Serving Archives - Brain Game Tennis

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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2024 US Open Serve Analysis. Which Is Better? Foot Back Or Foot Up?

Tuesday, 01 October 2024 by Craig O'Shannessy

G’day, Is it better to keep your foot back or bring it up in your service motion? On the surface, both seem to work just fine. It really depends on what feels right for you and what you were taught when you were younger. It feels like players get to load more and explode upward

Published in Ben Shelton, Coco Gauff, Frances Tiafoe, Grigor Dimitrov, Matteo Berrettini, Naomi Osaka, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Roland Garros, Serving, Taylor Fritz, US Open

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2024 US Open Men’s Semi-Finals. How Fast Should You Hit Your 2nd Serve?

Friday, 06 September 2024 by Craig O'Shannessy

G’day from New York, 🗽 How hard should your 2nd serve be relative to your 1st serve? How much speed do the best players in the world take off their 1st serve to create an ideal 2nd serve speed? We have answers for that… Let’s take a look at the four men in the semis

Published in Frances Tiafoe, Jack Draper, Jannik Sinner, Serving, Taylor Fritz, US Open

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2024 Men’s Semi-Final Analysis. The First Point Serving.

Thursday, 05 September 2024 by Craig O'Shannessy

G’day from New York, 🗽 The men’s semi-finals are set at Flushing Meadows. (1) Jannik Sinner vs. (25) Jack Draper (12) Taylor Fritz vs. (20) Frances Tiafoe Tennis is a game of getting ahead. Putting scoreboard pressure on your opponent is crucial to winning on the biggest stage. I analyzed the four semi-finalists and their

Published in Frances Tiafoe, Jack Draper, Jannik Sinner, Serving, Taylor Fritz, US Open

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Let’s Talk About Coco Gauff’s Serve

Monday, 02 September 2024 by Craig O'Shannessy

This wouldn’t be such a big deal if these match statistics weren’t focused on the defending champion, who also happens to be the third-best player in the world. Let’s have a fair-dinkum (Aussie for serious) chat about Coco Gauff’s 2024 US Open tournament. Gauff lost 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 in the fourth round last night to

Published in Coco Gauff, Serving, US Open

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Wimbledon 2024 Men’s Semis Preview. The One Thing To Look For.

Friday, 12 July 2024 by Craig O'Shannessy

G’day From Wimbledon. 🍓 It’s men’s semi-finals day at The Championships. Here’s what’s on tap today. Daniil Medvedev vs. Carlos Alcaraz Lorenzo Musetti vs. Novak Djokovic I have gone through all the analytics (hundreds of data points) that IBM produces here at The Championships and also some new/different data from TennisViz, which does a lot

Published in Novak Djokovic, Serving, Wimbledon

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Giovanni’s Serve Is From The Andromeda Galaxy

Wednesday, 03 July 2024 by Craig O'Shannessy

G’day From Wimbledon 🍓 The week before Wimbledon, I went to Roehampton to watch the qualifying tournament. I stumbled upon a match in which the No. 1 seed in qualifying, Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, played Ugo Blanchet. Both players are from France. Ugo looked like a solid player. At 5’9″ (175 cm) and 149 lbs (68

Published in Serving, Wimbledon

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The Key Stat To Break Serve More Often

Tuesday, 14 November 2023 by Craig O'Shannessy

G’day from Torino, Through the first four matches here at the 2023 ATP Finals, there have been 16 breaks of serve from 102 service games. That means players are holding 84% of the time. That’s a very solid number. As a comparison, the men held serve 78% at the US Open this year. One factor

Published in ATP Finals, Serving

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2023 Wimbledon Final – Alcaraz First Serve Lesson

Sunday, 23 July 2023 by Craig O'Shannessy

Alcaraz: Wimbledon Final 1st Serve Lesson Carlos Alcaraz stunned Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon final a week ago in a thrilling five-set final. Next Thursday’s webinar will focus on learning the patterns of play and momentum swings of the final and how you can directly improve your game by studying the best two players in

Published in Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, Serving, Wimbledon

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Wimbledon Serve Speed Is Trending In The Wrong Direction

Thursday, 06 July 2023 by Craig O'Shannessy

G’day from Wimbledon, 🌱🎾 Sports are supposed to be linear. As the years pass by, athletes get stronger, run faster, and hit the ball harder… you get the picture. Something has happened to serve speed at Wimbledon. It is getting slower instead of faster. Wimbledon is the only Grand Slam that provides historical serve speed

Published in Serving, Wimbledon

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2023 Roland Garros: New Serve Data

Monday, 29 May 2023 by Craig O'Shannessy

G’day from Roland Garros! 🇫🇷🎾 I always enjoy looking at emerging data sets early in a Grand Slam to get a feel for what’s to come. I found this one intriguing today. The focus is when a serve is returned back in play. So we subtract aces and return errors; all we have left is

Published in Return Of Serve, Roland Garros, Serving

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Djokovic Rd1 AusOpen Victory: 10 Quick & Quirky Stats

Tuesday, 17 January 2023 by Craig O'Shannessy

G’day from Melbourne! 🇦🇺🎾 Novak Djokovic returned to Melbourne Park last night with a dominant 6-3, 6-4, 6-0 victory over Roberto Carballes Baena. Here are 10 stats from the match that drill down into his Rd 1 victory. 1: RALLY LENGTH The first thing to understand is that the vast majority of points Novak played

Published in Australian Open, Novak Djokovic, Rally Length, Return Of Serve, Serving

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Serve Webinar: The Eight Serve Factors

Monday, 08 August 2022 by Craig O'Shannessy

G’day! You always play two matches when you step onto the court to compete. During the point. Between the points. We have all heard how tennis is such a mental game. Staying focused on your game plan and the opponent is a crucial element of that. The August 18th webinar (Serve Strategy: Patterns, Percentages

Published in Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Serve Webinar, Serving, Stefanos Tsitsipas

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Nick Kyrgios’ Serve. Unreadable. Unhittable. Unstoppable.

Saturday, 09 July 2022 by Craig O'Shannessy

G’day, Is Nick Kyrgios a legitimate chance to upset the Novak Djokovic apple cart 🍎🛒 in the Wimbledon men’s singles final on Sunday? Anything is possible, but the Super Serb is looking to win his fourth Wimbledon in a row and seventh overall. Djokovic has experience to burn. This will be his 32nd Grand Slam

Published in Nick Kyrgios, Novak Djokovic, Serving, Wimbledon

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Alcaraz’s Subtle Weapon: The Body 1st Serve

Wednesday, 30 March 2022 by Craig O'Shannessy

G’day, Most first serves in tennis go at the corners, chasing aces and return errors. And then there is 18-year-old Spanish sensation Carlos Alcaraz. The body server. Alcaraz is lighting the tennis world on fire in Miami this week with a breathtaking display of power tennis that now has him in the quarter-finals against 22-year-old

Published in ATP Tour, Carlos Alcaraz, Miami, Serving, Stefanos Tsitsipas

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Rafael Nadal: Ad Court Serve Secrets Exposed

Thursday, 11 February 2021 by Craig O'Shannessy

The microcosm of first and second serves hit only in the Ad court by Rafael Nadal is a fascinating piece of tennis analysis in its own right. At the 2021 Australian Open, through the first two rounds, Rafa has once again provided some spellbinding strategy in this specific part of his game. Match 1: Rafael

Published in Australian Open, Rafael Nadal, Serving

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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.

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