Saturday, 31 May 2025 / Published in Jack Draper, Roland Garros

Roland Garros 2025 – Holding To Love Lets You Breathe

G’day from Paris,

When you hold serve to love, how do you feel?

For most players, it’s relief. You have just strung four points together in a row, and it gives you a slight pause in the match to let the pressure melt away and let your heart rate drop. It does not happen often, but when it does, it’s a perfect respite from the challenges of the match you are trying to win.

So, is there any correlation between holding serve to love and actually winning the match?

The answer is yes.

In the first two rounds of the men’s draw at Roland Garros this year, there have been 630 service games that have been held to love. That’s a lot of deep breaths right there. Have match winners performed better than match losers in this area?

The answer is once again, yes.

Service Games Held To Love

Match winners = 59% (369)
Match losers = 41% (261)

You would expect match winners to outperform match losers across the board in basically every statistical category. But a 60-40 split is quite substantial. I think there is more here than meets the eye.

Jack Draper def. Gael Monfils 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5

This was a knock-down, drag-out fight on Court Philippe Chatrier that had the partisan crowd losing their mind for their French hero.

It was a high-quality defensive affair that Draper proved too strong in the end.

From a returning standpoint, Draper was able to amass a sizeable 22 break point opportunities, breaking seven times. Monfils broke four times from 10 opportunities. Monfils was always feeling the pressure from his opponent, constantly having to defend break-point opportunities.

How many love games did Monfils win in the match? One.

How many love games did Draper win in the match? Seven. One in the first set, and two each in sets two, three, and four. Imagine having two love games a set to help you reset and attack. In the last two sets, Monfils didn’t enjoy a single love game on serve. He was always under the pump.

Draper was cooling his engines with seven love games and then ramping up the pressure with 20+ break-point opportunities. This affects momentum. It adds so much pressure to Monfils because he does not enjoy the luxury of winning four consecutive points on serve and taking a deep breath in the match to recalibrate.

Winning four points in a row is like an oasis in a sea of adversity. It has more benefits than just holding serve. It instills confidence and allows for a brief mental and emotional reset.

DRILL

Here’s a really simple drill to understand the power of a love hold – and also how difficult it is to achieve.

Player 1 serves first.
If Player 1 wins the point, they continue until they reach the goal of winning four consecutive points on serve.
If Player 1 loses the point, then Player 2 serves and tries to win four consecutive serve points.
The only way to win a game is to win four consecutive points on serve.
Every time you lose a point, you lose serve.
If it gets to a tie-break, you keep serving while you keep winning points until you get to seven (win by two as usual).

This is a superb drill for players to experience the benefits of a hold to love.

Cheers from Roland Garros.

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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Roland Garros 2025 – Holding To Love Lets You Breathe

G’day from Paris,