Stat for counting 'free points'

[BlueClayGOAT]

This was inspired by something I saw in another thread.

@Gary Duane mentioned it in here https://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/ind...ll-time-now-men.474196/page-111#post-11677783 .

To measure the strength of players' serves in earning them free points, (as opposed to their service games), a good way would be to measure free points accrued on serve:

((Aces + Service winners) - Double Faults)/(Total serves attempted). This would provide a measure of the reliability of a players' serve in getting her free points while also penalizing for overtly risky serving by accounting for double faults made. (Aces + service winners) essentially means unreturned serves.

Of course, this does not account for deliberately cautious and measured yet accurate serving done with a view to starting rallies at a tactical advantage instead of winning points outright through aces/service winners. (In other words, the Nadal way of serving). This might constitute good serving, and indeed it is very hard to break Nadal, but my aim here is to measure free points won on serve.

Is there such a stat existing? Has someone calculated it?

 

[noobforehand20]

i dont think that would be very reliable, since it can vary a lot, you might hit a serve that lands on the T but is returned, while another that landed in the middle of the box might not, so it would leave a lot of room for interpretation and take away objectivity.

its just better and simpler to list the amount of aces, double faults and serve %, especially % of 1st and 2nd serves points won, i think thats enough to see how players service behaved during a match

 

[BlueClayGOAT]

i dont think that would be very reliable, since it can vary a lot, you might hit a serve that lands on the T but is returned, while another that landed in the middle of the box might not, so it would leave a lot of room for interpretation and take away objectivity.

Sure, but over large sample sizes, such aberrations tend to be negligibly small/even themselves out.

An ace is for all purposes just as effective as a service winner in terms of winning the point. The server doesn't have to move a muscle after serving the ball.

% of service points won paints a picture of the state of a player's service game, not just the strength of his serve alone in winning free points.

I want the stat i proposed to exclusively reflect the ability of a serve to win free points and not give away free points.