Outwards or through the middle? The ATP finals in London have shown that the placement of the serve had a big influence on the chances of winning.
Dominic Thiem could rely on his first serve at the ATP finale in London: Austria’s number one scored 81 percent of all points he had scored in the service field in the first attempt – closely followed by Roger Federer, who came just one percentage point behind him. Grigor Dimitrov, who secured his biggest career success in London, won three quarters of his points after his first serve.
The statistics department of the ATP has also evaluated which markup is more promising: the one from the middle – or the one with a lot of slice to the outside? The result is not quite clear, according to the feeling David Goffin, who served most of the aces together with Federer in the O2 Arena (each 35), scored the direct points almost all with the straight service in the middle of the T. In the O2 Arena (each 35).
Nevertheless, it can be said that the more successful players in London have served their first serve mostly to the outside world. At Dimitrov, the ratio of 55:45 per cent was unequivocal. In all, the Bulgarian player served only 19 aces in his five matches, eight from the first side to the outside and three through the middle. On the advantage side, the ratio was 5:3.
All in all, however, and this is almost a paradox, there were 111 aces through the middle, only 69 to the outside. But when the ball was in play, those players who had served to the outside world were successful.