Rediscovering the Forced Error

[johnyandell]

Let's discuss Craig O'Shannessy's article, "Rediscovering the Forced Error"

[klacr]

I never saw the stats from the finals between Nadal and Thiem. Had no idea Thiem hit 41 winners against Nadal. That's impressive. But Nadal won the war with his shots. So much fo0r Nadal being a "counterpuncher". I've often wondered why the match stats never show Forced Errors as that is a huge component of points.
Craig does an awesome job putting these numbers into perspective and showcasing that aggressive and attacking tennis is still relevant and effective when you see how points are played out. Kudos to Craig for the awesome article and kudos to John for allowing Craig to share this great info.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[stroke]

Just a great article. Certainly no surprise to me he used a Nadal match as the example of what he is talking about. Nadal to me, particularly on clay, is the gold standard of getting the forced error. The forced error, as implemented by Nadal, is kind of a slow, painful, cumulative death for his opponent. It almost seems to me it is more painful, or discouraging for his opponents, as Nadal is just doing what he does within himself, and the opponent feels the constant pressure(mostly the Nadal forehand). Certainly way different than the in form Fed way of a lot of winners and quick holds of service.

[jschaff]

As usual, great stuff from Craig and presented by John. Just a small point, but I disagree with the term Aggressive Ratio in relation to unforced errors. An unforced error has nothing to do with how aggressive or submissive you are during a match. Just how good you happen to be contacting the ball that day. FORCED errors, absolutely. So I propose some other term related to a head wind or tail wind. The winners and forced errors are the tail wind, and the unforced errors are the head wind. The winning player I bet will be blown across the finish line while the loser will be fighting to reach it.

And, can you enlighten me. Is a missed return considered a forced error? If not it should be.

[johnyandell]

Thanks JS. I think at the pro level a missed return is almost always a forced error. You look at the returner's set up and timing and occasionally the return error seems unforced. At lower levels though, a different story!

[jthb1021]

Great article Craig! This seems really obvious to me these forced errors should be accounted for statistically to tell the story of what is happening in matches. If 25% of points aren't being accounted for statistically then that box score is worthless! These points need to be allocated somewhere.

[stotty]

All true. And Craig couldn't have picked a better example, perhaps the best ever example on clay, than Rafa Nadal. He batters his opponents to death, working them from side to side, forcing errors out of opponents. No one forces errors out of opponents better than Nadal on clay.