Almost seven thousand times last season, players in the Top 100 found themselves down 0/30 when serving. On average, only the Top 10 found a way to win more service games than they lost from this precarious position.
An Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis of the Top 100 from the 2018 season identifies that only 18 players won more than 50 per cent of their service games from 0/30, with eight of those players being ranked in the Top 10 and the remaining 10 spread throughout the rest of the Top 100 of the ATP Rankings.
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This is a normally invisible insight into what separates players at different levels of our sport. Getting into a 0/30 hole is inevitable no matter your ranking. Getting out of it is typically done by only those at the top of the tree.
The Top 10 averaged holding serve 52 per cent (437/836) of the time, which was more than 10 percentage points higher than the rest of the Top 100.
Top 10 vs 11-100: Holding Serve From 0/30
Top 10 = 52% (437/836)
Rest of the Top 100 = 41% (2490/6019)
There is a clear divide in the success rate of holding from 0/30 from players in the Top 10 compared to the rest of the Top 100. Performance gets a little closer when you compare Top 20 to the rest of the Top 100, but a seven percentage-point gap still exists.
Holding from 0/30
Top 20 = 48% (819/1692)
Rest of Top 100 = 41% (2108/5163)
Things get closer still when you cut the sample size in half.
Holding from 0/30
1-50 = 44% (1860/4208)
51-100 = 40% (1067/2647)
The Best At Holding From 0/30
Year-End 2018 ATP Ranking
Player
Percentage Holding From 0/30 In 2018
No. 10
John Isner
69.5% (41/59)
No. 18
Milos Raonic
64% (32/50)
No. 60
Marius Copil
63.3% (31/49)
No. 14
Kyle Edmund
63.1% (53/84)
No. 5
Juan Martin del Potro
62.80% (49/78)
John Isner, who returns to action next week at the New York Open, came back nearly 70 per cent of the time, while Novak Djokovic was the best performer of the Big Three holding from 0/30.
N. Djokovic 53.9% (48/89)
R. Federer 52.5% (32/61)
R. Nadal 48.7% (37/76)
Who Faced 0/30 The Most In 2018
Year-End 2018 ATP Ranking
Player
Times Fell Down 0/30 While Serving In 2018
No. 47
Damir Dzumhur
116
No. 13
Fabio Fognini
108
No. 42
Adrian Mannarino
107
No. 4
Alexander Zverev
104
No. 27
Denis Shapovalov
104
No. 17
Diego Schwartzman
104
The good news is that this is an area of the game that can be improved by directly replicating the scenario on the practice court. Go play a practice set where both players start their service games at 0/30. If you can hold half of the time, you know you are on par with the players at the elite level of our sport.
2018 Season: Top 100 Players Holding from 0/30
Position
Points Won from 0/30
Total Points from 0/30
Hold Percentage
1-10
437
836
52%
11-20
382
856
45%
21-30
374
899
42%
31-40
353
783
45%
41-50
314
834
38%
51-60
304
718
42%
61-70
274
631
43%
71-80
172
463
37%
81-90
146
396
37%
91-100
171
439
39%
AVERAGE
2927
6855
43%
Source: ATP World Tour
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