Craig O'Shannessy, Author at Brain Game Tennis

Medvedev d Alcaraz. How? 2nd Serves To The Forehand

Sunday, 15 March 2026 by Craig O'Shannessy

G’day from Indian Wells, Second serves to the forehand. Daniil Medvedev stunned world #1, Carlos Alcaraz, 6-3, 7-6(3) in the semi-finals of Indian Wells yesterday with a masterclass in serve strategy. Medvedev’s first serve performance was good. He made 59% of first serves and won 64%. That keeps you in the hunt. Medvedev’s second serve

Published in Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev, Indian Wells, Serving

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Indian Wells 2026: Surviving The First 4 Shots

Saturday, 14 March 2026 by Craig O'Shannessy

G’day from Indian Wells, When we think about the first four shots of the point, we imagine offense in our minds. We talk about “first strike” and how to pressure opponents with superior court position, taking away their time. But not when returning serve. Our goal here is to SURVIVE the first four shots. It’s

Published in Alexander Zverev, Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev, Indian Wells, Jannik Sinner

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Indian Wells – Fonseca v Sinner Tonight. Five Things To Look For.

Tuesday, 10 March 2026 by Craig O'Shannessy

G’day, Just how good is Brazilian phenom Joao Fonseca? We are going to find out in the desert tonight when he takes on world No. 2, Jannik Sinner, in the round of 16 at Indian Wells. Here are five things to look for in today’s heavyweight battle, which is scheduled not before 6.00 pm local

Published in Indian Wells, Jannik Sinner, Joao Fonseca

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It’s Two Shots Then Daylight Down Under

Wednesday, 04 February 2026 by Craig O'Shannessy

G’day, I want you to read this slowly, as it’s completely counterintuitive. Elena Rybakina hit a maximum of two shots in the court in 77% of all points she played at the 2026 Australian Open. Two touches. That’s it for almost eight points out of every ten. Mind-boggling. She won the title, only dropping one

Published in 0-4 Shots, Australian Open, Elena Rybakina

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A New Order Owning The Baseline Down Under. G’day Carlos.

Tuesday, 03 February 2026 by Craig O'Shannessy

G’day, The statistic, “Baseline Points Won”, tells a lot about how a player performed in a match and a tournament. It’s important to note how this stat is calculated. For example, let’s say Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic are crushing the ball at each other from the baseline just like they did in the Australian

Published in Alex De Minaur, Australian Open, Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, Tommy Paul

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2026 Oz Open Final. Can Djokovic defeat Alcaraz? Why Not?

Saturday, 31 January 2026 by Craig O'Shannessy

G’day from Melbourne, All points in tennis are not created equal. Break points are the “king makers” that weigh heaviest on the final outcome of a match. Want to know how/why 38-year-old Novak Djokovic has reached the Australian Open final against Carlos Alcaraz this evening? Look no further than Break Points Saved. In the fifth

Published in Australian Open, Break Points

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2026 Australian Open. Only 2.8% Serve And Volley Points. It’s Embarrassing.

Wednesday, 28 January 2026 by Craig O'Shannessy

G’day from Melbourne, Let’s talk serve and volley. Australia is the land of kangaroos, Tasmanian devils, platypus, koalas, quokkas, and serve & volley. Serving and running straight to the net is in our DNA. If you can’t serve and volley, you can’t get a driver’s license Down Under. Pure and simple. Obviously, players are serving

Published in Alexander Bublik, Alexander Zverev, Australian Open, Ben Shelton, Carlos Alcaraz, Serve And Volley, Tommy Paul

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2026 Australian Open. Is elevating your game under pressure just a myth?

Wednesday, 28 January 2026 by Craig O'Shannessy

G’day from Melbourne, Do players at the 2026 Australian Open elevate their game in pressure situations? Do they find a new level when serving at break point compared to the rest of the point scores? You might be surprised… Let’s take a look at first serve performance in the men’s draw. 2026 AUSTRALIAN OPEN MEN

Published in Australian Open

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Is This Novak’s Secret Weapon Down Under?

Tuesday, 27 January 2026 by Craig O'Shannessy

G’day from Melbourne, The Australian Open is doing a nice job of unveiling some new match metrics this year. One in particular that caught my eye is “Decisive Points Won When Serving”. This simply combines all break points and game points for the server. Anytime the game can be finished in one point (for either

Published in Uncategorized

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The Hidden Connection Between Rallies And Returns

Sunday, 25 January 2026 by Craig O'Shannessy

G’day from Melbourne, There is a hidden connection between the serve and rally phases of a point. New data from the 2026 Australian Open pinpoints how successful the server performs in the rally phase of the point after starting with either a first or second serve. Here’s how it works… The first premise is that

Published in Australian Open

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2026 Australian Open – Let’s Talk Return Of Serve Speed

Friday, 23 January 2026 by Craig O'Shannessy

G’day from Melbourne, In many ways, the returner is simply reacting to what the server is giving them. If the serve is good and hits its spot, the returner is just trying to get the return back in play and somehow survive the early onslaught from the server. That will likely produce a slow return

Published in Australian Open, Return Of Serve

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2026 Australian Open: Novak Is Locked In. Here’s 10 Reasons Why.

Thursday, 22 January 2026 by Craig O'Shannessy

G’day From Melbourne Novak Djokovic is through to the third round of the 2026 Australian Open in commanding fashion. Let’s take a look at what he is doing well as he attempts to win an unprecedented eleventh title Down Under. Djokovic: First Two Rounds Rd 1 def. Pedro Martinez 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 Rd 2 def.

Published in Australian Open, Novak Djokovic

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2026 Australian Open. How To “Set The Weather” When Serving

Wednesday, 21 January 2026 by Craig O'Shannessy

G’day from Melbourne In many ways, you can boil tennis down to two tasks. Holding serve and breaking serve. Is there something fairly simple that players at all levels of our sport can do to help bolster their chances of holding serve? Why, yes, there actually is. It’s all about the first point of the

Published in Australian Open, Serving

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How To Build Return Pressure

Thursday, 08 January 2026 by Craig O'Shannessy

Rafael Nadal is a master of moments in time. Nadal defeated Milos Raonic 6-4, 7-6(7), 6-4 at Rod Laver Arena, playing even for a lot of the contest, and then owning the moments that mattered the most to the bottom line. Nadal won 117 points for the match to Raonic’s 95 (+22). The Spaniard was

Published in Australian Open, Milos Raonic, Rafael Nadal

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2025 ATP Finals – Sinner’s Seven Takeaways For Your Own Game

Thursday, 20 November 2025 by Craig O'Shannessy

G’day, Jannik Sinner didn’t drop a set as he notched back-to-back titles at the year-end ATP Finals in Turin on the weekend. That’s a remarkable feat against five other top 10 players in the world. Here are Sinner’s tournament results 2025 ATP Finals – Jannik Sinner’s Five Matches Let’s unpack seven things from Sinner’s tournament

Published in Alex De Minaur, Alexander Zverev, ATP Finals, Ben Shelton, Carlos Alcaraz, Felix Auger Aliassime

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Errors are DOUBLE Winners At 2025 ATP Finals

Tuesday, 11 November 2025 by Craig O'Shannessy

G’day from Turin, Tennis is a game of errors, but we don’t typically approach it that way. Too often, we ride the emotional roller coaster – happy when we win the point and sad when we lose it. It’s not easy to stay mentally strong when you are hitting double the number of errors as

Published in Alex De Minaur, Alexander Zverev, ATP Finals, Ben Shelton, Carlos Alcaraz

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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.