You are serving at 40/0 to a Top 25-ranked player.

On the one hand, you have built a formidable lead in your service game. On the other hand, you have one of the best players in the world still alive in the game trying to break your serve.

Should you still be worried about getting broken? Not so much.

An Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis of the current Top 25 in the ATP Rankings from the beginning of the 2015 season identifies that they only come back to break serve on average less than two times (1.7%) out of every 100 from this specific point score.

It seems the 40/0 hole when returning is a lot deeper and darker than we realised. The data set includes 14,658 service games since the start of the 2015 season, with the Top 25 only coming back to break a combined 242 times.

Novak Djokovic leads the Top 25 in climbing out of a 40/0 hole to break serve since the start of the 2015 season, achieving it 19 times out of 510 return games for a 3.7 per cent average. The Top five during this period are:

1. Novak Djokovic = 3.7%

2. Damir Dzumhur = 3.1%

3. Rafael Nadal = 2.9%

4. Roberto Bautista Agut = 2.8%

5. David Goffin 2.6%

Juan Martin Del Potro found it the toughest to come back and break when returning against a 40/0 advantage, only doing it twice out of 420 attempts.

As Djokovic wins return points from his 40/0 hole, it’s only after he has won three consecutive points and evened the score back to Deuce that he climbs above a one in three chance of breaking serve.

Djokovic: Percentage Chance of Breaking Serve When Opponent Serving At:

• 40/0 = 3.7% (19/510)

• 40/15 = 9.3% (83/890)

• 40/30 = 17.5% (158/904)

• Deuce = 36.5% (295/809)

Djokovic’s upcoming hard-court campaign includes ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events in Canada and Cincinnati, followed by the US Open. In the three years between 2015-2017, he has only won a return game from 40/0 two times out of 76 attempts.

2015-2017 Tournaments

• Canada = 0/24

• Cincinnati = 0/15

• US Open = 2/37

The 40/0 point score is almost a lock, but returners still need to look for opportunity to break as the mental and emotional scars that can be inflicted from climbing out this deep hole can go a long way to paving the road to victory.

The heat and humidity at the BB&T Atlanta Open don’t phase Cameron Norrie, who played collegiate tennis at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas, just outside Dallas, an area of the country known for its scorching temperatures almost as much as Atlanta. Norrie goes for his third quarter-final of the year on Thursday when he meets France’s Jeremy Chardy.

Earlier, Norrie shared the vital change his first coach made to his game and his first celebrity crush in another installment of “ATP Firsts”.

First moment I realised I loved tennis
I think I was quite young. I just always liked the aspect of competing. I think I like it even more [now] than I did when I was younger. There are just so many benefits to it, and it’s opened so many doors for me. I was able to go to college for free, and get a scholarship. And now it’s my job. I’m pretty grateful to play tennis for a living, and I love it. I keep loving it more and more.

Watch: Five Things To Know About Norrie

First coach and most important lesson he/she taught me
My first coach was Julia Sim. I played at the Bucklands Beach Tennis Club in New Zealand, and I actually started playing right-handed [for three, four months] so she switched me to left-handed. That was probably my most important advice… My forehand was horrendous because I did everything else left-handed. I wrote left-handed, so they just changed me, and from then on [I was 7], I played left-handed, and I was good.

First pinch-me moment on the ATP World Tour
I had just started playing out of college [in 2017] and I was playing Monfils on centre court in Eastbourne, one of my first ATP tournaments. It was incredible. I was warming up, and I couldn’t believe that I was actually going to play him, because I loved watching him. I actually played well. I ended up losing but it was a good match. I was just like, ‘Wow I’m actually here playing against one of the best guys in the world’… I couldn’t wait to get out there, nervous but excited at the same time.

First time I was recognised
In Paris, I was walking down the street. I had just played on centre court, Philippe-Chatrier, against [France’s Lucas] Pouille and two kids, one had a tennis bag, were like, ‘Are you Norrie?’ I was like, ‘Geez, how do you even know who I am?’… I got a photo with them.

First celebrity crush
I always liked Cameron Diaz, just because I have the same name as her… I always watched those action movies she’s in, “Charlie’s Angels”, with my sister.

First pet
I had a dog called Kyla, and he was a Border Collie. I still have two dogs, Tess (Golden Retriever) and Lulu (cross between Border Collie, Golden Retriever). They still live in New Zealand. I’m a real dog person, I love them so much. And I don’t get to see them. That’s one of the toughest things for me. I don’t get to see them at all because they’re in New Zealand, and I’m only going back to New Zealand in the summer time for me, which is December.

Serbia’s Laslo Djere recorded the highest-ranked win of his career on Thursday to reach an ATP World Tour quarter-final for the second successive week.

The 23-year-old knocked out third-seeded Croatian Borna Coric, the recent Gerry Weber Open titlist (d. Federer) and No. 21 in the ATP Rankings, 6-4, 1-6, 6-1 in one hour and 54 minutes at the J. Safra Sarasin Swiss Open Gstaad. Last week, he fell to eventual champion Marco Cecchinato in the last eight of the Plava Laguna Croatia Open Umag.

Djere will now face Croatian lucky loser Viktor Galovic, who held his nerve to reach his first ATP World Tour quarter-final with a 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 win over wild card Felix Auger-Aliassime, a #NextGenATP Canadian, in two hours and two minutes. Augur-Aliassime struck 11 aces and 10 doubles faults.

The BB&T Atlanta Open continues to bring out the best in top-ranked American John Isner with the four-time champion cruising past Alex de Minaur in the second round on Wednesday. The top seed powered to a 6-3, 6-2 result over the #NextGenATP Australian to set a quarter-final showdown with No. 7 seed Mischa Zverev.

The 19-year-old De Minaur was coming off a tight opening round win over Polish lucky loser Hubert Hurkacz but had no answers to the 6’10” Isner’s huge serving. The American finished with 15 aces and dropped just two points on his first serve. He did not face a break point.

“Yeah it was a pretty comprehensive win. You never know how you’re going to come out. This was my first match on hard court since Miami so it’s been a little bit and hadn’t practised too much because the focus was on resting after that long match (at Wimbledon) so I’m very happy.”

It was the 33-year-old’s first match since that epic six-hour, 36-minute semi-final defeat to South Africa’s Kevin Anderson in the Wimbledon semi-finals, a match in which Isner ultimately fell short 26-24 in the fifth set. It was a match that boosted Isner’s profile back home since.

“I’m very mature now. I know what it takes to bounce back from something like that,” Isner said. “As soon as I got off the plane I worked out actually. I have to keep my body constantly moving. 
“Just sitting on a couch for days on end, I would have felt even worse… so I feel pretty good right now.”

The win sends Isner into his fifth quarter-final of the season, with his biggest result coming in April when he claimed his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title at the Miami Open presented by Itau. He has claimed four titles from seven finals in Atlanta and only once has he failed to reach the final, in 2012, when he fell to Andy Roddick in the semi-finals. 

Zverev, though, will favour his chances of ending that streak. The German carries a 3-2 FedEx ATP Head2Head record into the quarter-final clash.

“I’ve never played him in Atlanta so that might help,” Isner said. “He’s certainly going to have a lot of belief against me on Friday. 

“He cleaned my clock at the US Open last year, he beat me in five sets in the Australian Open (in 2017) and he beat me somewhere else also. He’s a very good player and gives a lot of players trouble.”

German Mischa Zverev accomplished a lifelong goal last month at the Nature Valley International in Eastbourne when he won his maiden ATP World Tour title. But winning a title every year won’t make Zverev’s tennis career a success, at least according to what he shared in this installment of “On The Line”, a question-and-answer series about life off the court.

What’s your biggest passion outside of sport and why?
Flying. I love airplanes. I love aviation. I love flying… I’m a pilot. I have a license. That’s my passion… [I fly] not very often because my license is only good in the U.S. so I can only fly when I’m here in the States. Last time I flew was I think August last year so it’s been awhile… In Tampa, I flew from home airport to home airport, stayed in the vicinity, did a couple landings, just flew around to get a feel for it again.

Anyone else in the plane?
No, when I don’t fly very often, first couple times I have to go by myself just to make sure everything’s good, and then start taking passengers.

Watch: Zverev Describes What Makes The Atlanta Tournament Unique

What do you fly?
A single-engine, four-seater, so a Cessna 172, Piper Cherokee, something like that… I don’t have my own plane; I just rent… I always loved aviation. I like driving cars, I like driving boats and I love flying, so everything that has to do with manoeuvring and piloting, I love all that… Since I was little, I saw those big machines flying, I was fascinated.

What was the last book you read?
Russian book with a lot of short stories. I always have a few books, I try to read in Russian, German and English.

The last concert or show you attended?
Last year for my birthday (August), we went to a play, Macbeth, in New York, and it was where you are part of the play. It was this unique experience where you’re in a building, four stories, and you walk around and the actors are all around you. Sometimes they walk straight at you. You have to get out of the way.

Favourite sport to watch besides tennis and why?
Basketball. I enjoy basketball. I’ve always loved basketball. First time I came to the U.S. [when I was 5], the first live sports I ever watched was basketball, the Miami Heat, and since then I’ve just been passionate about basketball. I do like watching fishing on TV, it’s very relaxing. It’s a good start for a Saturday morning or Sunday morning. That’s something I really enjoy.

Person, outside of significant other and your parents, whom you admire the most?
I think athletes like [Michael] Jordan and Roger Federer are the people I admire the most, for what they did on court and off the court.

My tennis career will be a success if I ________________.
Stop missing easy volleys.

After my tennis career, I want to _____________.
Fly more airplanes.

Hyeon Chung made a triumphant return to the ATP World Tour on Wednesday to defeat #NextGenATP American Taylor Fritz at the BB&T Atlanta Open. The 2017 Next Gen ATP Finals champion saw off the 20-year-old American 6-4, 7-6(5) to reach the quarter-finals.

The South Korean had reached his maiden Grand Slam semi-final in January at the Australian Open and made the quarter-finals or better at seven events this season before a right ankle injury kept him sidelined since 8 May. This was his first match since an opening round defeat at the Mutua Madrid Open.

“I’m really happy to win after two months injured,” Chung said. “I’m really trying to focus on the match but it was a little bit hot, so I had to try to focus on all of the points. Physically I felt all good because I was training a lot in the past two months.”

Fritz, sixth place in the Race to Milan, was bidding to reach his fourth ATP World Tour quarter-final of the season. Trailing a set and a break, he managed to peg back level for 4-4 in the second set before the South Korean went on to clinch the pair’s first FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting in a tie-break.

“He has a really good serve and big forehand, so I had many chances to finish in the second set but he was serving ace, ace, ace,” Chung said. “Tough second set. Anyway I’m really happy to win the match. After 10 weeks, I was really happy to be on the court.”

He will next meet another American, No. 8 seed Ryan Harrison, for a place in the semi-finals. Harrison fought back to claim a 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 result over Slovak Lukas Lacko.

German Mischa Zverev ended Russian Mikhail Youzhny’s final Atlanta campaign on Wednesday. The No. 7 seed prevailed 6-4, 6-2 over the 36-year-old former World No. 8. Youzhny announced after his opening round defeat of Emil Reinberg he would retire after the St. Petersburg Open in September.

“I think the conditions were good for me,” Zverev said. “Youzhny doesn’t like it, I think, when the ball bounces too high and goes quick through the air. So I was able to get a lot of easy points off of him, especially with my serve and also when he was serving using his second serve. I think that was key.” 

The 30-year-old was coming off a run to his maiden ATP World Tour title last month on the grass at the Nature Valley International. He awaits the winner of top seed John Isner and Australian Alex de Minaur in the quarter-finals.

“Eastbourne was beautiful. It was a great, great feeling, a great experience,” he said. “I’m happy I can finally say yeah I have a title, which is good.”