Return of Serve Analysis

Methodology

For this type of Stats post, I track the return of serve for both players in a match, and label each return of serve as either short or deep. I also keep track of aces, service winners, and second serve return unforced errors (for fairness’ sake, I give the returner the benefit of the doubt by not considering any missed first serve returns an unforced error).

You might ask: what’s a deep return and what isn’t? Here’s a visual guide:

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If the returner places his/her return inside the red box, then the return is labeled as a “short” return. But if his/her shot lands in the yellow box, the return is labeled “deep.” There’s one exception: aggressive returns that have a nice angle (and thus are “short”) are labeled as “deep,” since I follow the simple concept that “deep” returns are desirable and “short” ones aren’t. The same kind of judgement will be applied to the very rare (but always entertaining) drop shot returns.

Archive

You can see all the Return of Serve Analysis posts I’ve done by clicking here. The first few posts didn’t include all the data listed above, but starting with the Agnieszka Radwanska post from her match in Carlsbad, all Return of Serve Analysis posts will include all those bits of compiled data.

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