Blake Mott wasn’t sure if he wanted to pursue a pro tennis career less than 12 months ago, but the Australian is now firmly committed and quickly rising up the Emirates ATP Rankings.

Under the tutelage of former ATP World Tour pro Peter Luczak, the 20-year-old achieved a career breakthrough this February at the $75,000 ATP Challenger Tour event in Launceston, Australia. Entering the draw as a wild card, Mott beat several veteran players en route to winning the title. At No. 721 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, Mott became the fifth-lowest ranked Challenger winner since 2000 and one of three teenage titlists this year (joining Andrey Rublev and Taylor Fritz).

Although Mott called his experience in Launceston “one of the best weeks of my life,” he said it wasn’t a surprise to win matches against Top 200 players.

“I was out for three or four months last year just to take some time off to figure out what I wanted to do, so I knew my level was much higher than my ranking,” said Mott, speaking from last month’s ATP Challenger Tour event in Sarasota, Florida. “I had a good training block the week before and was seeing the ball well. I was showing a lot of discipline for every point. The Aussie crowd were awesome and I really liked the town. When you’re happy and everything is going well off the court, it’s easy to play well on the court.”

Afterwards, Mott came down with a case of the flu, which kept him from full strength from over a month. Although the virus halted the momentum he had built in Launceston, the Australian said it was part of the ebbs and flows of being on tour.

“That’s the thing about tennis: One week you’re in the final and the next week you’re playing in the first round of qualifying,” said Mott. “You just have to accept it.”

Mott is part of a wave of young Australians climbing the Emirates ATP Rankings, including Jordan Thompson, James Duckworth and Luke Saville. Although they’re all looking to achieve the same Top 20 status that Nick Kyrgios currently has, Mott perhaps has extra incentive in knowing he defeated Kyrgios less than three years ago at an ATP Challenger Tour event in Melbourne, Australia.

“I won, but he’s still somebody to look up to. He’s Top 20 and just a freak of talent,” he said. “We’ve got some great players coming up now. Our nation is quite lucky in terms of funding and sponsorship, which makes a big difference.”

With ATP Challenger Tour events in Australia held from October through February, Mott finds himself on the road for the remainder of the year. Although he’s enjoyed many of the places he’s traveled to on tour, he’s spent an increasing amount of time playing events in the U.S.

“I really like the U.S. tournaments because it’s the same language and a lot of the same atmosphere as Australia,” said Mott. “It’s like a home away from home.”

Top seeds Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut topped Aussies Sam Groth and Bernard Tomic 6-3, 6-3 in the first round of the Roland Garros doubles tournament on Wednesday. The Frenchmen did not face a break point in the 54-minute win.

Herbert/Mahut, the reigning US Open doubles champions, are attempting to become the second French team in three years to lift the doubles trophy at Roland Garros. In 2014, Julien Benneteau and Edouard Roger-Vasselin topped Spaniards Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez to break a 20-year title drought for the home nation (Leconte/Noah in 1984). Mahut was a finalist in 2013, partnering Michael Llodra (l. to Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan). Benneteau/Roger-Vasselin reprised their partnership at this year’s tournament, beating Albert Ramos-Vinolas and Jiri Vesely 6-0, 4-6, 7-6(2) in their opening match.

Four-time champion Daniel Nestor is still in contention after teaming up with Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi to beat Inigo Cervantes and Paolo Lorenzi 7-6(5), 6-2. The Canadian last tasted victory in Paris alongside Max Mirnyi in 2012. Mirnyi and Treat Huey moved into the second round thanks to a 6-7(3), 7-6(5), 6-1 win over Italians Fabio Fognini and Andreas Seppi.

Marcin Matkowski and Leander Paes, seeded No. 16, edged Aliaksandr Bury and Denis Istomin 7-6(3), 7-6(6). Paes won three Roland Garros doubles titles alongside Mahesh Bhupathi (1999 & 2001) and Lukas Dlouhy (2009).

“You have to back yourself,” Andy Murray said after overcoming Frenchman Mathias Bourgue in five sets at Roland Garros on Wednesday. “For me today it wasn’t easy, because I wasn’t hitting the ball well for a long period of the match.”

Murray came into the second-round encounter as the prohibitive favourite. Bourgue, No. 164 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, had never played in the main draw of a tour-level event and was facing a Top 50 player for the first time, but the Frenchman found his best level to take a two-set-to-one lead against Murray. To the Brit’s credit, he remained calm and let his talent do the talking.

“Over the course of five sets, the higher-ranked player can be a little bit more solid, a bit more consistent in the important moments,” Murray, who now has 576 wins under his belt, noted. “In the end, in the fifth set, that was the difference. I came up with some good shots and some lucky shots as well.”

Despite being the highest seed in his half of the draw, the World No. 2 has not had it easy in Paris so far. It was his second straight five-set escape after he saw off Radek Stepanek over two days in the first round. “I managed to win the match. That’s what I’m here to do, but I don’t want to play five sets every round and don’t want to have big drop-offs in matches.

“It’s been a pretty stressful couple of days.”

With 10 hard-fought sets under his belt already, Murray may look forward to a respite from the typical clay-court grind when he faces big-serving Croat Ivo Karlovic on Friday.

“Tomorrow I will be tired, but at least I get a day’s rest now. But you can’t continue playing matches like that and then expect to win the tournament,” Murray, who leads 6-0 in the FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry against Karlovic, said. “I think maybe once I have started a Grand Slam playing two five-set matches in the first couple of rounds.

“The positive is that I’ll play Karlovic in the next round. The average rally length will only be a few shots. Maybe three, four shots max. So if I can get through the next one, it will be nice to win it a bit quicker.”

As he prepares for a seventh meeting with the towering Croat, Murray might be happy to know that Karlovic himself is coming off an epic five-setter. On Thursday, the World No. 28 needed to hit 41 aces to edge Jordan Thompson 12-10 in the decider.

Imagine playing a match where you get three serves and your opponent gets only one.

Sounds very unfair, but that’s the dynamic the world’s elite players artificially create to gain their competitive edge. There are four separate serves hit in a match – a first and second serve for each player – and the best of the best manage to consistently create a winning percentage with three of them.

The hidden key is to own your opponent’s second serve, and to at least break even on your own. An Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis uncovered just 21 players on tour last year managed to maintain a winning percentage against their opponents’ second serve and also be above 50 per cent on their own second serve.

The first thing to understand is that nobody will consistently average a winning percentage against an opponent’s first serve. In the 2015 season, David Ferrer ranked No. 1 in this category, winning 35 per cent of his opponents’ first serves. In the past 52 weeks, Bernard Tomic has maintained a ranking of around No. 20 in the world, and has won just 25 per cent of his opponents’ first-serve points. The career best, since 1991, is Argentine Guillermo Coria, who won 36 per cent against his opponents’ first serves.

Once the first serve misses its mark, the world’s best returners flick the switch from defense to offense to take advantage of the second serve’s slower delivery with a faster return. Simply, the faster serve dictates a slower, more defensive return, while a slower serve invites a lot more offense from the returner.

Below is the list of the 21 players in the 2015 season who averaged a winning percentage on their opponents’ second-serve points and on their own second serve.

In the 2015 season, there were 24 players who had a winning percentage on their opponents’ second serves, but three of them failed to generate a winning percentage on their own second serves. They were Andreas Seppi (49.9 per cent), Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (49.7 per cent) and Fabio Fognini (49.3 per cent).

Some players, such as World No. 2 Andy Murray, actually win more second-serve points from their opponenst than on their own second delivery. In the 2015 season, Murray won 56 per cent returning second serves, and 52 per cent of his own second-serve points. In the table above, there were seven players with a similar performance, and another three who were within half a percentage point of doing better on their opponents’ second serve than on their own second serve.

As you would expect, this is an area of extreme focus for World No. 1 Novak Djokovic. In the past 52 weeks, the Super Serbian is ranked No. 1 in second-serve points won (59.3 per cent) and second-serve return points won (56.8 per cent). More than any other player, Djokovic maximises the battle surrounding second serves. He also happens to be the world leader in first-serve return points won in the past 52 weeks at 34.6 per cent.

Having a winning percentage on three of the four serves hit is one of the most important tactical concepts that directly translates to a W at the end of a match at all levels of the game.

The top half of the men’s singles draw will take to the court on Thursday for their second-round singles matches at Roland Garros, with No. 1 seed Novak Djokovic and No. 4 seed Rafael Nadal highlighting the day’s action.

Djokovic continues his quest for the career Grand Slam as he takes on qualifier Steve Darcis of Belgium. The Serbian is in top form, having dropped just five games in his opening-round match. Nadal also continues his quest for a 10^th Roland Garros title when he plays Facundo Bagnis of Argentina. Nadal was even more ruthless in his first-round match, dropping just three games.

No. 6 seed and local favourite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will face Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus. The Frenchman leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry 6-1. No. 7 seed Tomas Berdych also continues his quest for another deep run at Roland Garros when he plays Malek Jaziri of Tunisia. 

No. 11 seed David Ferrer aims to reach the third round at Roland Garros for the 12^th straight year when he plays Juan Monaco of Argentina. Their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry is currently split at 4-4. No. 12 seed David Goffin will have his first meeting against Carlos Berlocq of Argentina when they take to the court.

Two other top players will look to reach the second week at Roland Garros for the first time in their careers. No. 13 seed Dominic Thiem takes on veteran Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain, while No. 14 seed Roberto Bautista Agut plays wild card Paul-Henri Mathieu of France.

A pair of #NextGen players are also hoping to keep their breakthrough runs going. Wild card Quentin Halys of France faces off against No. 25 seed Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay, while Alexander Zverev of Germany takes to the court in a battle of experience versus youth against 36-year-old Frenchman Stephane Robert.

Another intriguing matchup on Thursday will see former French Open semi-finalist Ernests Gulbis of Latvia take on No. 26 seed Joao Sousa of Portugal.

No. 15 seed John Isner recorded his 300^th career tour-level win on Wednesday with his second-round victory at Roland Garros. The American defeated #NextGen star Kyle Edmund of Great Britain, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.

In customary Isner fashion, he hit 18 aces throughout the contest and only four double faults, in addition to saving three break points, all in the second set. He was equally impressive from the baseline, finishing the day with 36 winners to 22 unforced errors. The No. 15 seed fittingly closed out the match with an ace to move into the third round. 

“I’m feeling better and better,” said Isner. “I lost a lot of tough matches and was sidelined a bit with injuries. Now that I’ve won two matches here, I feel I can keep going.”

Isner will now play Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia. Gabashvili leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry by 2-1, but Isner’s lone win over the Russian came on clay at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event in Madrid in 2014. 

No. 17 seed Nick Kyrgios rolled into the third round at Roland Garros with a convincing win over qualifier Igor Sijsling of The Netherlands 6-3, 6-2, 6-1. 

The Australian was nearly perfect on serve throughout the match, firing 11 aces without hitting a single double fault and not facing a break point. He was almost as dominant on return games, accumulating 13 break points and converting six of them. Kyrgios wrapped up the match with a backhand winner after one hour and 10 minutes, finishing with 35 winners and just 13 unforced errors.

“I knew it was going to be tough. He’s obviously played a lot of matches here already. I knew what my game plan was going to be,” said Kyrgios. “I’m really happy with the way I performed today. I thought I found my form from the back of the court and returned a lot better than I did in the first round.”

Kyrgios will now play No. 9 seed Richard Gasquet in an intriguing third-round match. Gasquet leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry by 4-2, but Kyrgios won their most recent meeting in February at the ATP World Tour 250 event in Marseille.

“Me and Richard have played some really memorable matches. Some of my favourite matches that I’ve played have been against him,” said Kyrgios. “We’ve played a lot of times and he’s a great guy. He’s a guy I feel comfortable around and that has always been nice to me. I’m looking forward to it.”

Eighth seed Milos Raonic had similar luck against Adrian Mannarino, sweeping the Frenchman 6-1, 7-6(0), 6-1. The Canadian broke Mannarino four times and never faced a break point. “I tried to do my best during the whole match, but he returned very well in the first and third sets,” Mannarino said. “When you server at 200 kilometers, whether on clay or hard court, it makes a difference. Raonic is a great server and he returns even better.”

The right-hander will face lucky loser Andrej Martin of Slovakia, who beat Lucas Pouille of France 6-3, 7-5, 6-3. Before Roland Garros, the 26-year-old Bratislava native had been 0-1 in Grand Slam matches (2013 US Open).

Andy Murray might be in for another dogfight on Wednesday at Roland Garros. The second seed, who’s taking to the court for the third time in three days, is tied at one-set all with French wild card Mathias Bourgue 6-2, 2-6.

The Scot had avoided the slow start that plagued him against Czech qualifier Radek Stepanek, which forced Murray to come back from two sets down for the ninth time in his career. The World No. 2 broke Bourgue at 2-1 and again at 5-2 to win the first set in 40 minutes.

Murray’s level of play dipped, though, early in the second. He was up 2-0 but then let Bourgue reel off the next six games, including three service breaks, to take the second set. The 22 year old won 16 points in a row from 30-all, 3-2 in the second set to 30-0 in the first game of the third set.

Murray has reached the semi-finals in Paris three times, falling to Novak Djokovic or Rafael Nadal each time. The 29 year old enters the season’s clay-court Grand Slam on the heels of a title at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome two weeks ago and a runner-up finish at the Mutua Madrid Open earlier this month.