The Challenging Second Serve of Novak Djokovic

The world’s greatest returner is boasting one incredible stat during the ATP World Tour Finals. In all three of his round robin matches, Novak Djokovic has had one set where he averaged a higher winning percentage on second serve points than first serve points.

Against 6’10” (2.08m) John Isner, the #1 seed out-served the Texas-native who has made a career based on this one weapon. In the first set, Djokovic 88% (7 of 8) of the second serve points compared to 82% (14 of 17) on first serve points . The normally dominant Isner only won 43% (6 of 14) of second serve points that set. 

In the second set of Djokovic’s match against 6’6” (1.98m) Alexander Zverev, Djokovic again backed up his second serve points with better success than his first serve by winning 86% (6 of 7) of second serve points against 77% (10 of 13) of first serve points.  

In Djokovic’s final match against 6’6” (1.98m) Marin Cilic, only five points were lost on serve in the whole match. In the second set, he lost three of his eleven first serve points, and did not lost a single point of second serve – winning all eight. Djokovic won a staggering 91% (20 of 22) of points that started with a second serve for the entire match. This unbelievable winning percentage was better than his 90% (28 of 31) of points won of first serve. Very few, if any matches in the history of tennis are lost with serving numbers like those. 

Standing only at 6’2”(1.88m), the world’s best returner is now posting better serving percentages than his tallest, big-serving rivals. A telling statistic in tennis is the player who wins the higher percentage of second serve points will usually win the match. With this in mind one must ask, how do you defeat a player who can out-play the very best on the first and second serve?