Rafael Nadal is essentially the same server on clay courts and hard courts. It’s the returning side of the game on clay where beast mode kicks in for the Spaniard.

An Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis of Nadal identifies that his serve metrics remarkably stay similar when he switches surfaces, from hard to clay. Our impression is that everything dramatically improves on clay, but that’s simply not the case.

Nadal Serving
The following serve metrics show just how close his career serve numbers are between hard and clay.

Nadal’s Career Serve Metrics: Hard Court vs Clay Court

What’s fascinating is that Nadal’s Service Games Won drops less than one percentage point (85.48% to 84.53%) when he moves from hard court to clay court.

It’s impressive to note that the Spaniard is the best in our sport at winning second-serve points on both hard court and clay court. That is due to his heavy slice delivery, and his ability to back it up with a potent Serve +1 forehand that immediately puts the returner on defence.

Nadal Returning
This is where the move from hard courts to clay courts has the most dramatic effect on Nadal’s game.

Nadal is spectacularly ranked first in three of the four return metrics on clay. He is second to Andrei Chesnokov in Break Points Converted, narrowly trailing 48.81 per cent to 48.60 per cent.

Nadal enjoys a massive leap in Return Games Won on clay, jumping more than 13 percentage points all the way up from 29.26 per cent to 42.74 per cent. For every 10 return games he plays on clay, the server wins about six, while Nadal wins four. This is the engine room of his clay-court dominance.

Overall, there is not one serve or return metric that Nadal has a superior career ranking on hard courts over clay courts. Step one for the Spaniard is to keep the serving side of the equation on clay as close as possible to his serving on hard. He has certainly achieved that. Step two is to put up unprecedented numbers when he returns serve.

When returning on clay, Nadal typically stands way back to let the speed of the serve slow down for greater return consistency and also to allow more time to deliver a full-blooded swing at the ball. He then looks to improve his court position up closer to the baseline as the point unfolds, looking to crush his forehand from locations all over the court.

Serving against Nadal on hard court is always challenging. Serving against him on clay is downright formidable.

Novak Djokovic has officially confirmed that he has ended his coaching partnerships with both Radek Stepanek and Andre Agassi.

A statement posted on Djokovic’s official website announced, “After Miami, Novak Djokovic and his tennis coach Radek Stepanek decided to end their co-operation.

“The private relationship with Stepanek was and will remain great, and Novak has enjoyed working with him and learning from him. He remains grateful and appreciative of all the support he has received from Radek during the last period.

“Novak remains focused and eager to come back stronger and more resilient from [a] long injury break that has affected his confidence and game. He is continuously and passionately looking for new and different ways to regain [his] winning form.

“The co-operation between Novak and Andre Agassi has also ended.”

Former World No. 1 Agassi came on board in May 2017 and Stepanek joined Djokovic’s team in December 2017.

The 30-year-old Djokovic missed the final six months of 2017 and returned in January to reach the Australian Open fourth round (l. to Chung). He then underwent a “small medical intervention” on right elbow.

The Serbian is next scheduled to compete at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters, which begins on 15 April.

Does the past predict the future? In the case of the ATP Race To London, a position among the Top 10 after the first quarter of the season greatly enhances a player’s chances of claiming a spot at the elite Nitto ATP Finals.

Seven players among the Top 10 of the ATP Race To London, the year-to-date standings, on 4 April 2014 qualified for that year’s season finale. Eight qualifiers were already in the Top 10 on 6 April 2015; there were seven on 4 April 2016 and seven Top 8 finishers, with one playing alternate, on 3 April last year.

If 2018 is anything to go by, The O2 on the Greenwich peninsula in east London will welcome a mix of established stars, new participants and young talent from 11-18 November.

View Latest ATP Race To London

As things currently stand, six-time former Nitto ATP Finals champion Roger Federer is the current Race leader with 3,110 points, with titles at the Australian Open (d. Cilic) and the ABN Amro World Tennis Tournament (d. Dimitrov).

A resurgent Juan Martin Del Potro, at No. 2 with 2,120 points, will be looking to make a welcome return to The O2 for the first time since 2013. En route to building a 15-match winning streak this year, he captured the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC (d. Anderson) and won his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 crown at the BNP Paribas Open (d. Federer).

Just as the experienced Marin Cilic (1,470) is going for his fourth qualification at the season finale (2014, ‘16-17), there is a tantalising prospect that Hyeon Chung, the Next Gen ATP Finals champion in November 2017, may go on to secure his place at the Nitto ATP Finals for the first time. At No. 4 in the Race on 1,280 points with an 18-7 season record, Chung may well compete in London alongside fellow young star Alexander Zverev (925).

Kevin Anderson, one of the sport’s hardest workers, has a 1-2 record in ATP World Tour finals this year and is No. 5 (1,070). Known for solid performances during the summer North American swing, the 2017 US Open finalist may well erase memories of a near qualification miss in 2015 and 2017.

Last week, John Isner kick-started his 2018 campaign with the Miami Open presented by Itau crown and sits in sixth position — one place higher than Zverev, the player he beat in a thrilling final — on 1,040 points. The diminutive Diego Schwartzman rounds out the Top 8 on 825 points.

FLast year’s champion Grigor Dimitrov (2017), is in contention at No. 10 in the ATP Race To London (805 points) through the first quarter of the year. But the Bulgarian has work to do, much like former World No. 1 Novak Djokovic (the 2008, 2012-14, 2016 titlist), who has yet to hit top form on his comeback from injury (No. 85). On the eve of the European clay swing, just like Isner’s 288-place rise with the Indian Wells title, World No. 1 Rafael Nadal will be sure to move up from his current position of No. 39.

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The season is only three months old, but there has been plenty of excitement on the doubles court with one team dominating early and a pair of legends showing that they may have another No. 1 push in them.

Marach/Pavic Begin Year With Tremendous Winning Streak
Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic just missed out on a spot in last year’s Nitto ATP Finals, serving as alternates in the event before stepping in to win their only match against Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan, denying the twins a spot in the semi-finals.

But Marach/Pavic showed early on this year that they have no intentions of serving as alternates at The O2 again — they want to qualify out right. The Austrian-Croatian duo began their 2018 campaign on a 17-match winning streak, winning their first three tournaments of the season (Doha, Auckland, Australian Open) before falling in the championship match at Rotterdam.

And while the 24-4 Marach/Pavic have not won an event since losing that final against Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut, semi-final and quarter-final appearances in Indian Wells and Miami, respectively, show that they are a force to be reckoned with on the ATP World Tour this year.

Could The Bryans Make Another No. 1 Run?
It is no secret that Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan have set the standard for doubles success on the ATP World Tour throughout their careers, finishing atop the year-end ATP Doubles Rankings on 10 occasions. But last season, they finished with only two tour-level titles, their lowest mark since 2000, they year before they lifted their first trophy.

But the twins are back in form again, and appear ready to make another push for the top. They finished the opening quarter of the season with their record 115th title, claiming their fifth Miami Open presented by Itau trophy. It was their record 37th ATP World Tour Masters 1000 triumph.

The brothers had also advanced to the final at their previous two events (Acapulco, Indian Wells), and have now won 12 of 14 matches as the ATP World Tour shifts to the European red clay. The Bryans are second in the ATP Doubles Race To London, trailing only Marach/Pavic.

Early-Season Results Set Up Exciting Clay Swing
Believe it or not, just three of the teams that qualified for the 2017 Nitto ATP Finals are currently in position to do so again. Henri Kontinen and John Peers, who won the season finale in 2016 and 2017, will look to bounce back after faltering in five of their past six matches, including a first-round loss at an ATP Challenger Tour event in Irving, Texas, last month.

But they are not the only ones searching for form. Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo, the top-ranked doubles players in the world, are currently ninth in the Race. Those two teams making a push to put their names back in the conversation will surely make for an exciting journey on the red clay.

Juan Sebastian Cabal/Robert Farah (third), Ben McLachlan/Jan-Lennard Struff (fifth) and others will look to defend their positions.

David Macpherson had a successful playing career on the ATP World Tour, claiming 16 tour-level doubles titles and climbing as high as No. 11 in the ATP Doubles Rankings. But perhaps the Australian has been even more impressive since as a coach. 

Macpherson worked with doubles legends Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan for more than a decade (2005-2016) before accepting the job as head coach of the men’s tennis team at George Washington University. However, Macpherson still gets to some tournaments to work with the Bryans and John Isner, who on Sunday became the oldest first-time winner at an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event. 

ATPWorldTour.com caught up with Macpherson to find out how he balanced working with Isner and the Bryans, as they both made incredible runs in Miami, how differently they prepare for matches and what the key was for all of them to triumph. 

How does it feel to have coached both the singles and doubles winners at an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event?
Just so proud of all three of them. So happy for all three of them. For Mike and Bob it had been a little while. Despite winning 114 titles it had been a little while since they’d won one. For John it was his first-ever Masters 1000 shield, so that was extra special. It was just a weekend, a great two weeks of magical times.

How were you able to balance working with all three guys during such a big event?
The schedule worked out really well. [Tournament Director] James Blake was terrific with the schedule. He did his best to work with the ATP to see that the Bryans and John weren’t playing at the same time. My coaching partner, Dave Marshall, who has been doing most of the traveling with the Bryans all year, really, he was there with me in Miami. So when we occasionally had a practice conflict, he was able to help me. I certainly had a partner down there making life easier for me.

How careful were you to make sure you had individual time with all of them?
Oh yes, definitely. John needed to work on his things for singles and his next opponent. The Bryans had to work on doubles things and for their next opponent. So we did two practice sessions every day, getting different sparring partners to try to provide the best, most productive practice. It all fell into place. But like I said, my partner Dave Marshall has been doing most of the traveling with the Bryans and he was key to making it all run smoothly.

It must be tricky to work with both a singles player and a doubles team at the same event, so how do you approach your time with each when they can be quite different skill sets?
With the doubles practice, many times, you get two good sparring partners or doubles players and we do doubles drills, play doubles points and work on the shots that you need for doubles. And then with John, you get a different sparring partner and do singles drills and the things you need to play well in singles. It’s just a little bit of a different type of practice with the drills we do, depending on who it is. They’re different, but they’re the same, too. So much of it is the mental side of the game and in singles and doubles the same principles apply. Relaxation, confidence, trust and all of those things, one translates to the other (singles to doubles) pretty much the same way.

Speaking of the mental side, the Bryans had won 36 Masters 1000 titles and John was going for his first. So how differently did you approach speaking to them ahead of the finals?
It’s like two completely different situations. Mike and Bob had won so many, that winning Miami was something they knew they had done before. But when you haven’t done it for a while and you’re almost 40 years old, you want to grasp the opportunity while you can, so it’s a difficult mental challenge. For John, he’s won a lot of titles, but he hadn’t won a Masters 1000, so that was a difficult mental thing for him. The key was for both to focus on the task at hand, just focusing on playing the best match that they could, trying to play the smartest match they could based on the opponent they were playing and not to think about the result. Thinking about the result could get in the way sometimes.

Speaking of results, John hadn’t had the best of starts to the year before arriving in Miami, and he credited some dinners with you for the turnaround. What do you think helped him turn his year around?
He hadn’t been playing badly, but he hadn’t been playing as freely and having as much fun on the court as you need to to play well in the big moments. That was something we really worked hard on mentally before the tournament, just trying to talk through that and understanding what he needed to be thinking about on the court to help him relax. So, I think we really did a good job. We talked through it together as a team and when he was out there this was the calmest that he’s played and the most aggressively that he’s played in the big moments. He handled adversity really well this week. When he was in trouble, he didn’t panic or let the frustration get the better of him. So that was really the big difference. Now he knows what could be accomplished if mentally he’s right and now he has the confidence [to win the big events] and hopefully there will be more big results like that in the future.

Just how big of a difference can it make to play relaxed and freely?
It’s a cliche and it sounds so simple, but it’s true. We all know that when we’re relaxed, the talent flows through our body, even recreationally. If you’re out there having fun playing golf and the expectations are down, it’s amazing how well even a hack like me can play. If you’re tense and you care too much and you’re thinking about the result, if you think about losing too much and you freeze up, your footwork goes, your timing goes, your thinking goes. Really, you can’t overstress the importance of being relaxed. I think you have to look at Roger [Federer]’s renaissance in tennis to his No. 1 recovery to see how he’s been able to master those emotions. We’re trying to follow, emulate, copy or at least learn from how he’s done it.

Read: Bryan Brothers Capture 37th Masters 1000 Title

How different were your pep talks with the Bryans and with John before their respective finals?
Everyone’s different. John and I do most of our preparation the night before, just talking and going through the possibilities and everything, the scenarios and tactics. And then on match day we really just focus on being relaxed and keeping that relaxation factor high. Mike and Bob, we do a little bit more the day of. We talk about the strategy a bit more before the match. Like, the hour before, we go over what the tactics are and what the mission is so they like a bit more right before the match, they like to go over it and delve into it, get themselves psyched up. If you watch them play, you know Mike and Bob are just a bundle of energy out there, bouncing around, whereas John’s more about just being relaxed, methodical and in rhythm. So it’s just two different styles of going about it.

Now you’re going back to George Washington University where you’re a second-year head coach. With everything you’ve done in the sport over the years, how do you go from working to a college team to going to one of the biggest events on the Tour and helping those guys win a title and how much does the college coaching help?
I appreciate how great a job college coaches around America do. It’s obviously so much more than just coaching tennis. I have a great appreciation and respect for college coaches, because you really have to multi-task and you’re in charge of a lot of different things and players and there’s so much that goes into it. I feel very fortunate to be the head coach at one of America’s most prestigious universities. I love coaching college tennis and have an amazing bond with my players and fellow coaches at George Washington University.

In the pros, you just have one or sometimes two clients, so it’s certainly different. I have a great assistant at GW, Damian Farinola, who held down the fort for a couple of weeks while I was away, managing practice… It gives you a little bit more of a freshness, I suppose. I really appreciated getting down to Miami to work with Mike, Bob and John. It’s challenging when you do it week after week after week, to keep being inspirational and keep coming up with new ideas. John has two other awesome coaches, Justin Gimelstob and Rene Moller, so we’re all just combining to try to do the best job we can for John. And like I said, Dave Marshall is with the Bryan Brothers, so it’s really working well. I really get extra fired up when I get back out there on the pro Tour and hopefully it bodes well for the college guys as well.