The secret to winning tennis is not based on hitting the most winners in a match. Rather it is about reducing your own errors, and forcing your opponent into situations were they are more likely to make an error.
The Australian Open is underway beginning January 12th. Watch closely who has the best differential between winners and unforced errors. This is a better determinant as far as who will win the match. At the 2003 US Open, I witnessed David Nalbandian defeat Mark Phillipoussis in four sets, Nalbandian made 13 unforced errors in the entire match! He had around 20-25 winners. Meanwhile Phillipoussis had 40-50 winners and 75 unforced errors.
Watch a Nadal match closely. He dominates his opponents by forcing them into mistakes. His differentials are relatively mundane on the positive side, while his opponents have a severe negative differential.
Hitting lots of winners is great only if you are being consistent while going for them. If you find yourself missing a lot while going for your shots, perhaps this is not the best strategy. Play more conservatively, reduce pace, add height, and hit more balls cross court or down the middle. Try to work your opponent side to side or play their weaknesses in order to draw errors and reduce your own.
Myth #2 - A dominant serve - aces and service winners - is necessary to win more matches
Simple to debunk. Lets look at the top 10 players on the ATP tour that served the most aces in 2013
1. John Isner 979
2. Milos
Raonic 883
3. Kevin
Anderson 651
4. Nicolas
Almagro 622
5. Tomas
Berdych 603
6. Sam
Querrey 576
7. Feliciano
Lopez 546
8 Benoit
Paire 537
9. Ivan
Dodig 520
10.Stanislas
Wawrinka 488 Now the top 10 players won the highest percentage of 1st serve points:
1. Milos
Raonic 82%
2. Sam
Querrey 79%
3. John
Isner 78%
4. Nicolas
Almagro 78%
5. Tomas
Berdych 78%
6. Roger
Federer 76%
7. Ernests
Gulbis 76%
8. Grigor
Dimitrov 76%
9. Jo-Wilfried
Tsonga 76%
10. Kevin
Anderson 76%Now the big question - How many majors were won by this group? Answer - Zero.
The Average ranking of the top 10 Ace leaders is 20.8, the average ranking of the Top 10 players with the highest percentage of 1st points won is 17.4. What we can read into these numbers is how you back up your serve is more important to your ranking than the serve itself.
This is further backed up by the next stat. Second serve points won
1. Novak
Djokovic 60%
2. Rafael
Nadal 57%
3. John
Isner 56%
4. Philipp
Kohlschreiber 56%
5. Roger
Federer 55%
6. Stanislas
Wawrinka 55%
7. Richard
Gasquet 54%
8. Tommy
Haas 54%
9. Juan
Martin Del Potro 54%
10. Daniel
Brands 54% The average ATP ranking of these players is 13.6! So clearly on the serve, your 2nd serve is more important, and your ability to back it up by trading jabs with your opponent is more important than your ability to hit aces and service winners with your first serve.
Now lets look at the Top 10 return games won.
Top 10 Return Games Won
1. Rafael
Nadal 34%
2. Novak
Djokovic 33%
3. David
Ferrer 33%
4. Andy
Murray 31%
5. Fabio
Fognini 31%
6. Kei
Nishikori 30%
7. Nikolay
Davydenko 28%
8. Gilles
Simon 27%
9. Tommy
Robredo 27%
10. Roger
Federer 26% The average ATP ranking of these players is an astounding 14.6!! Al four majors were won by this group.
So you can see that your ability to return serve, and trade jabs with your opponent effectively is far more crucial than your ability to serve your opponent off the court. Note the top 4 players on this list are ranked in EXACT ORDER as they are in the current ATP rankings. Stunning.
So work on your SECOND SERVE and serve return, as well as your ability to back each of those up, and your level will increase.
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