Mouratoglou: How top players return serve

As all eyes turn towards the US hard court swing (by way of the Olympics), it’s the perfect time to analyse the return of serve habits of the world’s top players. Patrick Mouratoglou pays particular attention to the contrasting styles of Novak Djokovic and Rafa Nadal.

Djokovic and Nadal almost have identical statistics showcasing their effectiveness when returning the serve. However, their positions on the court are diametrically opposed.

On his opponent’s first serve, the Serbian is about 50 cm from the baseline, while the Spaniard does not hesitate to be five or six metres behind the baseline in the same situation. The two players have completely opposite strategies while still retaining the same goal: to return the maximum number of serves while controlling the depth of their shots to counter their opponent’s advantage as much as possible.

On average, the world’s top 10 players win between 32 per cent and 36 per cent of the points after returning an opponent’s first serve. This may seem very small, but it still represents one point out of three; while on a second serve, this percentage rises to more than one point out of two (between 52 per cent and 58 per cent). As percentages of a first serve are consistently above 50 per cent, the player must optimise his chances of winning points on his opponent’s first serves.

Nadal has chosen to stand far back when returning serves because he can manage his opponent’s advantage and thus become more effective. Indeed, his powerful game often gives him the opportunity, even very far from his baseline, to find a good distance with the ball. As the ball provides him with more time, it enables him to lift a lot (which would be impossible if he had to return while close to the baseline); it is one of the shots the Spaniard does best. So it is a winning strategy for Nadal, who stands every year in the world top three players in return points won.

However, this option has a downside and it’s one that Djokovic knows how to exploit perfectly: the use of angles. Against an opponent who stands so far from his baseline, the short slice serve has a devastating effect. As the direction of the serve, associated with the effect, pushes the ball every tenth of a second a little more further from the returner, the slice serve out wide to the deuce side and the kick serve out wide to the ad side become major weapons if they are served short and with a great amount of topspin.

On an opponent’s second serve, the goal is clearly to take the lead right after the first shot in order to control the game. This is how the world’s top 10 players manage to win more than 50 per cent of these points on an opponent’s serve.

Unlike Nadal who needs time, Ivan Lendl encouraged Andy Murray to position himself between 50 cm and one metre within the court in order to steal time from the opponent. Similarly, Roger Federer famously adopted the SABR attack during the 2015 US hard court swing. It puts the player in a difficult situation right from the first shot. This strategy has paid off for players whose techniques do not require time to be fully effective.

Patrick Mouratoglou is the founder of the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy in Paris, which hosts an impressive array of coaches and players. Currently coach to world No.1 Serena Williams, Mouratoglou has also worked with Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Marcos Baghdatis, Grigor Dimitrov and Aravene Rezai.

This article first appeared in Australian Tennis Magazine.