US Open 2013: Telling the tale in numbers - Men's Draw

Photographers take pictures of Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic after the men’s singles final at the US Open on September 9, 2013 in New York City. (Getty Images)

The lights are out and the men are on their way home. The curtains have been drawn on the 133^rd US Open and the champions have been decorated, while the others have all been paid a handsome wage and sent off the park.

Some went in a hurry, others lingered a little more. And then there were just two men to contest a promising final – one that made up for the lack of drama by weaving a rich tapestry, fitting for the coronation of an unrelenting King.

A lot can obviously get done after a fortnight of frenzied action inside the imposing cauldron called the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Rather pompous for a bunch of tennis courts in bustling New York, but trust the Americans to teach you a thing or two about celebrating success.

It takes no less than 127 matches to determine the rightful owner of the glittering silverware and the multi-million dollar payout that goes with it. Obviously there are litanies of numbers that get accumulated as the battling warriors take a bow one after another. So we shall examine some of the key statistics of the just concluded US Open.

Aces do not take you places:

Just ask Milos Raonic, whose 104 aces were 39 more than any other player in the tournament. It is the kind of largely futile accomplishment that must irk its owner, when he is forced to pack his bags after just four matches.

The Canadian lost a five set humdinger to eventual semi-finalist Richard Gasquet 7-6, 6-7, 6-2, 6-7, 5-7. Keeping Raonic company is John Isner, who shot 65 winners in just three matches, before losing to Philipp Kohlschreiber 4-6, 6-3, 5-7, 6-7 in the third round.

Feliciano Lopez and Ivo Karlovic did not last long enough in New York but were fine ambassadors of our hypothesis on aces. Lopez stung his opponents with 51 aces, but then he was eaten up by one of his own ilk. Raonic ousted the Spaniard in a four set match in the third round.

Karlovic fared even worse, rushing out of the tournament in just the second round despite his 50 aces. The giant from Croatia ensured an early swan song for James Blake dishing out a five set thriller before falling to Stanislas Wawrinka in the second round.

Wawrinka made better use of the weapon; 53 aces from his racket helped carry the Swiss all the way to the semis before falling to Novak Djokovic 6-2, 6-7, 6-3, 3-6, 4-6. The Serbian served 48 aces before falling short at the final hurdle.

Gasquet struck 47 aces before falling victim to the ruthless tennis of Rafael Nadal. Incidentally, Nadal was the only man among the semi-finalists, who does not even feature on the list of top twenty ace merchants. And incidentally, he was the last man standing.

First serve is a difficult key:

The men with the highest first serve percentage were once again mostly the men on the run. Nadal and Djokovic are the only men to have played more than three matches, yet retained a spot inside the top 20 first serve percentages.

Gael Monfils brought 83% of his first serves into play but only lasted seven sets and two rounds before falling to Isner, who himself was second on the list. The American brought in 72% of his serves into play, figured on the ace list, yet managed to play just three games.

The key takeaway from a look at the service percentages of Nadal and Djokovic is the importance of combining a good first serve with another weapon in your armoury to make your opponents pay. Nadal at 67% and Djokovic 69% showed remarkable serving consistency through the fortnight to buttress their progress into the finals.

In contrast, the other semi-finalists fared much poorer with their serve forcing them to work harder to remain in contention. Wawrinka only touched 60% once in six matches, living mostly on a first serve rate in the mid-fifties. Gasquet was a tad better with an average in the low 60s, but he too like his Swiss counterpart had to depend mostly on his agility around the court to work his way to the deep end of the tournament.

Attacking the second serve is vital:

Now this is a number that is far more representative of a player’s ability to make an imprint on the tournament. Eight of the top ten players on this list were those who inhabited the quarter-finals.

Djokovic made his opponents pay most often, winning as many as 183 points off the second serve return. Not surprising considering the returning skills of the Serbian and his ability to use the down the line return to devastating effect.

David Ferrer, the consistent Spaniard, was second on the list but he earned 157 points in only five matches. That translates to over 32 points per match on the second serve, far superior compared to Djokovic’s average of under 26 per match.

Gasquet (156), Nadal (147) and Wawrinka (140) round off the top five. It is insightful to find Lleyton Hewitt populating the upper reaches on this list.

The gritty Australian fought tooth and nail for his survival in the tournament, so it isn’t entirely surprising to see him win 127 points off the second serve in just four matches. He was nearly as efficient as Ferrer.

Rafael Nadal poses with the US Open Championship trophy, following his victory in the men’s singles against Novak Djokovic , in Central Park on September 10, 2013 in New York City. (Getty Images)

Translating opportunity is key to success:

Breakpoints are like death bullets in tennis. Make them stick and your opponent dies; let them slip and you will suffer seeing the man across the net slither past you with a hurtful grin. It is a telling statistic. Seven of the top eight places on this chart are occupied by the men who made the last eight. The exception, well who else but Hewitt again.

Djokovic converted nearly six break points in each of his seven matches, standing atop the chart with 41 points. Interestingly though, he does not figure in the top twenty players with the highest conversion rate. Nadal, on the other hand has checked off both ends of the survival trail, converting 40 of 75 from his opportunities. That is an impressive 53% success rate when the opponent was under pressure.

Hewitt was third best with 30 points and unlike Djokovic, the Aussie too made the conversion charts. The unseeded warrior won 30 of 56 to notch a conversion rate of 54%. Some of these numbers almost explain the secret behind the spirited Aussie’s run to the round of 16. Ferrer (30) and Mikhail Youzhny (29) round out the top five on this important statistic.

Patience is bitter, but the fruit is sweet:

Sometimes, at vital junctures in a tennis match, resilient players pitch a tent and retrieve everything you throw at them before stinging with a painfully venomous bite. Their perseverance not only earns them the point, it often swings the tide in their favour. Yes, we are speaking about the seemingly endless rally.

Djokovic and Nadal took the art to insane heights indulging themselves in the fetish with gay abandon. Their 54-shot (75 second) rally – containing 32 backhand strokes and 22 off the forehand – took this stat off the charts completely and emphasised the brutal demands of modern day tennis. In fact Djokovic straddles the breadth of this list, having been part of seven of the twenty longest rallies on this list.

Sadly for the Serbian, despite winning each of his four longest rallies against Nadal, Djokovic failed to use the effort to his advantage. Nadal may have lost each of those four rallies, but has a consistently higher success rate on rallies that last longer than ten strokes in each of his matches. He is a master at the art of grinding his opponents to submission and it is no wonder to see him visit these confines on four different points.

Somdev Devvarman also embodies the spirit of resilience – the Indian was engaged in a 48-stroke rally with Andreas Seppi, which he won and another 32-stroke rally against Lukas Lacko, which he lost.

The usual suspect, Hewitt is there too. The Aussie went three and two in the five rallies involving him – four of them came against the Russian assassin, Youzhny. Hewitt finished on the right side of a 46-stroke rally against the Russian. The two took the fetish to almost narcissistic heights by indulging in one that lasted 35 strokes and two other instances of 30 strokes each.

Calling the bluff:

One look at the challenge numbers and you might wonder if some of these players were playing the system to earn a breather and gain some time. Our champion Nadal questioned a call 17 times and was right on five of those points. Djokovic fared worse, calling help 16 times to find out he was off the mark on twelve of those points.

Bernard Tomic and Roger Federer bring up the rear side of this list. No wonder they have a low opinion of the hawk-eye system. The two men were right just once each after challenging a call on 12 and 10 occasions respectively.

The one who could transition into a successful match official might be Pablo Cuevas. The 462^nd ranked Argentine is already 27, so it might not be such a bad option to consider as he got each of his three challenges right.

Ron DeLegge II, the author of “Gents with No Cents” says “99 percent of all statistics only tell 49 percent of the story.” While he may have been dissecting the Wall Street in that chart busting book, he is just as right about our sport too. The rest is defined by the weight of the moment and a player’s reaction to it.