The Big 3 and the Young 3: Comparing the way to play

Rovesciarete

Hall of Fame
The big 3+1 are just a magnificent benchmark for anybody out there. Brilliant players with a very long career and a huge amount of data. I was recently looking at the tactic section of the Tennis Abstract homepage and I think there is a lot of interesting basic stuff to discover.

I sorted first by net win percentage over the career. Nadal was the most efficient player at the net but he certainly gave also up points and stamina by not moving up as much. Federer attacked the net almost twice as often giving up only a couple of percentage points. Novak in the last season is closing in on Roger's net frequency while being almost as efficient as Rafa in converting.

Alcaraz has performed over his career as Djokovic did in 2023, while Sinner was clearly worse in earlier. In 2023 Sinner put out one of the all-time efficiency numbers at the net with incredible 74% while getting at it more than ever before. Rune was as so often a clear step or two below at conversion.

Updated weekly(ish). Last update: 2023-11-27
Player​
Matches​
SnV Freq​
SnV W%​
Net Freq​
Net W%​
FH Wnr%​
FH DTL Wnr%​
FH IO Wnr%​
BH Wnr%​
BH DTL Wnr%​
Drop Freq​
Drop Wnr%​
RallyAgg​
ReturnAgg​
464​
1.4%​
76.9%​
8.7%​
73.8%​
12.8%​
18.7%​
8.6%​
7.5%​
11.4%​
0.8%​
40.8%​
-69​
-58​
120​
5.5%​
76.3%​
12.1%​
72.5%​
16.1%​
22.0%​
11.2%​
8.7%​
24.5%​
3.3%​
42.4%​
9​
12​
131​
1.6%​
70.3%​
10.3%​
71.6%​
13.1%​
19.7%​
15.5%​
6.5%​
24.9%​
1.1%​
40.6%​
-20​
-11​
489​
2.0%​
69.9%​
10.9%​
70.6%​
12.2%​
15.3%​
11.2%​
6.9%​
16.4%​
1.5%​
28.1%​
-49​
-36​
637​
10.7%​
68.6%​
15.3%​
70.3%​
17.4%​
23.1%​
15.1%​
9.2%​
23.7%​
1.1%​
39.6%​
13​
27​
279​
1.9%​
68.0%​
10.4%​
70.2%​
10.5%​
13.5%​
7.7%​
7.4%​
20.4%​
1.4%​
28.8%​
-65​
-46​
48​
5.2%​
61.1%​
13.0%​
69.2%​
15.4%​
18.4%​
10.8%​
9.2%​
30.9%​
3.3%​
28.8%​
-2​
2​

Updated weekly(ish). Last update: 2023-11-27
Player​
Matches​
SnV Freq​
SnV W%​
Net Freq​
Net W%​
FH Wnr%​
FH DTL Wnr%​
FH IO Wnr%​
BH Wnr%​
BH DTL Wnr%​
Drop Freq​
Drop Wnr%​
RallyAgg​
ReturnAgg​
53​
2.8%​
73.3%​
11.2%​
74.0%​
12.6%​
18.6%​
13.0%​
6.4%​
22.0%​
1.4%​
44.7%​
-20​
-7​
41​
6.0%​
75.9%​
12.2%​
72.8%​
13.2%​
18.4%​
15.5%​
6.9%​
19.2%​
1.5%​
28.5%​
-48​
-30​
52​
6.9%​
75.6%​
12.4%​
72.7%​
17.1%​
24.6%​
13.6%​
8.3%​
24.1%​
3.6%​
40.4%​
8​
14​
28​
6.2%​
61.2%​
13.7%​
67.0%​
14.6%​
17.3%​
9.8%​
8.5%​
29.7%​
3.1%​
26.1%​
5​
13​

Federer used Serve and Volley as often as no other elite player after him. Over their careers Nadal, Djokovic, Murray and Sinner stayed all below mere two percent of SnV, with Nadal once again being extremely efficient at it. Once again we can observe a certain trade-off between how often one uses at tactic and how much it pays off.

Djokovic has become a master of SnV efficiency in his old days despite using it thrice as much as over his career. Alcaraz is very similar at his tender age and once again shows why he is considered the most versatile of the youngest generation. An old master in a young body.

SnV has to be learnt and Sinner has been doing exactly that. He made a modest jump in frequency but more so in efficiency. Rune tries to be like Alcaraz but isn't quite there at getting the job done.
 
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