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de Minaur's Performance was Historic
Alex de Minaur's performance in upsetting Novak Djokovic 6-4, 6-4 to end his 43-match winning streak in Australia a steak that went back to a 2018 loss to Hyeon Chung (an extremely promising young player whose career was derailed by injury) was impressive.
So, I did some digging, wondering if de Minaur winning 33 out of 34 points behind first serve against the world number one was unique, and had anyone had a perfect first-serve game vs a world number one. Fortunately, Jeff Sackmann of Tennis Abstract, the awesome repository of tennis stats, com had the answer.
Nobody going back to 1991, has ever done that.
Second best was Ivanisevic who lost only 2 first serve points in beating Courier in 1992, the first of 8 players to drop only 2 first serve points against the then world number one.
Perhaps surprisingly some of the best performances, at least based on 1st serve points won, were in losing efforts. Guillaume Raoux was the first to drop only 2 service points vs the world number one yet lose -- with Courier on the other side again. Raoux has another note in the history books, as the first player to lose to Roger Federer on tour.
What makes the Demon's performance all the more impressive, is that he is not a big server. He won with great placement, and great tactics behind his service, luring Djokovic into initiating off low percentage shots over and over and over.
Here's Jeff list of best-ever first serve performances vs a world number one from "Heavy Topspin" his blog for Tennis Abstract.
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So, I did some digging, wondering if de Minaur winning 33 out of 34 points behind first serve against the world number one was unique, and had anyone had a perfect first-serve game vs a world number one. Fortunately, Jeff Sackmann of Tennis Abstract, the awesome repository of tennis stats, com had the answer.
Nobody going back to 1991, has ever done that.
Second best was Ivanisevic who lost only 2 first serve points in beating Courier in 1992, the first of 8 players to drop only 2 first serve points against the then world number one.
Perhaps surprisingly some of the best performances, at least based on 1st serve points won, were in losing efforts. Guillaume Raoux was the first to drop only 2 service points vs the world number one yet lose -- with Courier on the other side again. Raoux has another note in the history books, as the first player to lose to Roger Federer on tour.
What makes the Demon's performance all the more impressive, is that he is not a big server. He won with great placement, and great tactics behind his service, luring Djokovic into initiating off low percentage shots over and over and over.
Here's Jeff list of best-ever first serve performances vs a world number one from "Heavy Topspin" his blog for Tennis Abstract.
filedata/fetch?id=103118&d=1704909842&type=thumb