Juan Martin del Potro and Return of Serve Gaps (+Updated WTForecast)

While Juan Martin del Potro isn’t known for his return of serve, it isn’t a major hole in his game.  This year, he has won 38.5% of return points, worse than most of the top 10, but better than Stanislas Wawrinka, Jo Wilfried Tsonga, and about 30 other members of the ATP top 50.

Where del Potro underwhelms is more specific.  Despite effectively returning second serves, he’s far worse than average against first serves.  In 2013, his 28.4% of first-serve-return points won ranked him 36th among the top 50, only 0.1% above Milos Raonic and far behind every other member of the top 10.  Yet Delpo is in the top ten when it comes to second-serve-return points.

Even for a big server like del Potro, it’s difficult to reach the top five without an effective return game.  While he breaks serve less often than any other World Tour Finals qualifier this year, he’s within a percentage point of Wawrinka, Tomas Berdych, and Roger Federer, so it’s clear that statistically, the Argentine is far from being a John Isner-style one-trick pony.

What sets him apart, then, is the enormous gap between first- and second-serve-return effectiveness.  To illustrate the difference, I calculated the ratio of second-serve-return points to first-serve-return points for all eight men in London this week, plus Andy Murray.  Delpo is third among all players with 40 or more tour-level matches this year, while the bottom five names on this list are all in the opposite third of ATP regulars.

Player                  v1W%   v2W%  v2/v1  
Juan Martin Del Potro  28.4%  53.4%   1.88  
Tomas Berdych          30.6%  54.6%   1.79  
Richard Gasquet        30.5%  54.2%   1.78  
Stanislas Wawrinka     30.7%  50.3%   1.64  
David Ferrer           34.5%  56.4%   1.63  
Andy Murray            33.7%  54.7%   1.62  
Roger Federer          32.9%  51.6%   1.57  
Novak Djokovic         35.5%  55.4%   1.56  
Rafael Nadal           35.0%  54.6%   1.56

An aspect–or perhaps a cause–of del Potro’s first-serve-return woes is his knack for letting aces sail by him.  In 2013, 10.5% of his opponents’ first serves were aces, more than any other member of the top 50.  Controlling for opponent serve quality (he did play Isner twice this year), he “improves” to third-worst, ahead of Dmitry Tursunov and Feliciano Lopez.  After this adjustment, we discover that Delpo allowed 22% more aces than an average player would have against the same set of opponents.

When aces are removed from the calculation, del Potro still stands out in comparison to other top players, but he is no longer quite so extreme.  His ratio of second-serve-return points won to first-serve-return points won ignoring aces is 1.55, just a bit higher than Berdych’s 1.53, Richard Gasquet‘s 1.52, and David Ferrer‘s 1.51.

If Delpo gets a racquet on the ball, then, he’s not that much less effective against first offerings than his London competitors.  But he doesn’t get his racquet on as many balls, and however we might manipulate the numbers for fun and profit, the Argentine doesn’t have the option to ignore aces.

So, how much does a poor first-serve return matter?  As with Murray’s infamous second serve, it’s tough to say.  In both cases, the weakness doesn’t keep its possessor from winning big matches against the game’s best, but it might be what is preventing him from ascending from the very top of the rankings.

Were del Potro to improve his first-serve return to the level of the next-worst London participant, Gasquet, it would mean a jump this year from 28.3% of first-serve-return points won to 30.5%.  That would bump up his overall return points won to just short of 40%, and improve his break percentage from its current middle-of-the-pack 23.8% to a nearly-top-ten 26.0%, in the neighborhood of Berdych and Federer.

An improvement of that nature would make Delpo a much bigger factor at the very top of the men’s game.  But like Murray’s second serve, it isn’t that easy.  There’s more than one route to the top–del Potro’s game isn’t so unbalanced to keep him from beating the best players in the world, so perhaps he could more easily improve, say, his second serve than his first-serve return.  It’s tough to tell from the sideline or, especially, the statsheet.

In the meantime, if you’re supporting del Potro tomorrow against Novak Djokovic, you might consider becoming one of those boorish fans that cheers every first-serve miss off of Novak’s racquet.  Lots of Djokovic second serves might be Delpo’s best path to victory.

London forecast: With Berdych’s win today, all eight players remain in contention.  A lot hinges on Friday’s match between Wawrinka and Ferrer, while we won’t gain much clarity on Group B until tomorrow.

Player     3-0  2-1  1-2  0-3       SF      F      W  
Nadal      70%  30%   0%   0%    98.4%  57.0%  34.1%  
Djokovic   42%  46%  11%   0%    88.3%  54.9%  30.9%  
Ferrer      0%   0%  54%  46%    14.8%   5.5%   2.0%  
Del Potro  22%  50%  28%   0%    71.6%  36.3%  16.4%  
Federer     0%  30%  51%  20%    29.9%  13.1%   5.9%  
Berdych     0%  30%  70%   0%    36.0%  12.4%   4.0%  
Wawrinka    0%  46%  54%   0%    50.9%  17.4%   5.6%  
Gasquet     0%  10%  44%  45%    10.1%   3.2%   1.0%

For the pre-tournament forecast, click here.

Berdych d. Ferrer: Click here for detailed serve, return, and shot-by-shot stats for today’s evening match.

4 thoughts on “Juan Martin del Potro and Return of Serve Gaps (+Updated WTForecast)”

  1. Imagining myself in Del Potro’s shoes as he tries to return a first service, I suppose part of his inability to prevent aces must be to do with sheer inertia. Although tall, Delpo can motor once he up to speed – remember those running forehands (and the occasional running backhand too)? The worst problem is accelerating rapidly, in an arbitrary direction, from a standing start. Clearly the bigger you are, the harder that is. Usain Bolt has a similar problem with his start, although he has improved it greatly over the years. And of course, a sprinter knows where he is going – just not (exactly) when.
    The other big factor, presumably, is anticipation. It seems Delpo’s opponents find it too easy to fool him about their intentions. Although the worst thing to do is serve out wide to his forehand, but not quite wide enough – then the ball sometimes comes back faster than it went.

    1. Size does seem to be an issue, though not in a completely predictable manner. Isner is of course a poor returner, but this year he’s allowed fewer aces than expected. Like Delpo, there’s a huge gap between his 1st and 2nd serve return points won. Janowicz is at the other extreme — not a good returner, but neutral on aces allowed and the smallest gap between 1st sv return and 2nd sv return points of all tour regulars. He’s in the middle of the pack on 1st serves but dreadful on seconds. Raonic is also at the ‘small gap’ extreme, though he’s not much good at either. And his wingspan seems to count for more than inertia, as he allowed 10% fewer aces than expected this year.

  2. Del Potro looks to me like a guy with fast hands, but slow ( non explosive ) legs. So, if the ball is out of his wingspan, he has a trouble reaching it. Not much he can do about it. I would suggest him to focus on his strengths.

  3. Interesting, even arresting. Very nice. What I especially like about this is that 1) it seems the sort of thing that only good statistical analysis could uncover; and yet 2) once it it uncovered, we feel compelled to bang our heads against the wall trying to explain it. And can’t, really.

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