Only 9 times in Federer's career...

[Benhur]

Originally Posted by pc1

One of Federer's great strength is getting the return in play so I'm not surprised by the stat. People are comparing Agassi to Federer in this way and pointing out that Agassi is inferior to Federer in this way, which is true. However the key stat to me is how often a player can break serve and while Agassi could be aced more than Federer he did break serve more often by percentage than Federer. That being written it is a very impression feat by Federer.

A much more useful stat would be aces received per match (or better yet, per point) not maximum number of aces in one match.

In general, I think most of these absolute stats are rather useless. For example, you look at the ranking by number of aces (career) and you see Roddick at number 3, and Karlovic at number 8. What does that tell you about acing ability? It tells you nothing because Roddick has played many more matches than Karlovic. But Karlovic hits about 18 aces per match on average, while Roddick hits about 11. That’s a HUGE difference. So of course Karlovic would have to be on top of any meaningful list about acing ability, instead of number 8. Such lists are very misleading.

I agree with you that the most relevant statistic for return has to be the percentage of return games won. The main mission of the returner is to neutralize the advantage of the server as soon as possible. If you can accomplish this by systematically hitting return winners or extremely aggressive returns, then so much better: You are not only neutralizing the server’s advantage, but turning it around to yourself. However, if you mix this up with enough errors that you end up winning a much lower percentage of return games than another player, then you may be better off cutting down on your attempts to hit winners off the return, and concentrating on just trying to put the ball back in play well enought so that it doesn’t allow the server to retain the initiative. it may sound less ambitious, but it would be a more effective way of returning if it brings up your perecentage of return games won. Agassi is near the top in percentage of return games won (5 full points higher than Federer, which is a lot) because he was a very effective returner in the sense I’ve just described (though of course he could also hit a good number of return winners). But I believe most returners would willingly give up their ability to hit winners off the return, in exchange for the ability to just put the point in neutral mode right after the return, and do it often enough to win a higher ratio of return games.

[slice serve ace]

Originally Posted by Andres

The only flat serves that Goran served were wide on the deuce sides (being a lefty, this caught everyone off guard). Everywhere else, his first serve was a topspin-slice. A extremely fast one, though, but very spinny. And his slice serve was a killer.

exactly, nice description

[Russeljones]

Originally Posted by Mustard

Federer is lucky he never faced prime Goran. Even Agassi got aced 37 times in the 1992 Wimbledon final.

Imagine Federer's serve on '1992 Wimbledon grass'

[slice serve ace]

Originally Posted by Benhur

A much more useful stat would be aces received per match (or better yet, per point) not maximum number of aces in one match.

absolutely
aces recieved per match stat could have been done from the atp, but for that kind of work someone should be payed
and 0 aces + 20 unret. serves is better for the server than 19 aces + 0 unret. serves

Originally Posted by Benhur

In general, I think most of these absolute stats are rather useless.

they are, but sometimes they are fun
most (and only) important stat is who won the match