Match Stats/Report - Djokovic vs Anderson, Wimbledon final, 2018

[Waspsting]

Novak Djokovic beat Kevin Anderson 6-2, 6-2, 7-6(3) in the Wimbledon final, 2018 on grass

It was Djokovic’s first Slam title since French Open 2016 and he would go onto win the next 2 also. Anderson was playing his second and last Slam final. Both players had won extended fifth sets in their semi-finals - Djokovic 10-8 over Rafael Nadal, Anderson 26-24 over John Isner. Anderson had won an extended fifth set 13-11 over Roger Federer in the quarter-final also

Djokovic won 100 points, Anderson 74

(Note: I’m missing serve direction and corresponding return data for 1 point
Point in question - Set 1, Game 5, Point 2)

Serve Stats
Djokovic...
- 1st serve percentage (68/94) 72%
- 1st serve points won (52/68) 76%
- 2nd serve points won (17/26) 65%
- Aces 6, Service Winners 1
- Double Faults 4
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (34/94) 36%

Anderson...
- 1st serve percentage (48/80) 60%
- 1st serve points won (34/48) 71%
- 2nd serve points won (15/32) 47%
- Aces 11 (2 second serves, 1 not clean), Service Winners 1
- Double Faults 5
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (25/80) 31%

Serve Patterns
Djokovic served...
- to FH 57%
- to BH 41%
- to Body 2%

Anderson served....
- to FH 46%
- to BH 53%
- to Body 1%

Return Stats
Djokovic made...
- 50 (26 FH, 23 BH, 1 ??)
- 13 Errors, comprising...
- 3 Unforced (2 FH, 1 BH)
- 10 Forced (4 FH, 6 BH)
- Return Rate (50/75) 67%

Anderson made...
- 56 (31 FH, 25 BH)
- 1 Winner (1 FH)
- 27 Errors, comprising...
- 10 Unforced (8 FH, 2 BH)
- 17 Forced (10 FH, 7 BH)
- Return Rate (56/90) 62%

Break Points
Djokovic 4/4
Anderson 0/7 (4 games)

Winners (including returns, excluding serves)
Djokovic 12 (6 FH, 3 BH, 2 FHV, 1 OH)
Anderson 14 (7 FH, 3 BH, 2 BHV, 2 OH)

Djokovic's FHs - 1 cc, 1 dtl pass, 1 inside-out, 1 inside-in, 1 longline/inside-out and 1 drop shot at net
- BHs - 1 cc pass and 2 dtl (1 pass)

Anderson's FHs - 1 cc, 2 dtl (1 return), 3 inside-out and 1 inside-in
- BHs - 1 dtl, 1 running-down-drop-shot cc pass at net and 1 net chord dribbler

Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Djokovic 31
- 15 Unforced (8 FH, 7 BH)
- 16 Forced (7 FH, 8 BH, 1 FHV)... with 1 FH running-down-drop-shot at net & 1 BH running-down-drop-shot at net
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 46

Anderson 49
- 37 Unforced (21 FH, 14 BH, 2 FHV)
- 12 Forced (8 FH, 2 BH, 2 BHV)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 47.3

(Note 1: All 1/2 volleys refer to such shots played at net. 1/2 volleys played from other parts of the court are included within relevant groundstroke numbers)

(Note 2: the Unforced Error Forcefulness Index is an indicator of how aggressive the average UE was. The numbers presented are keyed on 4 categories - 20 defensive, 40 neutral, 50 attacking and 60 winner attempt)

Net Points & Serve-Volley
Djokovic was 6/10 (60%) at net

Anderson was...
- 11/18 (61%) at net, including...
- 2/3 (67%) serve-volleying, all 1st serves

Match Report
Match of 2 halves with Anderson being poor for first part and Djokovic doing the basics as needed to stay well ahead. It ends on a high though, with a good, solid second half that Anderson has the better of

Unfortunately for him, he’s so poor in the first half that he’s virtually 2 sets down by the time he gets it together. Djokovic sees through the second set and hangs tough in the third before taking the tiebreak to finish in straights

The two-part showing from Anderson twists match long sets deceptively

Anderson serves at 60%, wins 71% first serve points and 47% second serve points. There’s nothing wrong with those numbers - in isolation, they’re as likely as not to be match winning ones (as opposed to getting squashed figures)

Djoko wins 57% of points, serving 54% of them
Break points - Djoko 4/4, Andy 0/7 (4 games)

Doesn’t look terrible from Anderson’s point of view. Djoko winning 57% of all points is the only thing that does look bad - but that’s also the most important. It would be very difficult to lose a match while winning 57% of points

Djoko serving 54% of points is unusual for such an easy win. Usually, that indicates struggling to hold serve. Here, its as much about Andy getting broken in short games in first half, though Djoko does struggle on serve in the second too

Both players having break points in same number of games is interesting, but that’s completely divided by parts of match.

After first 13 games, break points read - Djoko 4/4, Andy 0
Last 15 games (excluding tiebreak) - Djoko 0, Andy 0/7 (4 games)

Gist - terrible first half from Anderson sees him all but to go down 2 sets to love down 2-6, 1-4. His movement on the return isn’t good (though probably not abnormal for him) and he can’t keep the ball in play for long from the baseline. Djokovic serves solidly and keeps ball in play until Andy misses - QED

The hidden, impressive hand in all that is Djoko’s returning. Andy takes awhile to warm up to serving with the kind of force he’s known for, but even the ‘warming-up’ phase is hot by any normal standard. Hotter than Djoko’s showing for starters. Djoko, typically, returns with hefty fair comfort

On grass and against Kevin Anderson, just getting returns in play is a feat. Djoko does that consistently and firmly, thus creating room for Andy to mess up off the ground. He doesn’t return with initiative grabbing force, but close to neutralizingly. It would take moxie for Andy to take charge of third ball. When he tries, he fails. When he doesn’t and plays neutral shots to start rally, he also fails - and usually not after long rally

Second half (15 games + tiebreak) is much different. Andy’s serve fires and he’s secure off the ground. Though improving, movement on the return still isn’t very good, which has significant hand in his failing to break, but he does have better of play anyway

Djoko meanwhile carries on his own way, but with Andy keeping ball in play, it falls to Djoko to end up missing that much more to end rallies. And with Andy serving better (and not returning as badly), he leads serve-return complex so that Djoko's under the gun to keep holding. He just about succeeds - and takes the ‘breaker. Not so QED

Standout match long stat is Andy’s 31 UEs (21 FH, 14 BH, 2 volleys). Putting that in perspective -

- Both players combined have 26 winners
- Both players combined have 28 FEs
- Djoko’s UEs total 15
- Djoko has 34 unreturned serves, Andy 25

Secondary important stat is unreturned rates - Djoko 36%, Andy 31%. Given the two players’ games, that’s a disaster for the loser and a walk in the park for the winner

Both key stats are hugely divided by halves

 

[Waspsting]

2 Half Match - UEs and Unreturned Rates
First half (13 games in, score 6-2, 4-1 for Djo)
- UEs - Djoko 6, Andy 22
- Unreturned rates - Djoko 52%, Andy 25%
(Break points - Djoko 4/4, Andy 0)

All 4 figures are huge wins for Djoko, huge losses for Andy

Credit Djoko for high return rate. Andy’s serve isn’t at full throttle, but good for more than 25% freebies against all but a Djokovic calibre return display

Plenty of discredit for Andy for a terrible one. Djoko serves solidly well - no more - and 52% freebies is much too high a figure for the quality of it

Far, far more discredit to Andy for the UE counts - he just can’t keep the ball in play for long. Djoko merely does the needful. Typically good depth and firm hitting, and its more than enough for Andy

Break point stats confirm outcome of the above

Second half (16 games, including tiebreak)
- UEs - Djoko 9, Andy 15
- Unreturned rates - Djoko 29%, Andy 38%
(Break points - Djoko 0, Andy 0/4)

Now that’s competitive and good tennis - along the lines of what a potentially good Djokovic-Anderson match would need to be

Andy getting big lot of freebies. Still a decent job by Djoko to keep it down to 38%. And Andy doing decently too to keep Djoko’s that low. For Andy, a slow and not good returner, a very good outcome

UE counts - pretty good for both guys, leading to competitive action

Break points stats confirm Andy having better of things as does game lengths

Djoko serves 60 points for his last 8 holds or 7.5 points per game
Andy serves 35 points for his last 7 holds or 5 points per game

Serve, Return & Play
Play is basic of nature and readily captured by numbers without much need for further explanation

Andy with bigger serve comes out in his serving an ace/service winner 20.8% of the time off first serves to Djoko’s 10.3%. His serving 2 second serve aces on top of that is indicator of big second serving too. Djoko by contrast serves a normal second serve

Still, Djoko leads unreturned rates 36% to 31%. Breakdown of return errors -

UEs - Djoko 3, Andy 10
FEs - Djoko 10, Andy 17

High UEs from Andy and next to none by Djoko indicate just what it appears to - Djoko misses nothing that’s routine, Andy does fairly often

On the FE front, bigger lot of Andy’s are on makeable side. An extension of his not returning particularly well - but also Djoko’s penchant for doing just enough with a shot to get the error, and not more

Djoko being aced/service winner’d 12 times while making just 13 return errors. Excellent from him - virtually anything short of untouchable comes back, and there’s plenty of tough serves that fall into that category. They don’t just come back, they come back firmly too.

Typical, ‘quiet highlight’ of a Djoko ‘doesn’t do anything, but wins readily’ showing is the matter-of-course returning. Both keeping freebies down and returning so as to at least not leave a readily attackable third ball is what he achieves with the return

In play -
Winners - Djoko 12, Andy 14
Errors Forced - Djoko 12, Andy 16
UEs - Djoko 15, Andy 37

A solid showing from Djoko, a poor one from Andy. Typical, firmly hit groundies from Djoko off both sides with good depth and Andy’s just outmatched for half the match trading groundies with him.

Andy’s FH is chief culprit with match high 21 UEs, but even his BH has 14 - just 1 fewer than Djoko’s total

(FHs Andy’s weaker side on the return too and Djoko draws 18 errors from it - twice as many as from the BH - while directing 57% of serves to that side)

Hitting 14 winners while forcing 16 errors by Andy would qualify as a sound way to attack, if it weren’t for all the UEs. High price for attacking too

He’s got 13 attacking errors (which is poor given the errors he’s forced just 16 errors) and 7 winner attempt ones (which isn’t too bad for 14 winners). Djoko though has a measly 3 UEs on both fronts

Andy leading winners and errors forced slightly (+6 combined), Djoko the UEs (+22… as in Djoko has that many less), show Andy to be the aggressor. He needs to be - on neutral UE front, he has 17 to Djoko’s 9

Match Progression
Djokovic breaks to start the match. From 30-15, Anderson misses third ball BH dtl winner attempt and routine FH, before double faulting on break point

Awhile later, 3 FH UEs - regulation attacking third ball, a putaway easy ball (both inside-out) and later an approach error against a low ball - sees him broken again to go down 1-4. Djoko meanwhile loses 3 points in holding 4 times to take the set easily 6-2. Low in count for Andy has been problem and he makes just 9/20 first serves for the set

He raises that to 16/25 in the second set, but can only win 8/16 of those first serve points. He’s again broken to open with 4 neutral BH UEs from 15-0 up. Awhile later, 3 attacking UEs (2 FHs, 1 BH) and a double fault see him broken again to again go down 1-4

Very poor show from Anderson to this point. He’s had the trainer look at and mildly treat his elbow a couple of times through it

Rest of match is competitive and high, if not spectacular, of quality. Djoko endures a 10 point hold for 5-1 and faces break point for the first time in the match while serving the set out. 6-2 and 2 sets to love

Andy has better of third set, serving 30 points to hold 6 times without facing break point. Djoko serves 42 points for his 6 holds, saving 6 break points across 3 games - 5 of them set points also

4/5 set/break points are saved via winners or forced errors. The other is a first serve return error that’s been marked a UE. Couple of double faults get Djoko into trouble in his 4-5 service game (saves 2 break points), but the 5-6 hold is a strong game all around, with just 1 UE (+ the first serve return miss on break point)

Cleaner hitting + better consistency off the ground from Andy in the set. Djoko plays about the same standard he had earlier. The occasional powerful return by Andy causes Djoko trouble, but his movement on the return are still a slight problem and he tends to miss the not-easy but makeable return - something Djoko almost never does

Tiebreak and momentum is with Andy as he’s just taken Djoko to 12 points to hold. He opens with a third ball FH inside-out winner off a second serve. After Djoko takes his 2 service points, its Andy’s turn again

He comes in early in point 4, and manufactures an approach from neutral position the point after. A bit more aggressive than he’d been earlier in set, normal enough in tiebreak. Djoko takes both points - first with a FH dtl pass winner and second with a powerful, low pass that forces BHV error. 4-1 Djoko, 2 mini-breaks to the good

Its enough to win him the game. The two trade minis a while later, before Djoko wraps up with a decent serve that Andy can’t get back in play

Summing up, a contained, solid showing from Djokovic. His comfortable, thumping returning against a big serve is the standout as its the only thing done against strong opposition, but that's so normal for him that it blends into his overall performance. His serve and firmly struck groundies are also on the contained side - but usually face weak resistance from a poor, slow and error-riddled Anderson on the return and off the ground

Anderson is poor for half the match and all but down 2 sets before finding himself to the tune of whacking a few returns and being hard hittingly solid off the ground. He has better of things for the second half of match, but Djokovic hangs in and a couple of good passes gives him the tiebreak to end in straight sets

Stats for the semi between Djokovic and Rafael Nadal - Match Stats/Report - Djokovic vs Nadal, Wimbledon semi-final 2018 | Talk Tennis (tennis-warehouse.com)