/ Published in Roland Garros

2025 Roland Garros. Your biggest advantage is your first two touches.

G’day from Paris,

Let’s draw a line in the sand to uncover where you create your most significant advantage in our sport.

You hit your first shot of the rally, and then you hit your second. Now, grab a stick and draw a line in the sand.

A maximum of two shots is on one side of the line. Every other rally length from three shots to 33 shots or longer is on the other side of the line.

We are dividing our sport by just two touches on one side of the ledger and literally everything else on the other side.

Surely, this should create an uneven data set skewed towards the multitude of points from three shots or longer for each player – especially on the dirt at Roland Garros.

Roland Garros Men: Quarter Finalists

The eight players in the men’s quarterfinals are:

  1. J. Sinner
  2. C. Alcaraz
  3. N. Djokovic
  4. A. Zverev
  5. L. Musetti
  6. F. Tiafoe
  7. T. Paul
  8. A. Bublik

IMPROVE YOUR SERVE & HOLD MORE

Webinar 3: Serve Strategy & Patterns

Webinar 11: Break Points & Tie-Breaks

Webinar 16: Serve +1 Strategy

Webinar 21: Serve & Volley / Return & Volley

Webinar 34: The 8 Serve Locations

Now, let’s see where these eight player created their biggest advantage to the quarters. Is it the first one or two touches of the ball for either player, or everything else that follows?

0-4 Shots Analysis

  • 0-4 Points Won = 2225
  • 0-4 Points Lost = 1810
  • Advantage = 415 points (2225 – 1810 =415)
  • Total Points = 4035

5+ Shots Analysis

  • 5+ Points Won = 1293
  • 5+ Points Lost = 963
  • Advantage = 320 points (1293 – 963 = 320)
  • Total Points = 2246

0-4 Shots vs 5+ Shots

  • 0-4 Shots Advantage – 415 points won (56%)
  • 5+ Shots Advantage = 320 points won (44%)
  • Total Advantage = 735 points

This is simply stunning data that turns conventional wisdom in our sport on its head.

The bottom line is this: the first two times you touch the ball in the rally are more important than everything that follows.

The advantage these players combined to create in 0-4 shots was 415 points won, or 56% of the overall advantage. Their advantage in everything else that followed was just 320 points won, representing 44%.

We have always thought about the start of the point as a stepping stone to the promised land of the longer rally. It’s not true. Short rallies are always more abundant than longer rallies and deliver greater separation from your opponent. They are legitimate all on their own.

Roland Garros Women: Quarter Finalists

The eight players in the women’s quarter-finals are:

  1. A. Sabalenka
  2. Q. Zheng
  3. E. Svitolina
  4. I. Swiatek
  5. M. Andreeva
  6. Boisson
  7. M. Keys
  8. C. Gauff

Now, let’s see where the women created their biggest advantage, which is either in the first one or two touches of the ball, or everything else that follows.

0-4 Shots Analysis

  • 0-4 Points Won = 1536
  • 0-4 Points Lost = 1194
  • Advantage = 341 points (1536 – 1194 = 341)
  • Total Points =2730

5+ Shots Analysis

  • 5+ Points Won = 878
  • 5+ Points Lost = 728
  • Advantage = 150 points (878 – 728 = 150)
  • Total Points =

0-4 Shots vs 5+ Shots

  • 0-4 Shots Advantage = 341  (69%)
  • 5+ Shots Advantage = 150 (31%)
  • Total Advantage = 491

The advantage players enjoyed from the 0-4 shot rally length was even bigger in the women’s draw. The men had 56%, and the women were all the way up at 69%. This destroys another myth about the women’s game that being more proficient in longer rallies is more beneficial for them.

SUMMARY

Short rallies of a maximum of just two shots for each player vastly outnumber longer rallies of 5 shots or more.

Short rallies are the best place to build your separation from your opponent. The key premise with this analysis is that you are going to win points and lose points. But what’s the gap that results? And where is it more prolific?

This has obvious implications for the practice court. Yes, you need to work on your serve technique and accuracy to dominate your service games. Then there is proficiency returning and being solid as a rock with your Serve +1 defense. Lastly, hitting a good deep return helps force Serve +1 errors and also brings the ball back more down the middle of the court, where you can begin to build the point with your Return +1 groundstroke.

Short rallies are not a failure to reach the promised land of long rallies. They are a bona fide way to immediately get ahead of your opponent at the start of the rally.

Enjoy the opportunity to attack first at the start of the point, especially with a first serve or second serve return. The other option is to survive the first two shots (1st  serve return and 2nd serve) and not yield an error that they are desperately trying to extract from you.