During the telecast of today’s match between Roger Federer and Andreas Seppi, commentator Jason Goodall mentioned an interesting stat. Federer has won more of his matches in straight sets since losing the number one ranking than he did while ranked number one.
Just about every stat from Roger’s reign at number one is impressive. Not counting Davis Cup or matches that ended in retirement, Federer played 432 matches while atop the rankings, and won 383 (88.7%) of them. He won 284 of those matches in straight sets. That’s 65.7% of all matches, and 74.2% of his wins.
Since losing the top spot, Roger has played 189 matches, and won 162 (85.7%) of them. (Still pretty good, eh?) In that time span, he has won 125 matches in straight sets–66.1% of all matches, and 77.2% of his wins.
Both numbers are better, though not much. The story here isn’t that he is suddenly more dominant in his wins–the increases aren’t enough for that. Instead, the surprise is that he doesn’t seem any less dominant. A bit of that is because some 3-set victories have turned into losses, but his modest drop in winning percentage reminds us that he still isn’t losing very many matches. Today’s hiccup against Andreas Seppi notwithstanding, second-tier players still aren’t making many inroads against Federer.