As we don't have enough Sinner threads already I just wanted to bring this up again to look at an old post of mine:
I will watch now the returns of Sinner more closely in the next games. Frankly his stats look a bit too good, I guess due to the opposition although he faced also some strong guys. I can not believe that he is among the best returners of the last twenty years. The numbers should return to the lower mean but on the other hand he is generally growing.
His serve looks actually rather weak for a guy of his size despite having made big strides compared to 2018.
Just want to focus on hardcourt sorted according due versus first serve %. The quality of the opponents's serve is obviously huge so let us look also at their rank. Once again we have the current big 4 in a clear cluster there.
Very interesting to see Bublik and Dimitrov there!
The gap between v1st% and v2st% of Novak is remarkable. Less reflexes, more class? The relative low break percentage of Charlie is also a bit surprising, stellar performance against the first serve with only 5.5% aces against. Most likely to do also with the deeper return position and more clay.
Interesting to see the development of the same four, took out the clay-courter:
De Minaur seems to be the best returner on tour, aided by lots of hardcourt, but the his serve opposition is clearly weaker. Alcaraz has stepped up considerably. Sinner suffered from mental and physical problems during the summer and I noticed his relative weaker return performance there. Toughest opposition.
Djokovic is breaking less but winning almost the same amount of points. Interestingly he is becoming better against the second serves, will try to find an older file there. Medvedev losing some of his return performance, not only his serve.