In this Medium article, I am analyzing how different tennis players convert break points on different surface types. Because my past two articles have been about analyzing various aspects of Roger Federer’s playing style, I will continue the tradition by showing Federer’s break point conversion rates across surfaces.
Federer’s all court style is highly shown in this graph, with his interquartile ranges for break point conversion percentages being very similar. Interestingly enough, Federer converts at least one break point in every one of his grass matches. However, he is less likely to convert all of his break points on grass than on hard court.
Rafael Nadal’s dominance on clay courts is quite evident here, with him converting a higher percentage of his break points on clay than any other player I studied. His grass percentage is more weak, as his median is less than forty percent of points converted.
Djokovic’s break point conversion percentages have many more outliers. Generally, Djokovic is expected to convert at least one of his break points. On the contrary, Djokovic is also not expected to converted all of his break points. He has a very similar break point conversion percentage to Nadal on grass, while he is the best player for converting break points on hard court.
Interestingly enough, Roddick converts decently well on clay despite it being his worst surface overall. He performs horribly on grass even though he played in three Wimbledon finals. His hard court conversion rate does not fare well against the Nadal, Federer, and Djokovic.
Agassi’s dominance on hard court was shown with his high break point conversion percentage, faring almost as well Federer. The boxplots do support that grass was his worst surface. Similar to Federer, his medians on all surfaces were quite respectable, showing his prowess on all types of court.
Despite being perhaps the best tennis player upon his retirement, Sampras’s break point percentages were not that great compared to the top players of today. In addition, the medians are below Agassi’s, who was more of an all court player.