Cumulative stats for all AO semi-finalists

[jm1980]

Wrote a little routine to fetch these and calculate the results:

(vs. [116] Bedene, [88] Kuznetsov, [33] Verdasco, [42] Muller, [8] Raonic)

(vs. [100] Ilhan, [194] Copil, [72] Nieminen, [37] Garcia-Lopez, [5] Nishikori)

(vs. [317] Bhambri, [81] Matosevic, [55] Sousa, [11] Dimitrov, [53] Kyrgios)

(vs. [101] Falla, [108] Melzer, [54] Troicki, [66] Tomic, [3] Nadal)


Anything standing out?

 

[torpantennis]

Surprising stats:

1) Murray and Berdych better than Djokovic on Receiving points won.
2) Murray better than Berdych or Wawrinka on 2nd serve points won.
3) Berdych has less unforced errors than Murray
4) Djokovic is the worst on break points won

 

[jm1980]

Surprising stats:

1) Murray and Berdych better than Djokovic on Receiving points won.

In all fairness Djokovic played two good servers in Muller and Raonic

2) Murray better than Berdych or Wawrinka on 2nd serve points won.

I don't think this one is really all that surprising. For the most part 2nd serve is just kind of putting the ball in play, and Murray's ground game is more consistent than Berdych and Wawrinka's

3) Berdych has less unforced errors than Murray

This is partially because Berdych has played 901 points, which is 107 points fewer than Murray's 1008

4) Djokovic is the worst on break points won

This one is terrible. I watched all his matches and I couldn't believe he wasted BP after BP. He'll need to do better against Wawrinka.

Answers in bold.

(Side note, total points played - Djokovic: 893; Wawrinka: 1019; Murray: 1008; Berdych: 901)

 

[Chanwan]

Surprising stats:

1) Murray and Berdych better than Djokovic on Receiving points won.
2) Murray better than Berdych or Wawrinka on 2nd serve points won.
3) Berdych has less unforced errors than Murray
4) Djokovic is the worst on break points won

A few comments added below:
1) Murray and Berdych better than Djokovic on Receiving points won. (Djoko's faced Muller and Raonic)
2) Murray better than Berdych or Wawrinka on 2nd serve points won. (Murray's average opponent is ranked above a 100th. Look at the speed of that 2nd serve, 10-15 mph slower than the rest of them!!)
3) Berdych has less unforced errors than Murray - very surprising, in fact he has the best W/UE of all of them
4) Djokovic is the worst on break points won - very surprising as well, but again, Mueller/Raonic.

OP, thanks for the stats!

 

[stringertom]

Djok's lone service game dropped and only losing 21% of service points.

 

[Chanwan]

Djok's lone service game dropped and only losing 21% of service points.

yeah, we talk so much about his return game, but it's his hold game than stands out in the above. He's broken serve less than the rest of them

 

[stringertom]

yeah, we talk so much about his return game, but it's his hold game than stands out in the above. He's broken serve less than the rest of them

The Becker effect firmly taking root...if so, '15 could be historical???

 

[Chanwan]

The Becker effect firmly taking root...if so, '15 could be historical???

If he can break more or less as much as he usually can and can hold close to as much as Federer/Raonic, then the sky's the limit...

We're talking one mean, lean winning machine in that case

 

[torpantennis]

yeah, we talk so much about his return game, but it's his hold game than stands out in the above. He's broken serve less than the rest of them

He has faced bad returners and low ranked players.

 

[Nathaniel_Near]

The Becker effect firmly taking root...if so, '15 could be historical???

Are you hinting at what I think you're hinting at?

 

[torpantennis]

So all other stuff has explanations, but that Berdych W/UE ratio stands out!

Berdych in 3.

 

[stringertom]

Are you hinting at what I think you're hinting at?

It's early but, as always, only one man leaves Melbourne with a chance at it.

 

[falstaff78]

5 star effort OP. Thanks so much for the stats. If there is any way you could automate this and share these stats before the semis or quarters of all the majors, wowweee that would be a tremendous contribution to the boards.

great analysis by other posters above. I was having a little chat with carl bialik the other day and he mentioned that one metric that he uses to gauge a player's return game is to take (% 2nd serve points won) minus (% 2nd serve points lost).

his rationale is that this adjustment corrects for the overall quality of the player's ground game, and isolates ability to return serves. the reason a 2nd serve comparison works better than a first serves comparison is that there is a lot more variation in quality of players' first serves than their second serves.

if we apply this metric we see that Djokovic has a towering strength in RoS, whereas for Stan, notwithstanding all the sexiness that his OHBH has showered upon us, RoS is not how he's winning tennis matches....


Djokovic 68% - 43% = 25%
Murray 59% - 42% = 17%
Berdych 53% - 39% = 14%
Stan 54% - 51% = 3%

thoughts?