Stunning statistics confirm Novak Djokovic has an edge on his rivals in one key area
Fine details make a huge difference at the top end of the game and in one key area, Novak Djokovic has proved once again that he is a in league of his own over the last year.
The quality of a player’s second serve will often determine whether he can find a way to win under pressure and on this statistic, the world No 1 is a clear leader over the last yet in the men’s game.
Djokovic has won 58.3% of his second serve points over the last 52 weeks of action, which puts him ahead of Italy’s Jannik Sinner (56.4%) and Carlos Alcaraz (55.9%).
Surprisingly, Australia’s Jordan Thompson is ahead of both Sinner and Alcaraz in the second serve stats, with the grass court specialist claiming a 56.7% winning second serve statistic and also winning 74.6% of his first serves.
Surprisingly, 24-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic is down in eighth place in the first serve statistics for the last year, winning 77.5%.
This list is led by America’s Maxime Cressy, who has won a highly impressive 80.3% of his first service points, but that number drops alarmingly on his second serve as he has a winning percentage of just 49.8% on that stat.
Hubert Hurkacz, Taylor Fritz and Stefanos Tsitsipas are all ahead of Djokovic for first service points won, with Hurkacz topping he ‘Serve Leaders’ statistics table on the ATP with a serve raying of 295.6, with Djokovic second on 293.4.
The ATP’s Serve Rating adds four service metrics percentages plus the average number of aces per match and subtracts the average number of double faults per match.
There are so many reasons why Djokovic has become the dominant player in the men’s game in recent years, yet the improvements he has made to his first and second serve have been at the hear of his rise from a great of the game to a true living legend.
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In the opinion of his coach Goran Ivanesevic, who had one of the great serves of all-time during his own Grand Slam-winning career, Djokovic’s serve is the secret weapon in his considerable armoury.
“His serve was a very underestimated shot all through all career,” believes Ivanisevic.
“If you look so many matches, five, 10 years ago, his serve always saved him somehow. But now he’s even better. Now he always wants to improve. Especially this week, amazing percentage, amazing precision of the serve. Every time he needed, he hit an unbelievable first serve. His second serve is much better.
“But his serve is one of the best shots which people, they don’t talk (about), because they have so many other things, they forget to talk about his serve. He has one of the best serves. Especially when it’s tight, it’s tough, especially this week he was hitting unbelievable serve under pressure.
“But you can always improve. You can always go backwards. With the serve, it’s very tricky. So far it’s working well.”
Djokovic has suggested Ivanesevic played a role in the improvement on his service motion, as the 1992 Wimbledon champion is a trusted ally for the Serbian.
“Goran’s influencing me a little bit,” Djokovic said.
“Of course we talked about [my] serve a lot and some other parts of my game where I can improve and maybe get some more free points if possible.
“I think throughout my career, my serve was maybe a little bit underestimated because of the quality of the return and baseline play.
“But the serve has actually given me quite a lot of free points in important matches and big tournaments throughout my career.”
Djokovic is arguably the most complete player in the history of the sport and his efficiency in his service games is one of the key reasons why he will head into 2024 as the favourite to win all four Grand Slam tournaments.
