Monday, 02 July 2018 / Published in Roger Federer, Wimbledon

10 Takeaways From Roger Federer

I highly recommend THE FIRST 4 SHOTS for a deep analysis of rally length.
Click HERE for more information.

The First 4 Shots – Video

Roger Federer def. Dusan Lajovic 6-1, 6-3, 6-4

Well, that didn’t take long! Roger dusted Dusan in just an hour and 19 minutes to move through to the second round of The Championships at Wimbledon this afternoon. Following are 10 elements of the match that you can learn from and copy at home to improve your own game.

1 Serve & Volley (Won 6/7)

I love serve & volley and you should too! Roger used it as a secondary tactic in this match to keep Dusan’s return game off balance. Here’s where serve and volley does not really get enough credit. Dusan likes to slice his return to make a lot of them, but those slice returns are easy pickings for Roger when he serves & volleys. When Dusan comes over the return he naturally misses more, but it works well to get the return low. It’s a guessing game between being offensive or making lots of returns. The guessing game of “will he” or “won’t he” serve and volley was perfectly won by Roger by sprinkling in seven of them in 13 service games.

Federer Seven Serve & Volley Points

Won Point – 1st point of his 2nd service game. He made a 123mph serve right down the T at Dusan’s backhand return and stuck the backhand volley for a winner through the Ad court.
Won Point – At 30-0 in the same game, he served and volleyed behind his second serve! Again it went to Dusan’s backhand return, and again Roger stuck a backhand volley through the Ad court. This time Dusan missed a tough running backhand pass long.
Won Point – Leading 4-1, 30-0 in the opening set, Federer served and volleyed and this time changed it up and came in behind a 109mph slice serve out wide in the Deuce court. Dusan could only slice his lunging forehand return, and Roger knocked off an easy forehand volley into the open court.
Won Point – Leading 6-1, 2-0, 15-15, Roger picked another great time to serve and volley with no pressure from the scoreboard. This time he surprised to the body, and Dusan hit a backhand jam slice return. Roger hit a low forehand volley deep into the backhand corner and Dusan missed a very tough backhand pass down the line.
Won Point – Now at 40-30 in the same game, Roger hit a big kicking first serve out wide that Dusan floated back with a high, defensive backhand slice return. Roger lit it up with a high swinging forehand volley for a winner through the Deuce court.
Lost Point – At 5-3, 30-0 in the 2nd set, he cheekily snuck in behind a second serve down the T to Dusan’s backhand wing. This time Dusan was able to come over the backhand and drive the return, He got it down low to Roger’s forehand volley, and a really tough volley ended up in the net.
Won Point – Federer led 4-3, 15-15 in the 3rd set, and served and volleyed down the T in the Deuce court to Dusan’s backhand. Dusan sliced a low return down the line to Roger’s backhand volley, and he hit a short angle cross-court volley for a winner. Nice touch taking power off a low volley, and applying lots of spin for control.

After you have finished reading this blog post, click HERE to read about how Roger inspired Thiago in Brazil to serve and volley – on clay. Oh yeah, Thiago is 60+ years old and is around a 4.0 level player. Thiago is now an inspiration to all of us!

2 Rally Length

Roger creates his separation much more in the shorter rallies than the longer ones. Here’s the breakdown of the three rally lengths from the match.

0-4 Shots = 108 points (73%)
5-8 Shots = 37 points (26%)
9+ Shots = 1 point (1%)

Yes it is grass, and yes it is Roger Federer, BUT the 0-4 shot rally length is the number one rally length at all levels of our sport AND on all surfaces. Period. Full stop. End of story.

Here’s who won the points at the three rally lengths.

0-4 Shots = Roger 72 / Dusan 37
5-8 Shots = Roger 18 / Dusan 19
9+ Shots = Roger 1 / Dusan 0

The first four shots are made up of the:

Serve
Return
Serve +1
Return +1

When Roger made contact with the ball a maximum of just two times, he crafted an extremely healthy 34 point advantage (72 to 37). When a fifth shot of the rally (or more) was hit into the court, Roger and Dusan won an identical amount of points = 19 each. This is quite normal in our sport. Dominate the short rallies and you can play even everywhere else and run away with the match.

3 1st Serve Direction

Deuce Ct 1st Serves

Wide = Won 7/8
Body = Won 6/6
T = Won 11/12

Ad Ct 1st Serves

Wide = Won 10/11
Body = 0
T = Won 7/8

Roger mixed a lot in the Deuce court. The goal was to keep Dusan guessing and keep him slicing returns so Roger can pounce with a Serve +1 forehand, or serve & volley. Roger went mostly wide in the Ad court and then mixed down the T to confuse Dusan. It’s all part of the master plan.

The body serve is often very underrated. Roger likes it, and so should you! It makes the returner have to move away from the ball and often brings the return right down the middle of the court.

4 Distance Run

Tennis is an explosive sport with lots of changing direction. Both guys were moving on average right around 10 metres per point. You need to copy this when you work on your fitness, movement, and agility.

Average Distance Run / Point

Roger = 10.5 metres per point
Dusan = 9.8 metres per point

Total Distance Run

Roger = 1545 metres
Dusan = 1437 metres

5 Shots In

There were 465 shots hit into the court in this match in 147 total points. Roger won 91 points, and Dusan won 56.

Average Rally Length = 3.2 shots

So the average contained a serve, a return, a Serve +1 shot or a volley, and then… that’s it! This match was all about “First Strike” tennis, with lots of offense at the start of the point.

Question… are you working enough on your serve and return in practice?

6 Forehands v Backhands

You may love your backhand all you want, but we play a forehand dominated sport. Let’s check out the performance of these two shots for both players.

Federer

Forehands = 16 winners / 15 errors … +1 total
Backhands = 2 winners / 25 errors … -23 total

Lajovic

Forehands = 6 winners / 31 errors … -25 total
Backhands = 4 winners / 20 errors … -16 total

Forehands had 22 winners, while the backhand chipped in for six.

Do all you can to look for forehands from the back of the court. The more forehands you hit, the more you control the point.

7 Returns

A good way to think about your returns is that you are on defense when returning first serves, doing all you can to get the ball back in the court. When you see a second serve, shift to offense and look to immediately force an error.

Combined 1st Serve Returns Missed = 33
Combined 2nd Serve Returns Missed = 6

As you can see from the numbers above, you get very few “free” points behind a second serve. They come back into play almost all the time, even though the returner is going for it a little more.

Players at all levels of our sport can greatly benefit from practicing their return of serve more in practice. It’s actually the least practiced shot!

8 Serve Speed

These are the numbers for Roger for the match.

Fastest Serve = 125mph
Average 1st Serve = 114mph
Average 2nd Serve = 96mph

If we go by the assumption that when Roger really gives his serve 100% effort, he is at 125mph. So that would put his average first serve speed at 91% of his fastest. This is a great indicator of how much you should really go for it. Right around 90% of full power still gives the ball enough curry, but it will also go in a lot as well – Roger made 71% 1st serves for the match.

When it comes to 2nd serves, Roger’s average was at 77% of full power. That thing needs to go in, and it did. Roger only double-faulted once for the match.

9 Net Points

Getting to the net is a good thing in our sport – especially when you practice it a lot.

Net Points Won

Roger won 82% (23/28)
Dusan won 44% (8/18)

Roger crushed it at the net because it is an integral part of his game all year round. Dusan typically does most of his work well behind the baseline, and when he came in on the grass, it was not nearly as natural for him.

The average points won at Net last year at the 2017 Championships was 65%. The baseline was just 46%. The net is a wonderful place to be!

10 Serving & Net Play

When you are serving, you need to have your radar locked on getting to the net as much as you can to finish points. The serve extracts a lot of short returns and defensive play that really facilitates coming forward.

Roger – Net Points When Serving

Won 18
Lost 3

Roger – Net Points When Receiving

Won 5
Lost 2

Getting to the net when you are returning serve is not an easy thing for you – or Roger. Be a step ahead and look for the short ball when serving.

I hope these insights help you understand what makes Roger so good here at SW19, and they also inspire you to incorporate them into your own game. There are lots of fun ways to improve!

All the best from Wimbledon.

Craig

The practice court is clearly broken. Here’s the proof.

Points are "front loaded". By far the majority of the action, and the winning, takes place in THE FIRST 4 SHOTS. The practice court is full of long rallies. Matches are dominated by short rallies. There is a massive disconnect occurring.

We spend too much time grinding, banging balls up and down the middle of the court – that have no real benefit to winning tennis matches.

There are 3 specific rally lengths in tennis. Here is their percentage breakdown of total points.

0-4 Shots = 70%
5-8 Shots = 20%
9+ Shots = 10%

The First 4 Shots is specifically the serve, return, Serve +1 groundstroke and Return +1 groundstroke. Those are normally the shots that get practiced the least, but matter the most to winning tennis matches.

The net is an extremely high percentage place to be!

If you love playing tennis for fun, spend as much time at the baseline as you like. But if you compete – if the score matters – then you must turn your attention to the net to maximize your potential.

The “herd mentality” in tennis thinks it’s too tough to approach the net in today’s game. The conversation starts with improved string technology, more powerful rackets, and finishes with stronger, faster athletes. The herd think approaching is a relic of the past. The herd is WRONG!

AVERAGE WIN %
Baseline = 46%
Net = 66%

Data from ALL Grand Slams provides the facts about approach and volley, and the data is crystal clear – it’s immensely better than staying back at the baseline, grinding for a living.

The baseline is a tough place to create separation. Here's how to do it.

At the 2012 US Open, only 7 men and 14 women had a winning percentage from the baseline. At Wimbledon 2016, Andy Murray won the title only winning 52% of his baseline points - and he is one of the very best at it in the world!

Num3ers deeply explores the data that rules points, especially from the back of the court. Take a "deep dive" into all three rally lengths (0-4, 5-8, 9+), and winner and errors totals from the elite level of our game. The numbers will shock you!

All 4 Grand Slams

Forcing Errors = 41% Men / 37% Women
Winners = 32% Men / 29% Women
Unforced Errors = 27% Men / 34% Women

Num3ers is very much like putting a jigsaw puzzle together. It's about bringing together different data sets together to create the big picture.

Every recorded match from the 2015 Australian Open - Rd2 to the final.

There is a lot happening on a doubles court. Situations and strategies are constantly being adjusted to create mis-matches with court position. It's hard to keep track of - until now. Dou8les Num3ers is the most comprehensive analysis of doubles data in our sport. The focus is on how a point ends, and it's broken down eight ways to Sunday. Specifically, you find critical information on:

Winners rise to the #1 way a point ends (over forced & unforced errors)

- The last shot of the rally is overwhelmingly struck at the net.
- Center Window: the most important part of a doubles court to control.
- Stephen Huss: an in-depth interview on Wimbledon's Centre Court with the 2005 Wimbledon Doubles Champion.

Dou8les Num3ers leaves no stone unturned. Percentage breakdowns of how often the server or receiver hits the last shot highlight the dramatic influence of the serve. The last shot of the rally is significant, and is broken down into the following categories: volleys, overheads, passing shots, lobs and groundstrokes.

When you play a match, you actually play two matches.

When you walk out onto a tennis court, there are two matches that you are about to play. The first is during the point - a part of the match that you have spent a lot of time preparing for on the practice court. But there is a second match, that takes place in the 20 seconds between the points. This is where the mental and emotional aspects of our sport kick in.

Let's face it, there will be adversity in almost every tennis match that you play. The storm clouds are coming. How bug they are, and how long they last for, are up to you.

Between the points is very tennis specific. It provides a roadmap for the 20 seconds between the points, teaching how to handle the adversity that will surely come, and how to build on the successes that will also be present. Your mind is your biggest asset in a match, and Between the Points takes your hand off the self destruct button and stops you beating yourself.

You don't have to be good at everything, but you have got to be good at something.

You can break tennis down into four key elements - serving, returning, rallying and approaching. Each part has specific patterns of play that consistently deliver higher winning percentages than the others. No more guessing. No more opinions. All facets of our sport are covered in this exceptional product, clearly outlining what patterns to gravitate to, and how to best construct the practice court. Data comes primarily from the 2015 Australian Open.

Building Blocks

MEN = 70% errors / 30% winners
WOMEN = 74% errors / 26% winners

Forcing errors is the best way to construct a point.
You can simply break tennis down into primary and secondary patterns of play - and they are all covered here. Primary patterns include serve and return direction, forehands v backhands, and the best way to approach the net. Secondary patterns include drop shots, serve & volley and 1st volley options. If you play tournaments, this product will greatly help you simplify the singles court.

The conversation starts & ends with the Center Window.

The doubles court is like an hourglass. There are two big ends, but a small neck in the middle where all the action happens. Once you learn the power of the Center Window, where you stand to start the point will take on a lot more significance.

Doubles is a lot more about situations, with four people on the court all "dancing" with one another. Learn all the best doubles patterns, broken down for the server, returner, server's partner and the returner's partner.

Doubles Situations

The "J" - the most ideal movement for the returner's partner to attack the net.

The "V" - a better way of understanding where the server's partner should move to.

Volley Targets - there are four main areas to attack. Know which ones are higher percentage. Beach Volleyball - the idea of a "setter" and "spiker" is ideal for the doubles court.

There are certain parts of the court that the ball travels to a lot, and other low percentage areas that you really don't want to cover at all - like the alley! In general, the serving team wants to keep the ball in the middle of the court as much as possible (to help the server's partner), while the returning team benefits from hitting wider and creating more chaos in the point.

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