig O’Shannessy is also a member of Novak Djokovic’s coaching team.

Pierre-Hugues Herbert recorded his biggest match win for 16 months on Wednesday for a place in the Shenzhen Open quarter-finals. The Frenchman proved to be too strong for second-seeded Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-3, 7-6(4) in one hour and 41 minutes. Herbert knocked out No. 13-ranked Lucas Pouille in May 2017 at the Mutua Madrid Open first round.

World No. 15 Tsitsipas, who is in the running to qualify for the Next Gen ATP Finals at Milan in November, has now lost four of his past five matches since advancing to the Rogers Cup final (l. to Nadal) on 12 August.

Herbert next faces Spain’s Albert Ramos-Vinolas, who edged past Viktor Troicki of Serbia 7-6(4), 4-6, 7-6(3) in two hours and 37 minutes.

Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka recovered from 0-3 down in the third set and saved two match points at 4-5, 15/40 for a 7-6(5), 3-6, 7-5 victory over sixth seed Denis Shapovalov, the 19-year-old #NextGenATP Canadian, who is in third position in the ATP Race To Milan. Qualifier Nishioka will face Briton Cameron Norrie, who upset third seed Borna Coric 6-4, 7-6(8).

Former World No. 1 Andy Murray had to fight for it, but the Scot began his Asian swing with a victory on Tuesday at the Shenzhen Open.

The 2014 champion led 6-3, 6-7(3), 4-2 when Chinese wild card Zhizhen Zhang retired down 3-6, 7-6(3), 2-4. Murray saved eight of 10 break points and won nearly 60 per cent of his second-serve return points.

“I felt he played very well after the first set,” Murray said. “I just managed to fight hard, stay tough in the beginning of the third set and unfortunately for him, the cramps started. It was very difficult conditions.”

It was Murray’s first match since the US Open, when he fell to Spain’s Fernando Verdasco in the second round. The Brit will next meet top seed and defending champion David Goffin.

Canadian Denis Shapovalov led the #NextGenATP charge, winning a rain-interrupted first-round match 7-5, 2-6, 6-3 over Ilya Ivashka of Belarus. The match was suspended for more than three hours.

“I think once we came back from the break, we played better,” said Shapovalov, who will next play Japanese qualifier Yoshihito Nishioka. “It’s been tough conditions here today, but I felt much better on my return to the court.”

#NextGenATP Aussie Alex de Minaur also advanced, needing only 56 minutes to move past Japan’s Yuichi Sugita 6-3, 6-0. De Minaur will next meet American Mackenzie McDonald, who was leading 5-7, 6-0, 5-0 when Slovakia’s Lukas Lacko retired.

Indian qualifier Ramkumar Ramanathan knocked out Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic 7-5, 6-1 in 90 minutes to set up a second-round matchup with fourth seed Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Read More: Tsitsipas, Dzumhur Reach New Heights In Shenzhen

Stefanos Tsitsipas and Damir Dzumhur started their Shenzhen Open experience at another level on Tuesday. The second and fourth seed visited the Ping An International Finance Centre and its observatory floor at 550 metres on Tuesday morning. The Ping An International Finance Centre was completed in 2017 and is currently the fourth tallest building in the world.

“It was an extraordinary experience for me. Hopefully I can make it to every tall building like this in the world. It’s one of my bucket list goals in life,” Tsitsipas said.

Greece’s #NextGenATP star is playing in the ATP World Tour 250-level tournament for the first time and still has plenty he wants to achieve in 2018.

“I’m pumped. I’m working hard to get to my first title this year. Hopefully I play some good tennis this week,” he said.

The 20-year-old Greek is in 13^th place in the ATP Race To London. The top eight will qualify for the prestigious season-ending Nitto ATP Finals, to be held 11-18 November at The O2 in London.

Dzumhur, a three-time ATP World Tour titlist, reached the Shenzhen semi-finals last year and enjoyed the experience on Tuesday.

“It was really great. First going up this high and then standing at those windows where you can see what is down under yourself, it’s quite scary,” he said. “It was a really great experience. We played a little bit of tennis. We had a lot of fun.”