When is a break of serve in tennis not really a break? When you get broken straight back.

Protecting your serve is a high priority in our sport, but the inevitable is going to happen – everyone is going to lose their serve at some stage. The best players in the world don’t let the disappointment of getting broken get them down for long. The perfect antidote is to break straight back, effectively cancelling out the advantage the opponent briefly held.

The ability to break straight back after getting broken also speaks to the mental strength and fortitude of the player as much as the technical prowess and specific technique of returning serve.

Leaderboard

From January 2015 up to the 2016 Australian Open, nobody in the world was better at breaking immediately back after being broken than the World No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, Novak Djokovic. In the 2015 season, the super Serb won 34 per cent of his return games to be No. 1 in this specific category. But he was even better after getting broken.

Djokovic won a commanding 38 per cent of his return games immediately after getting broken to lead a handful of players that break more often than their season average right after feeling the despair of losing serve. Spaniards David Ferrer and Rafael Nadal were next in line as the most successful players to break straight back after being broken in 2015, with Ferrer at 36 per cent and Nadal at 34 per cent.

Personal Best

Another way to dissect these key Infosys metrics is to analyse how well each player did against their own personal average. Stan Wawrinka had the most improvement, breaking back immediately 26 percent of the time as opposed to his regular rate of breaking 21 per cent of the time.

Djokovic was up 4 per cent on his personal average, while Roger Federer and Nadal were up 3 per cent. The only other Top 10 players to improve their performance breaking back immediately after dropping serve were Ferrer and Kei Nishikori – both with a 2 per cent improvement.

It’s often hard to put a finger on the difference between good and great in our sport, but these key Infosys ATP Beyond the Numbers metrics do just about as good a job as anything at uncovering just that. Breaking immediately back clearly showcases a player’s mettle to not let adversity get the better of them. It’s a mental trick as much as anything else, cancelling out advantages, and stopping an opponent’s sudden momentum in its tracks.

Big Servers

The metrics also uncovered that big servers, such as Ivo Karlovic, Kevin Anderson and Milos Raonic, have more difficultly in this key category than we perceived they would. Raonic had a substantial 6 per cent drop from his 2015 season average, while Anderson was down 4 per cent, and Karlovic down 2 per cent.

The advantage of the big server is the ability to hold a lot more than normal, but it also seems that it is tougher for this specific style of player to immediately break back. An old tennis saying is that a break is not a break until it’s consolidated with a hold, and it seems that some players can tap into this fable a lot better than others. 

Roger Federer stepped out onto the red carpet at the 88th Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, on Sunday.

The Swiss later spent time at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, which was attended by Leonardo DiCaprio, winner of the best actor Oscar, for his performance in The Revenant, Anne Hathaway, Amy Adams, Eddie Redmayne, fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger and former World No. 1 John McEnroe.

On Saturday night, Federer had attended Harvey Weinstein’s star-studded pre-Oscars party at the Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills.

Federer returned to the practice court last week, having undergone arthroscopic surgery on his knee on 3 February in Switzerland. He has entered the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, starting on 10 April.

A LOOK BACK
Challenger La Manche (Cherbourg, France): Sixth seed Jordan Thompson rallied from an early deficit to claim his first ATP Challenger Tour title on Sunday. The 21 year old needed one hour and 42 minutes to complete the 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 comeback over Adam Pavlasek, firing nine aces. It was the first final in Cherbourg to not feature a Frenchman since 2003, when Argentina’s Sergio Roitman defeated Rafael Nadal.

The second Australian to lift a Challenger trophy in 2016, joining 19-year-old Blake Mott, Thompson broke through after three previous defeats in finals. The Sydney native will rise to a career-high World No. 123 in the Emirates ATP Rankings.

Shimadzu All Japan Indoor Tennis Championships (Kyoto, Japan): For the sixth time in the 20-year history of the Kyoto Challenger, a home grown champion emerged. Top seed Yuichi Sugita rallied from a set down to deny China’s Zhang Ze 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 in Sunday’s final, notching a second Kyoto title and sixth overall on the ATP Challenger Tour. Also the champion in 2010 (d. Ebden), Sugita will crack the Top 100 of the Emirates ATP Rankings for the first time, rising to a career-high World No. 99.

What The Players Said
Thompson: “It feels great to have won my first Challenger title. I’m really pumped. The Top 100 is my goal for sure!”

WHAT’S AHEAD
The lone event on this week’s schedule is the sixth edition of the prestigious event in Quimper, France. A Frenchman has taken home the trophy the past two years, with Pierre-Hugues Herbert winning in 2014 and Benoit Paire prevailing in 2015. This week, Herbert is seeded fifth with Paul-Henri Mathieu leading the pack. A potential blockbuster all-Russian teen clash between Karen Khachanov and Andrey Rublev looms in the second round.

Julio Peralta and Horacio Zeballos made the most of their first ATP World Tour final appearance as a team by winning the Brasil Open 4-6, 6-1, 10-5 over Pablo Carreno Busta and David Marrero on Sunday. The established partnership already had four ATP Challenger titles to its name, but was only taking part in its second tour-level event (2016 Quito), improving to 5-1. Peralta was contesting his first tour-level final, while Zeballos had two doubles titles, having won in Buenos Aires in 2010 and in Munich a year later.

“In the first set, I did not play that well, to be honest,” Peralta said. “But in second, I did, making some good returns and putting pressure on them. That was the key today.

“I want to thank my partner Horacio for a great week. We hope to come back next year.” 

“We were a little bit nervous in the first set, but we just focused on our game in the second set and we ended up playing very good tennis,” Zeballos said. “We like the conditions. It’s also nice to play close to home. The people treat us very well here in Sao Paulo. It’s always nice to play in South America.”

The Spaniards Carreno Busta and Marrero were playing in their second final in two weeks, having upset top seeds Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares en route to the Rio Open final (l. to Cabal/Farah). Carreno Busta was still warm from playing in the Sao Paulo singles final (l. to Cuevas) earlier in the day. 

Carreno Busta/Marrero saved all seven break points faced in the first set and earned an early lead by going one-for-nine on break point opportunities. Peralta/Zeballos fired back by breaking their opponents twice in the second set, then winning all four second-serve points in the Match Tie-break to secure the title. They received 250 Emirates ATP Doubles Rankings points and $23,600, while the finalists shared 150 points and $12,400.

Pablo Cuevas successfully defended his Brasil Open title with a 7-6(4), 6-3 victory over Pablo Carreno Busta in the final on Sunday. The 30 year old earned his fifth tour-level title and second in as many weeks after winning the Rio Open seven days ago. He is now 5-1 in ATP World Tour final appearances, all on clay courts.

The Uruguayan only dropped serve once and converted three break point chances (3/5) during the 85-minute encounter. His second Sao Paulo title match was a breeze compared to last year’s final, when he broke back down 4-5 in the final set and saw off Luca Vanni 7-6 in the deciding tie-break.

Cuevas is on a nine-match winning streak and improved to 11-1 on clay in 2016. He received 250 Emirates ATP Rankings points and $77,600. Carreno Busta, a first-time finalist at tour-level, earned 150 points and $40,870.

The finish line rushes hard at you when you are losing. Changing anything from tactics, to a racquet, or even changing ends of the court can all be potential ways to wrestle back precious momentum.

In many ways, losing a set, or a match, simply means you ran out of time to unearth a winning strategy. When adversity strikes, the value of time skyrockets.

The best players in the world intimately know the importance of time, making matches last longer when they are under attack, giving them a few extra ticks on the clock to find an answer to their troubles.

An Infosys ATP Beyond the Numbers analysis of tour-level matches played by the Top 10 players in the Emirates ATP Rankings from the 2015 season up to the 2016 Australian Open shows how the various elite players successfully manage the asset of time. As a general rule, you want to play quicker when things are falling your way, not allowing time for any surprises to appear. It’s the complete opposite when the opponent is dominating.

Time Of Set

Roger Federer’s average time winning a set was the quickest of the Top 10 at 36 minutes. He will often breeze through a service game in barely a minute and some change. Federer also led the Top 10 in stretching out adversity, lengthening the sets he loses on average by 10 minutes, to 46 minutes

That’s very clever time management. What’s extremely fascinating is that the average time it takes Rafael Nadal to win a set (46 minutes), is exactly the same time it takes Federer to lose one. Different strokes for different folks. Tennis is such an empowering sport that allows a variety of contrasting game styles the ability to be successful.

Where Federer manages to play longer when losing a set, his compatriot Stan Wawrinka, is in stark contrast. Wawrinka averaged 42 minutes winning a set, which was exactly the same as the Top 10 average, but only 39 minutes when losing a set.

He was the only Top 10 player to play shorter when losing. The Top 10 averaged an extra four minutes longer playing sets they lose – prolonging the finish line four more minutes in the hope of somehow turning things around.

Time Of The Match
Federer earns the distinction of averaging the quickest match times when winning (89 minutes), and also the longest match times when losing (143 minutes).

Federer is clearly in a rush when ahead, but stretches time out when behind, exploring all strategic options.

What’s interesting is that the average match time (110 minutes) was only two minutes longer (108 minutes) than the winning average. Time is an omnipotent force that you can’t see or touch, but plays a pivotal role in riding out a storm, or storming to the finish line.