Tennis News

Forehands Hunting Backhands Through A Federer Lens

Forehands hunt backhands.

It begins with the return of serve and gets more fervent as baseline skirmishes unfold. An Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis of 20 matches featuring Roger Federer from the 2018 and 2019 seasons identifies how both the Swiss star and his opponents focus their energy on stalking the backhand.

The analysis uses Hawk-Eye data and graphics to expose a hidden layer of directional warfare between forehands and backhands. The data set only contains right-handed players, with the court cut into thirds in the following fashion:
• Deuce-Court Third = to the opponent’s forehand.
• Middle Third = to the opponent’s forehand and backhand.
• Ad-Court Third = to the opponent’s backhand.

This analysis focusses on how often Federer and his opponents target the Ad-court third of the court, prowling their opponent’s backhand wing.

Return Of Serve = Straight To The Backhand
Roger Federer’s backhand-focussed strategy is immediately recognisable once the court is dissected into thirds. Federer’s primary target to direct returns is to the Ad-court third, where he hit 46 per cent of all returns. His opponents’ primary location was returning down the middle of the court (44%), which gave Federer more opportunities to hit a preferred Serve +1 forehand. Federer’s record in the 20 matches was 14 wins, six losses.

Return Of Serve Direction: Federer vs. Opponents

What also becomes apparent is how Federer and his opponents avoid the Deuce-court third when returning, which is straight to their opponent’s forehand. Federer hit only 14 per cent of his returns there, while his opponent’s were in the same ballpark at 17 per cent. The match that Federer hit most to the Ad-court third was a 2018 three-set Miami Open presented by Itau victory against Radu Albot. The Hawk-Eye graphic below identifies that only three first-serve returns went to Albot’s forehand in the Deuce-court third.

Rally Forehands
Federer and his opponents’ primary direction to hit their forehands was through the Ad-court third to the backhand. Federer hit 46 per cent of his forehands to this target, while his opponents dialed it up even more, hitting 49 per cent of their forehands at Federer’s backhand.

When Andrey Rublev upset Federer 6-3, 6-4 in Cincinnati in 2019, he relentlessly hit more than two out of three (68%) forehands at the Ad-court third, pounding away at Federer’s backhand like a stone-cutter. Rublev hit 59 rally forehands and just 32 rally backhands in the match, but his targetting of Federer’s backhand forced Federer to hit 48 forehands and 47 backhands. Having Federer’s baseline groundstroke count basically even between forehands and backhands was a huge advantage for the Russian.

Rally Backhands
The match metrics identify that Federer’s opponents clearly wanted to get into backhand-to-backhand exchanges with the Swiss, while Federer was more likely to try and escape the Ad-court pattern by redirecting backhands down the line. Federer’s opponents hit 55 per cent of their backhands cross court, while Federer was considerably lower at 47 per cent. Federer did change direction with his backhand 29 per cent of the time and went down the line, which was higher than the 24 per cent from his opponents.

When Federer lost 3-6, 7-6(11), 6-4 to Dominic Thiem in Madrid in 2019, he was doing all he could to avoid backhand-to-backhand exchanges with the Austrian. Federer hit 45 per cent of his backhands down the line, while Thiem’s backhand down the line total only reached 18 per cent of total backhands.

Overall in these 20 matches, 54 per cent of baseline rally shots were forehands and 46 per cent were backhands. The average forehand rally speed was 72 mph, while backhands were just 64 mph – an eight mph difference. The big picture summary clearly identifies the forehand as the apex baseline predator that cleverly targets the backhand as its prey.

Hawk-Eye Data Set = 20 Roger Federer Matches From 2018/2019 (14-6 W/L)

– Hawk-Eye graphics courtesy of ATP Media

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ATP University Goes Virtual!

The ATP University was not held alongside the Nitto ATP Finals this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but that didn’t stop this year’s class from going to school.

Thirty-eight up-and-coming players attended two days of sessions covering a wide variety of topics to further improve the off-court skills and enhance the knowledge they need to succeed on the ATP Tour. ATP University is an educational workshop that offers presentations including an overview of the ATP, player relations, member services, rules and regulations, integrity – anti-corruption and anti-doping, and player health and wellness.

“It was a great experience. Of course seeing all the guys on Tour who I haven’t seen for a few weeks now, it was great seeing their familiar faces,” World No. 73 Marcos Giron said. “It was really interesting [attending] ATP University and seeing all the behind the scenes of what makes the ATP run.”

In addition to the program’s core competencies, players attended breakout sessions on nutrition and hydration, financial planning, strength and conditioning, and media training. Special guests included former World No. 1 Jim Courier, two-time Roland Garros finalist Robin Soderling and two-time Nitto ATP Finals competitor Janko Tipsarevic, who used their experiences on the Tour to provide the players with special insights.

“My favorite part was Jim Courier,” Giron said. “He was the opener and I thought it was really interesting. I looked up to Jim Courier. He was a tremendous player and to hear from him his experience of life on Tour and after the Tour, not just the Xs and Os of tennis, but life that surrounds it and how he navigated it.”

Soderling, who earlier this year wrote an essay for ATPTour.com to help those struggling with their mental health, assisted ATP partner Sporting Chance with a presentation.

“It was great to be part of the Sporting Chance presentation. They are doing an extremely good job with helping players with their mental health. I wish that something like this was available during my career. It would for sure have helped me a lot,” Soderling said. “I hope that I helped the players that were listening to get a better understanding of what could happen in the worst case if they don’t take care of their mental health as carefully as they do their physical health. I hope that by telling my story I could help some of them. I know how helpful it can be just listening to someone that has gone through this.”

ATP University is typically held twice a year — alongside the Miami Open presented by Itau and the Nitto ATP Finals — but the programme was adapted this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In spite of not being able to meet in the traditional sense to deliver this important product, we’re very excited to have technology that allowed us to deliver key information to the players,”said Erika Kegler, the ATP’s Director, Player Development. “Current times call for innovation like never before and we are proud to have been able to conduct the ATP University virtually.” 

This year’s ATP University graduates were Filippo Baldi, Nikola Cacic, Kimmer Coppejans, Federico Coria, Enzo Couacaud, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, Gonzalo Escobar, Daniel Elahi Galan, Robert Galloway, Marcos Giron, Emilio Gomez, Andre Goransson, Tallon Griekspoor, Andrew Harris, Cem Ilkel, Nicola Kuhn, Nathaniel Lammons, Gianluca Mager, Joao Menezes, Nikola Milojevic, Sumit Nagal, Christopher O’Connell, Danilo Petrovic, Max Purcell, Emil Ruusuvuori, Thiago Seyboth Wild, Jannik Sinner, Carlos Taberner, Alejandro Tabilo, Mikael Torpegaard, Botic Van de Zandschulp, Juan Pablo Varillas, Aleksander Vukic, Yosuke Watanuki, J.J. Wolf, Mikael Ymer, Bernabe Zapata Miralles and Zhizhen Zhang.

More than 1,000 past and present ATP Tour players have graduated from the program. Any player in his first year of ATP Tour Division I membership is required to attend ATP University. Players inside the Top 200 of the FedEx ATP Rankings and Top 100 of the FedEx ATP Doubles Rankings are eligible for the membership.

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Season Portrait: Andrey Rublev

Over the course of eight days, ATPTour.com is serving up a season snapshot of the eight players who qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals. The series is illustrated by intimate portraits shot by British photographer Simon Owen. Yesterday, we began the series with Diego Schwartzman. Today, we look at Andrey Rublev’s season.

Memorable Moment
Andrey Rublev wasted no time making a splash this season. Rublev lifted trophies in the first two weeks of the season in Doha and Adelaide. He became the first player to triumph in the season’s first two weeks since Dominik Hrbaty in 2004. The righty did so impressively, winning 14 of his 16 sets at those events by a margin of 6-4 or greater.

Key Stat
Beginning with Hamburg, Rublev went on a stretch during which he won 19 of 20 matches and three of his five titles on the year, all at ATP 500 events. He saved perhaps his best performance during that period for last, upsetting Dominic Thiem on home soil in Vienna en route to the Erste Bank Open title. 

Quotable
“It was not [an] easy [time] for millions of people because they were losing jobs [due to the COVID-19 pandemic]… Maybe they didn’t have enough money to live a [normal] life. For sure, I’m not the one who can complain.”

The Road Ahead
In 2021, Rublev will try to live up to his own goals and maintain his place in the Top 10. Now that he is among the elite group, the Russian will attempt to make deeper runs at ATP Masters 1000s, where he has not yet reached a final. He will also try to chase 2020 Nitto ATP Finals champion Daniil Medvedev, the World No. 4, for the No. 1 Russian spot.

Photo: Simon Owen/Wonderhatch

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ATP & WTA Share United Message In New Short Film 'Tennis Is Life'

The ATP and WTA have today launched a film titled ‘Tennis Is Life’, reflecting on the coronavirus-hit 2020 season. The collaborative film documents the sport’s journey throughout the year while honouring those who made the return of tennis possible.

The film, created by London-based agency MATTA, is comprised of clips from tennis players’ own social media channels documenting their experiences from lockdown to competition. ‘Tennis Is Life’ is voiced by major stars from both Tours, as they read a powerful passage from Andre Agassi’s acclaimed autobiography, ‘Open’, which explores parallels between life’s ups and downs and the game of tennis, through the shared language of both.

Closing with the poignant line, “this is being stronger, united”, the film underscores the greater collaboration seen in tennis this year, and symbolises a vision for unity in the sport, to enable it to fulfil its true potential. ‘Tennis Is Life’ debuts on the heels of other notable collaborations between ATP and WTA this year, including Tennis United, an award-winning digital series launched in April and coinciding with the suspension of both Tours. Both organisations’ marketing teams will continue to embody the vision by coming together on joint campaign creatives, as well as through the alignment of tournament category nomenclature from 2021.

Dan Ginger, ATP SVP Marketing and Business Development, said: “Tennis is a truly global sport and the impact of the pandemic has been felt by everyone around the world. It was important for us to look back on this unprecedented year and thank the many people that have been instrumental in allowing our sport to return to action. Collaborating with the WTA on this project is another powerful statement of the creative potential tennis has when it works together.”

“Our sport’s return to play is a testament to the collective resilience and hard work of so many individuals,” stated Micky Lawler, WTA President. “We’re incredibly blessed to have the support of one another in this global community and are reminded that the year 2020 took sacrifice and teamwork. We hope this collaborative film with the ATP reflects our gratitude to those who made it possible and celebrates the human qualities that brought us together and realised our united strength.”

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Nadal's 1,000th Win, Djokovic's Sixth No. 1 Finish Top 2020 Milestone Moments

ATPTour.com continues its Best of 2020 series with a look at some of the biggest milestones that were reached this year. Tomorrow we will complete the series by reviewing the charity work done by players and tournaments this year.

Rafa Eclipses 1,000 Wins
At the Rolex Paris Masters, Rafael Nadal earned his 1,000th tour-level win with a 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 victory against Feliciano Lopez in the opening round. That triumph made the Spaniard the fourth player in the Open Era to accomplish the feat, joining Jimmy Connors, Roger Federer and Ivan Lendl.

“[Winning 1,000 matches] means that I am old. That means that I played well for such a very long time, because to achieve that number is because I have been playing well for a lot of years,” Nadal said. “[That] is something that makes me feel happy.”

The legendary lefty finished No. 2 in the year-end FedEx ATP Rankings for the seventh time and in the Top 2 for a record 12th time. Nadal also claimed a record 13th Roland Garros title, tying Federer’s record of Grand Slam singles trophies with 20.

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Novak Claims Record-Tying Sixth Year-End No. 1 Finish, Passes 900 Wins
Novak Djokovic tied his idol Pete Sampras this year by earning a record-tying sixth year-end No. 1 finish in the FedEx ATP Rankings. The Serbian has now spent 299 weeks at World No. 1 and he is continuing to chase Federer’s record of 310 weeks atop tennis’ mountain.

“Pete was somebody I looked up to when I was growing up, so to match his record is a dream come true,” Djokovic said. “I will also keep striving to be a better player, hopefully have more success and break more records in a sport I love with all my heart.”

This year, Djokovic also became the third active player to surpass 900 tour-level wins, doing so at the Australian Open with a 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 victory in the third round against Jan-Lennard Struff.

50th Anniversary Of The Nitto ATP Finals
This year marked the 50th Anniversary of the Nitto ATP Finals, as well as the event’s final edition in London. To commemorate the milestone, the singles round-robin groups were named Group Tokyo 1970, after the event’s first edition, and Group London 2020, for its 50th anniversary.

Daniil Medvedev won the trophy with an incredible run during which he became the first player in tournament history to beat the top three players in the FedEx ATP Rankings en route to the title.

ATPTour.com also celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Nitto ATP Finals with a series of exclusive content with current and former champions from the event as well as deep dives into the tournament’s history, including a look at The O2 era, when tennis players were rock stars at Madison Square Garden and more. 

Roger Hits 900 Weeks In The Top 10, 100 Wins At The Australian Open
Roger Federer only played one event in 2020 due to a knee injury, but the Swiss made his mark this year. The 103-time tour-level titlist in January became the first player to spend 900 weeks in the Top 10 of the FedEx ATP Rankings (310 weeks at World No. 1). He broke into the Top 10 for the first time on 20 May 2002 after claiming his first ATP Masters 1000 title in Hamburg.

Federer also earned his 100th match win at the Australian Open with a memorable five-set triumph against John Millman in Melbourne. The Swiss rallied from 4/8 down in the fifth-set tie-break (a Match Tie-break to 10) in the third round to oust the home favourite. The 39-year-old owns more victories at the Australian Open (102) than any other tournament, with his 101 wins at Wimbledon right behind.

Three Top 10 Breakthroughs
Three players cracked the Top 10 of the FedEx ATP Rankings for the first time this year: Denis Shapovalov, Andrey Rublev and Diego Schwartzman.

Shapovalov became the 19th lefty to break into the Top 10 and only the fourth to do so this millennium, joining Nadal (25 April 2005), Fernando Verdasco (2 February 2009) and Jurgen Melzer (31 January 2011). Rublev became the eighth Russian to crack the Top 10, and Schwartzman was the first Argentine to make his Top 10 debut since Juan Monaco on 23 July 2012.

Read More ATP Heritage Stories Here

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A New Way To Evaluate First-Serve Performance

First-serve performance is split into two statistical categories: first serves made and first serves won. Would joining them together as one metric provide a better understanding of how well your first serve really performed?

An Infosys ATP Insights analysis of these two statistics identifies that they tell a good story in their own right, but a richer narrative emerges once they are blended together as one. For this hypothetical situation, let’s call the new metric First-Serve Rating.

Here’s why it’s a good idea. Take for example a first-round match from this year’s Erste Bank Open in Vienna, in which Jannik Sinner defeated Casper Ruud 7-6(2), 6-3. Below are their first-serve statistics.

Sinner
• First Serves Made = 56% (41/73)
• First Serves Won = 76% (31/41)

Ruud
• First Serves Made = 65% (49/75)
• First Serves Won = 65% (32/49)

So whose first serve outperformed the other?

At first glance, Ruud made 65 per cent to Sinner’s 56 per cent, so it was probably the Norwegian. But the Italian won 76 per cent to 65 per cent, which now muddies the water. The truth is that their first-serve performance was almost identical. You would never know it by looking at the two statistics separately, but it’s immediately recognisable once you combine them.

Here’s how it works. You start by taking the first-serve made percentage and simply turn it into a whole number (56% to 56). You then take the first-serve won percentage and turn it into a decimal (76% to 0.76), and then multiply the two to get a number out of 100.

Sinner
• 56% made / 76% won
• First-Serve Rating: 56 (made) x 0.76 (won) = 42.6

Ruud
• 65% made / 65% won
• First-Serve Rating: 65 (made) x 0.65 (won) = 42.3

Sinner’s rating of 42.6 narrowly edged Ruud’s rating of 42.3. They both actually did just fine behind their first serves in this match. What’s important to note is that the rating is mutually exclusive, meaning both players can perform well at the same time.

To understand the quality of the rating, the traditional grading scale of A to F is applied below to add clarification.

First-Serve Rating: Grading Scale

When Lorenzo Sonego defeated World No. 1, Novak Djokovic 6-2, 6-1 in the Vienna quarter-finals, his First-Serve Rating was 53.6, which translates to a solid grade of A. Djokovic could only muster a grade of D with a 33.6 rating, which was tied for the lowest rating of the tournament.

Sonego First-Serve Rating

• 67% made / 80 won
• First-Serve Rating: 67 x 0.80 = 53.6

Djokovic First-Serve Rating
• 55% made / 61% won
• First-Serve Rating: 55 x 0.61 = 33.6

Simple math blends two statistics that have always lived separately and turns them into a new rating that provides greater insight into the specifics of player performance. Below is a table containing all completed matches in Vienna last week. The average First-Serve Rating was a strong B+ at 46.1, which makes sense for an indoor event at altitude.

Only one player achieved the rare A++ First-Serve Rating during the tournament: Stefanos Tsitsipas. The Greek scored a 60.7 with his first-serve performance in his opening-round three-set victory against Jan-Lennard Struff. Interestingly, Struff’s first-serve performance was rated as a 48.2, which was a solid B+ effort.

Andrey Rublev, the tournament’s winner, scored an A+ (55.8) to defeat defending champion Dominic Thiem in the quarter-finals and an A+ (55.1) in defeating Norbert Gombos in his opening-round match. Rublev added a first-serve grade of A (52.2) in defeating Lorenzo Sonego in the final.

Making first serves is always a good start. Winning the vast majority of them is even better. This hypothetical First-Serve Rating factors in both.

2020 Erste Bank: First-Serve Rating

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Season Portrait: Diego Schwartzman

Beginning today with Argentine Diego Schwartzman, ATPTour.com over the next eight days will serve up a season snapshot of the eight players who qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals. The series is illustrated by intimate portraits shot by British photographer Simon Owen.

Memorable Moment
Diego Schwartzman earned one of the biggest victories of his career in the quarter-finals of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, upsetting Rafael Nadal. The Spaniard had won their first nine ATP Head2Head meetings, winning 22 of their 24 sets. But Schwartzman showed his marked improvement by playing aggressive tennis, overpowering and outmanoeuvring the best clay-court player in history at a venue, the Foro Italico, where the legendary lefty has lifted nine trophies. The 28-year-old won more sets in a day against Nadal than he had in nine previous matches combined.

Key Stat
Schwartzman led the ATP Tour in return games won in 2020 at 34.9 per cent, just beating out World No. 2 Rafael Nadal (34.4%). The Argentine played 40 matches this year and broke serve 175 times, an average of more than four service breaks per match. His career winning rate in return games is now 31.8 per cent.

Quotable
“I’m really proud because I did many great things in many different weeks this year. But also I have the feeling in my body that I have to improve, because I want to be here [at the Nitto ATP Finals] again.”

The Road Ahead
Schwartzman, the No. 1 player from Argentina, enjoyed a year of firsts in 2020, reaching his first ATP Masters 1000 final (Rome) and Grand Slam semi-final (Roland Garros). Now he will try to not just go further at those levels, but to add more trophies to the collection. The World No. 9 is a three-time ATP Tour champion, with his biggest victory coming in 2018 at the Rio Open presented by Claro, an ATP 500 event held in Brazil. He will also try to improve his hard-court results — Schwartzman has won 53 per cent of his tour-level matches on the surface compared to 57 per cent on clay.

Tomorrow… Andrey Rublev.

Photos: Simon Owen/Wonderhatch

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Spirograph & dancing in kitchens – Advent Answers with Judy Murray

Tennis coach Judy Murray faces our Christmas questions in day 17 of BBC Sport Scotland’s Advent Answers series.

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Australian Open 2021: Delayed tournament to start on 8 February

The Australian Open will start on 8 February next year after being pushed back because of the coronavirus pandemic.

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ATP Issues Five-Week Start To 2021 ATP Challenger Tour Calendar

The ATP has issued a five-week schedule for the launch of the 2021 Challenger Tour. Resuming on Monday 18 January, a total of 10 tournaments in four countries will highlight the first section of the new season.

It all starts with a Challenger 125 event in the Turkish metropolis of Istanbul, as the city celebrates its 31st consecutive year on the Challenger Tour. Turkey will host three consecutive tournaments to open the season, as the tour swings from the hard courts of Istanbul to the clay of the seaside town of Antalya. The week of 25 January will feature the first of back-to-back Challenger events in Antalya, along with an indoor hard-court stop in Quimper, France.

The tournament in Quimper is followed by two additional French indoor events to kick off the February slate, including the prestigious 125-level tournament in Orleans and the 28th edition of Cherbourg. Hard-court events in Biella, Italy and Potchefstroom, South Africa join Cherbourg in the week of 8 February.

The picturesque mountain town of Biella will host consecutive tournaments, with a 125-level event slated for the following week. Located in the Italian Alps, the Piedmont region is also the new home of the Nitto ATP Finals in 2021, in nearby Turin. A second straight hard-court event in Potchefstroom will accompany Biella the week of 15 February.

A further update on the intended schedule beyond the first five weeks will be provided in due course.

SCHEDULE & DRAW SIZES
As part of a number of measures related to COVID-19, tournaments at the Challenger level will span eight days and feature 32-player singles and 16-player qualifying draws in 2021.

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