Novak Djokovic Now Has A Better Winning Percentage on Grass Than Hard Court

[Lozo1016]

After going 7-0 at this year's Wimbledon, Novak's grass court record is now (slightly) better than this hard court record.

95-18 on grass (84.07%)
552-105 on hard court (84.02%)

It feels like we've always said hard court is Novak's best surface, but is it time for us to rethink that? He has had 3 Wimbledon finals with the grass court GOAT and he has won all 3. Is it possible that grass is the toughest surface for an opponent to take on Djokovic?

 

[upchuck]

Certainly possible that it's his best surface. Obviously not enough tournaments played on the surface to say for sure.

 

[TheIntrovert]

I think it’s just that the rest of the tour is useless on grass. Novak doesn’t play better on grass than on hard, but the difference in level of play between Novak (and roger and Rafa) and everyone else is larger. So he’s still better on hardcourt.

 

[Lozo1016]

I do wish we had some more important grass tournaments so we'd have a bigger sample size.

 

[tudwell]

Can’t really compare. On grass he mostly just plays Wimbledon. If he makes the semis, he’s at 83% for the year (5/6). On hard he plays tons of Masters and the WTF where he a) plays fewer overall matches through the tourney and b) starts playing top players after just 3 or 4 wins vs. 5 at Wimbledon. I think hard is pretty clearly his best surface. On grass he only has to peak for one event and usually only plays a couple of top 10 players in the entire season. On hard he has to keep his level up for a lot more of the season against an overall deeper field to have a comparable percentage.

 

[Milehigh5280]

His peak level on hard court is higher than his grass peak. He's more dominant on hc and he's had to survive and come from behind more often on grass.

 

[Daniel Andrade]

He is good in all surfaces. But in he would play more grass matches it would be clear that he's a better hard court player.

 

[Luka888]

Never thought about this but it's kinda bizarre. Well, most of the time, he only plays W so that's why the stats are kinda screwed up.

 

[Lozo1016]

He's played 23 grass court tournaments total:

Wimbledon 15 times
Queen's 4 times
2012 London Olympics
's-Hertogenbosch 1 time
Halle 1 time
Eastbourne 1 time

 

[Lozo1016]

Just Comparing Grand Slams:

Hard - 137-18 (88.4%)
Grass - 72-10 (87.8%)

 

[Red Rick]

Just Comparing Grand Slams:

Hard - 137-18 (88.4%)
Grass - 72-10 (87.8%)

This.

When comparing win% bewteen surfaces, you need to keep in mind that on clay you play a lot of the really rough Bo3 (high variance) tournaments, while on grass you play one average level tune up (or not) and a Bo5 tournament with a 128 draw, making it relatively easy to get a high winning%.

While Djokovic generally does get underrated as a grass court player, it's quite clear imo that HC is his best surface.