First Serves Under Pressure

[krosero]

Just an idea. Becker changed his service motion a number of times throughout his career; we've talked about it in a few threads. I just wonder if all that tinkering with his serve made it less reliable under pressure.

[krosero]

Originally Posted by SusanDK

I'm guilty of this one. I always recalled Becker being an exceptional clutch server. Is it possible that he converted a high number of second serves as well? So instead of just looking at first serves under pressure, I wonder what his stats are in terms of points made on serve when break point down.

Or perhaps he was particularly good when down break point in the most tense and critical situations, which gave the impression of him being a great clutch server. For example, converting a break point at 1-2 in the second set is not nearly as critical as doing so at 4-5 in the fourth.

Not sure how good or bad Becker was at saving break points in general. Obviously you can't be that bad if you reach #1 and win 6 Slams.

One match I remember where Becker saved a ton of break points was against Wheaton at Wimbledon in '91. He was unbroken, but he had to save 10 break points.

[Moose Malloy]

Chang made 1st serves on 15 of the 17 break points he faced in the last 2 sets in the '89 FO final. Will try to get complete stats.

Chang made 1st serves on 22 of 25 break points in that match.

also Djokovic made 9 of 11 vs Tsonga at the French this year.

and Roddick 8 of 10 vs Fed at Key Biscayne this year.

[krosero]

Borg d. El Shafei at the 1980 Wimbledon in the first round, making his first serve on all 7 break points that he faced (and he saved 6).

Increasingly it seems that Borg's ability to get his first serve into play on break point was one of the keys to his 5-title run at Wimbledon.

[robow7]

I'm sorry for being so lazy and not reading thru the whole thread but is there a stat that shows of those 1st serves in play at break point, what percent did they win that point. The reason I ask this is that many on break point will take a little off that first serve in order to get it in play and keep the returner from attacking on the second serve. It also takes a lot of pressure off the server if he doesn't have to hit a second serve so you put a 85% 1st serve into play to avoid that.

[krosero]

Originally Posted by robow7

I'm sorry for being so lazy and not reading thru the whole thread but is there a stat that shows of those 1st serves in play at break point, what percent did they win that point. The reason I ask this is that many on break point will take a little off that first serve in order to get it in play and keep the returner from attacking on the second serve. It also takes a lot of pressure off the server if he doesn't have to hit a second serve so you put a 85% 1st serve into play to avoid that.

Unfortunately we haven't always tracked that stat. I do track it sometimes, and I try to mention it in a case like yours where it seems the server has taken too much off his serve just to get it in, leaving himself attackable despite making his first serve.

None of the top performances listed in the opening post really qualify as one of those cases; in virtually all of them, as I recall, the server regularly went for his first serve on break point and for the most part was able to win the point.

McEnroe was really nailing his serve on break points in the '81 Wimby final, already mentioned by Moose.

The less-powerful servers in the second list were not ripping their serves on break points, but they rarely went for big serves anyway.

[Moose Malloy]

I think this is everything we have for Becker right now

1995 US Open
Becker 7 of 10(only broke twice)
Agassi 4 of 11

[krosero]

Originally Posted by Moose Malloy

1995 US Open
Becker 7 of 10(only broke twice)
Agassi 4 of 11

Thanks for getting this. So Becker served better on the break points than Agassi did, but he ended up losing. The key is that Agassi served much better in the tiebreaks and won them both.

Score was 7-6 (4), 7-6 (2), 4-6, 6-4

Agassi made 7 of 9 first serves in the tiebreaks (78%). By tiebreak:

4 of 5 (he won 3 of the 4)
3 of 4 (he won all 3)

Becker made only 4 of 11 first serves in the tiebreaks (36%). By tiebreak:

1 of 6 (his sole first serve was an ace)
3 of 5

Becker made 2 double-faults in the second tiebreak, one when Cyclops went off as he was going into his motion for his second serve and the next one on set point.

[krosero]

Their Wimbledon semi two months earlier was a perfect mirror. Becker won that match, though Agassi served better on the break points (Becker made first serves on 9 of 14 breakers, Agassi on 13 of 16). But the key was that Becker served so much better in the tiebreaks and won them both.

Score was 2-6, 7-6 (1), 6-4, 7-6 (1)

Becker made 8 of 8 first serves in the tiebreaks. By tiebreak:

4 of 4 (no mini-breaks)
4 of 4 (no mini-breaks)

Agassi made 6 of 8 first serves in the tiebreaks. By tiebreak:

3 of 4 (he lost 2 of the 3)
3 of 4 (he lost 2 of the 3)

Agassi served about as well in these tiebreaks as he would in the USO tiebreaks, but Becker's performance was totally different. Right now this is the only instance I know of in which someone made all of his first serves over the course of two tiebreaks.

McEnroe came very close in the 1981 Wimbledon final, making 9 of 10 first serves over the course of the two tiebreaks (and won them both in dominating fashion just as Becker did against Agassi).

[krosero]

McEnroe had another good serving performance in tiebreaks when he beat Lendl in '89 at Dallas, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (5), 6-2, 7-5.

It was McEnroe's only win over Lendl after the summer of '85.

In the tiebreaks:

McEnroe made 9 of 11 first serves (82%). By tiebreak:

4 of 5 (he won only 1 of the 4)
5 of 6 (winning all 5)

Lendl made 7 of 12 first serves (58%). By tiebreak:

4 of 6 (he won only 1 of the 4)
3 of 6 (winning 2 of those 3)

This stat was important for McEnroe because he lost both of his points on second serve in the tiebreaks. It was less important for Lendl who lost only 1 of 5 points on second serve.

McEnroe's overall service percentage (9 of 11 first serves) was nearly as good as what he did against Borg in the two TB's of the 1981 Wimbledon final (9 of 10). But he wasn't quite as successful in winning those points. He dominated both TB's against Borg but only managed to split TB's with Lendl.

[krosero]

Lendl converted only 1 of 16 break chances (6.3%) in that Dallas match, a very poor performance for him.

It would be interesting to find out how many first serves McEnroe made on those break points. Was it a case of McEnroe saving them, or Lendl failing to convert break chances the way he normally did?

Again there's a parallel with the '81 Wimbledon final: McEnroe and Borg each converted only 2 of 15 break points. There was no real failing there on Borg's part, because McEnroe made 12 of 15 first serves on break points.

[Moose Malloy]

In the tiebreaks:

McEnroe made 9 of 11 first serves (82%).

did they mention 1st serve %'s for either player during the match?

[krosero]

Originally Posted by Moose Malloy

did they mention 1st serve %'s for either player during the match?

They gave service percentages for each set.

Set 1 - Lendl 51, Mac 60
Set 2 - Lendl 51, Mac 69
Set 3 - Lendl 39, Mac 55
Set 4 - Lendl 77, Mac 41 (after 7 games)

I think they have mac's wrong in set 2, because they also said that after two sets he was serving at 51% for the whole match. And they said he had 3 df's in total at that point, but they had already given him 5 df's in the first set.

Some confusion there in set statistics and match statistics.

Lendl's numbers look ok.

[krosero]

Similar match at 1988 RG
Lendl d. Mac 6-7 (3), 7-6 (7), 6-4, 6-4

Lendl made 5 of 10 first serves in the tiebreaks (50%). By tiebreak:

1 of 5
4 of 5 (he missed one first serve, and then made it, when the point was replayed)

McEnroe made 4 of 10 first serves in the tiebreaks (40%). By tiebreak:

1 of 5
3 of 5

In that opening tiebreak each player lost the only point on which he made his first serve; they lived on their second serves entirely. Lendl won only 1 of 4 points on second serve; McEnroe won 3 of 4.

In the next tiebreak each man lost 1 point on first serve so again the difference was in the second serve. Lendl won his only second serve point; McEnroe lost both of his.


ESPN's service percentages in each set:
Set 1 - Lendl 47, Mac 55
Set 2 -Lendl 63, Mac 69
Set 3 - Lendl 60, Mac 52
Set 4 - Lendl 95, Mac 67

[krosero]

Another outstanding performance was when Courier went up two sets on Sampras at the '95 AO.

Sampras won 6-7 (4), 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-4, 6-3


Courier made 8 of 10 first serves in the tiebreaks (80%). By tiebreak:

4 of 5 (no mini-breaks of any kind)
4 of 5 (no mini-breaks of any kind)

Sampras made 5 of 11 first serves in the tiebreaks (45%). By tiebreak:

3 of 6 (he won all 3)
2 of 5 (he lost both)

[krosero]

Another great one: Federer d. Djokovic, 2007 USO final,
7-6 (4), 7-6 (2), 6-4

Federer made 7 of 9 first serves in the tiebreaks (78%). By tiebreak:

3 of 5 (winning 2 of the 3)
4 of 4

So Federer won 6 of 7 points started on his first serve: on all 6 he forced a BH return error from Djokovic (4 times with serves I judged as service winners).

From 15-40 in his last service game of the second set Federer had made every first serve and won every service point: he ended with 9 straight first serves and 13 straight points won on serve.

Djokovic made 6 of 11 first serves in the tiebreaks (55%) . By tiebreak:

2 of 6 (winning 1 of the 2)
4 of 5 (winning 2 of the 4)

[krosero]

1993 Wimbledon final
Sampras d. Courier
7-6 (3), 7-6 (8-6), 3-6, 6-3

Sampras made 5 of 12 first serves in the tiebreaks (41.7%). By tiebreak:

4 of 5 (no mini-breaks of any kind)
1 of 7

Courier made 5 of 12 first serves in the tiebreaks (41.7%). By tiebreak:

2 of 5 (he won 1 of the 2), missing his last three
3 of 7 (he won all 3)

In that second-set tiebreak Sampras played only one point on first serve, and won it, but he got by almost entirely on second serve, winning 5 of 6 such points. Three of his second serves were unreturned, and one was an ace.

So Sampras lost only 1 service point in that tiebreak, and it was just enough, since Courier lost two -- both on second serve.

[krosero]

1994 Wimbledon final
Sampras d. Ivanisevic
7-6 (2), 7-6 (5), 6-0

Sampras made 7 of 11 first serves in the tiebreaks (63.6%). By tiebreak:

3 of 5 (no mini-breaks of any kind)
4 of 6 (he won all 4)

Ivanisevic made 5 of 10 first serves in the tiebreaks (50%). By tiebreak:

1 of 4
4 of 6 (he won 3 of the 4)

So Sampras won 7 of 7 points when he made his first serve in the tiebreaks.

Ivanisevic won 4 of 5 points when he made his first serve. The only one he lost was on the final point of the second tiebreak, putting him down two sets to love.

[Jeffrey573639]

Just wondering how did Fed go in that 07 Wimbledon final?

[krosero]

2009 USO final
Del Potro d. Federer
3-6, 7-6 (5), 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-2

Del Potro made 6 of 12 first serves in the tiebreaks (50%). By tiebreak:

3 of 6 (no mini-breaks of any kind)
3 of 6 (no mini-breaks of any kind)

Federer made 6 of 11 first serves in the tiebreaks (54.5%). By tiebreak:

3 of 6 (the only mini-break was on a first serve)
3 of 5 (the only mini-break was on a second serve)