"Pete Sampras once said that a tennis player is only as good as his or her second serve and it is a claim that is backed up by statistics that are far too boring to reproduce here in their entirety."
Thank you, Guardian. You always bring the stately wit. That said, a new dispatch at that publication's site poses an intriguing query: What if the second serve were done away with in tennis?
Some of those 'yawn-inducing' stats are propped up by the following: Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, and Andy Murray were, in 2012—a year in which they each won a Grand Slam title—ranked eighth, 17th, 23rd, and 41st, respectively, in terms of landing first serves in the box during match play. (Numerically, Nadal: 67%, Djokovic: 64%, Federer: 63%, Murray: 60%.)
Those stats were food for thought, and similar data was needed for the WTA's top players. Luckily, Kevin Fischer, WTA director of communications and publications, readily supplied it. Victoria Azarenka's 2013 first-serve percentage was 67%, with Li Na at 63.6%, and Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams tied at 62.2%. Conversely, Sara Errani's 2014 first-serve percentage, to date? 79.7%.
This proves the point: Landing the first of two serve attempts in the court's diagonal box isn't all it's cracked up to be. After all, Errani has been past the quarterfinals of just one of nine events she has entered this season.
