Carlos Alcaraz Archives - 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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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 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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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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Sinner’s Wide 1st Serves Vanished In The US Open Final vs. Alcaraz

Monday, 08 September 2025 by Craig O'Shannessy

G’day, Several fascinating storylines percolated in importance as Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner battled it out in the 2025 US Open men’s final yesterday. The Spaniard won 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, dominating in all facets of the game. Was it all about the forehands? Or the serve? Or the lack of first serves? Or simply

Published in Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, US Open

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Five Stats That Pinpoint Novak’s Decline

Saturday, 06 September 2025 by Craig O'Shannessy

G’day, Novak Djokovic is currently the third-best player on the planet. Father time has caught up with him, and by his own admission, the brutal physicality of battling Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner over five sets has become an overwhelming obstacle. Here are five key stats that Djokovic used to dominate his opponents. Now, they

Published in 0-4 Shots, Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Novak Djokovic, US Open

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2025 Wimbledon Men’s Final. Five Keys To The Final

Sunday, 13 July 2025 by Craig O'Shannessy

G’day From Wimbledon Carlos Alcaraz vs. Jannik Sinner. This feels like a Djokovic/Federer/Nadal heavyweight fight all over again. Here are five things to consider when watching the final. 1) HEAD-TO-HEAD Alcaraz leads the head-to-head 8-4 and has won five straight in 2024 and 2025. Sinner has not beaten Alcaraz since September 2023. This is the

Published in Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Wimbledon

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The Wimbledon Baseline Hides A Dark Secret

Friday, 11 July 2025 by Craig O'Shannessy

G’day from Wimbledon, When you step onto any tennis court, you automatically walk to the baseline and start trading shots back and forth with the person on the other side of the net. The baseline is your happy place. It’s where you feel comfortable on the court, having more preparation time than at the net

Published in Carlos Alcaraz, Court Position, Jannik Sinner, Jenson Brooksby, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Wimbledon

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2025 Roland Garros Final Alcaraz vs. Sinner. Five Things To Look For.

Sunday, 08 June 2025 by Craig O'Shannessy

G’day From Paris, Borg vs. McEnroe. Sampras vs. Agassi. Edberg vs. Lendl. Djokovic vs. Federer. Nadal vs. Federer. Alcaraz vs. Sinner. This is the next iteration of the heavyweights in our sport. The top two seeds will be crushing the ball on the crushed red earth at Roland Garros this afternoon. Overall, Alcaraz leads the

Published in Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Roland Garros

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Roland Garros 2025. Sinner’s Forehand Has Gone Berserk

Tuesday, 03 June 2025 by Craig O'Shannessy

G’day from Paris, Forehand and backhand performance is always a key ingredient in reaching week two at Roland Garros. One way I like to evaluate groundstrokes is to subtract errors (forced & unforced combined) from winners. It’s almost always going to give you a “negative” result. For example, Carlos Alcaraz has hit 78 forehand winners

Published in Alexander Zverev, Carlos Alcaraz, Jack Draper, Jannik Sinner, Lorenzo Musetti, Novak Djokovic, Roland Garros

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Should you serve ONLY to the backhand?

Tuesday, 15 April 2025 by Craig O'Shannessy

Lorenzo Musetti reached his maiden Masters 1000 final in Monte Carlo last week, and his ATP ranking jumped five spots up to #11 in the world. Let’s examine Musetti’s first-serve location during his six matches and see if we can uncover patterns for our own game. RD1: MUSETTI def. BU 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 Deuce Ct

Published in Alex De Minaur, Carlos Alcaraz, Lorenzo Musetti, Matteo Berrettini, Monte Carlo, Serving, Stefanos Tsitsipas

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My Top 7 Takeaways From 2025 Aussie Open

Friday, 31 January 2025 by Craig O'Shannessy

G’day, The 2025 Australian Open smashed attendance records day after day, highlighting just how popular the sport is Down Under. You actually can’t qualify the Aussie Open as just a tennis tournament anymore. It’s morphing into a festival with so much to see and do for the whole family. It’s the most fan-friendly tournament on

Published in Australian Open, Ben Shelton, Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner

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2023 US Open Final Breakdown: 97 Backhands Turned Into Forehands

Monday, 19 August 2024 by Craig O'Shannessy

Carlos Alcaraz’s unsung hero was his run-around forehand. Alcaraz defeated Casper Ruud 6-4, 2-6, 7-6(1), 6-3 in the US Open final in major part to hitting a slew of run-around forehands standing in the Ad court to counter the Norwegian’s full-court press towards his backhand. Ruud played a tactically savvy final by flattening out his

Published in 0-4 Shots, Carlos Alcaraz, Casper Ruud, Forehands, Run-Around Forehands, US Open

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Wimbledon Men’s Final Preview: 18 Stats That Matter

Sunday, 14 July 2024 by Craig O'Shannessy

G’day from Wimbledon! ???? Two weeks have flown by, and the men’s final is today at 2.00 pm. It’s the biggest day of the year on the tennis calendar and I can’t wait to see Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic light it up for the second year in a row. I was onsite at 7.00

Published in Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, Wimbledon

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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.