Coaches View: Konta's Big Serving Day
Johanna Konta has been one of the best servers on the WTA in 2016, and she continued to use that strength to secure her first career title with a 7-5, 5-7, 6-2 win over Venus Williams in the Bank of the West Classic.
In Sunday’s final, Konta won 61% of her service points, slightly ahead of her season performance of 60%, which ranks 10th on the WTA.
SAP Tennis Analytics for Coaches shows that in the three-set final, Konta’s service numbers were significantly better in the first and third sets, both of which she won, compared to the second. In the two winning sets combined, she won 68% of points on her serve. In the second set, which she lost, she won just 51% of service points.
Konta started the second set well, winning eight of her first 10 service points while opening up a 4-1 lead. However, in the next four service games of the set, she won just 41% of her service points, allowing Williams to force the decider.
In the third set, Konta showed resiliency by responding to win 66% of her service points. She faced three break points in that final set, saving all of them.
Overall for the match, Konta saved 67% of the break points she faced. She served up an ace on two of the eight break points she won.
The SAP Coaches View combines scoring information direct from the chair umpire with tracking data from HawkEye to allow for an in depth look at five different aspects of a match. Each tracking option can be filtered to narrow the focus to specific situations within a match, such as break points. This information is available directly to coaches in real-time during a match on their SAP tablet and also available to them online after matches.
“Service” tracking shows the landing point for all serves. The display differentiates between first serves, second serves and aces. Additional data on the screen shows the percentage of overall service points won as well as looking specifically at first and second serves. It can also be narrowed to show the performance on particular points in the match, such as break points.
Service success was the difference as Konta won her maiden WTA title.