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Isner The King Of Serving In 2018

On Sunday, ATPTour.com looked at how the Top 10 players in the ATP Rankings stacked up against one another statistically in 2018. Continuing our 2018 in Review series, we take a broader look at the ATP Tour, using Infosys ATP Scores & Stats to examine which players on the entire circuit excelled in all of the key service and return categories this year, and how that helped shape their results.
All statistics are based off of Infosys ATP Scores & Stats’ Individual Match Stats Leaderboard, which includes players who competed in a minimum of 40 tour-level main draw matches in 2018.
Service Games Won
Roger Federer has finished inside the Top 10 in service games won in every year since 2002 with the exception of 2016, in which he missed time due to injury, and therefore did not qualify for the Individual Match Stats Leaderboard. At 37 years old, Federer won a higher rate of service games than anyone except 6’10” John Isner. Isner’s 93.6 winning percentage in service games is the best rate of his career.

 Player
Service Games Won
 Service Games
 Winning %

 1. John Isner
 805
860 
 93.6%

 2. Roger Federer
 686
753 
 91.1%

 3. Milos Raonic
 533
 587
 90.8%

 4. Kevin Anderson
 847
 951
 89.1%

 5. Juan Martin del Potro
 672
 767
 87.6%

Aces
Two players cracked the 1,000-aces benchmark for the fourth time in five seasons. Isner was one of those two players in three of those four years.

 Player
 Aces
 Matches

 1. John Isner
 1,213
 54

 2. Kevin Anderson
 1,082
 66

 3. Milos Raonic
 788
 45

 4. Nick Kyrgios
 713
 36

 5. Karen Khachanov
 655
 66

*does not abide by 40-match rule
First-Serve Points Won
Milos Raonic had previously led the ATP Tour in first-serve points won three times (2011-13). But the Canadian set a career-best mark by claiming 83.0 per cent of those points this year.

 Player
 First-Serve Points Won
 First-Serve Points
 Winning %

 1. Milos Raonic
 1,756
2,116 
 83.0%

 2. John Isner
 2,914
 3,600
 80.9%

 3. Roger Federer
 2,208
 2,753
 80.2%

 4. Kevin Anderson
 2,995
 3,772
 79.4%

 5. Marin Cilic
 2,318
 2,934
 79.0%

Second-Serve Points Won
Perhaps this Top 5 list is no surprise, as Isner, Federer, Raonic, Kevin Anderson and Juan Martin del Potro are five of the biggest servers on the ATP Tour. But could you guess who was sixth and seventh in second-serve points won in 2018? It was two players who stand 5’10”: Philipp Kohlschreiber (56.6%) and Kei Nishikori (54.9%).

 Player
 Second-Serve Points Won
 Second-Serve Points
 Winning %

 1. John Isner
 772
1,296
59.6%

 2. Roger Federer
 988
1,686
58.6%

 3. Milos Raonic
699
1,230
56.8%

 4. Kevin Anderson
896
1,578
56.8%

 5. Juan Martin del Potro
968
1,710
56.6%

Return Games Won
One year ago, Argentine Diego Schwartzman announced himself as one of the best returners in the world, winning a higher rate of return games than anyone. And in 2018, he backed up that performance, finishing second in the category behind only Rafael Nadal and climbing as high as No. 11 in the ATP Rankings.

 Player
 Return Games Won
 Return Games
Winning %

 1. Rafael Nadal
 216
591
 36.6%

 2. Diego Schwartzman
 207
675
 30.7%

 3. David Goffin
 160
524
 30.5%

 4. Novak Djokovic
 246
813
 30.3%

 5. Fabio Fognini
 236
802
 29.4%

Break Points Converted
Break points are as pressure-filled as they come in tennis, and Frenchman Gael Monfils did the best job of converting his opportunities in 2018. For nearly every one in two chances he had this season, ‘La Monf’ was able to capture a break. Nitto ATP Finals champion Alexander Zverev broke serve more than anyone else, doing so 252 times at a rate of 42.1 per cent, which places him in 12th place on this list.

 Player
 Break Points Won
Break Points

Winning %

 1. Gael Monfils
 149
321
46.4%

 2. David Goffin
 160
348
46.0%

 3. Adrian Mannarino
 131
287
45.6%

 4. Rafael Nadal
 216
474
 45.6%

 5. Jan-Lennard Struff
 118
264
 44.7%

First-Return Points Won
If someone told you that two players have finished inside the Top 5 in first-return points won in each of the past two seasons, Nadal would be a fairly safe guess as one of those players. But the second is Damir Dzumhur, who finished inside the Top 50 of the ATP Rankings for the second consecutive year. He also earned his third ATP Tour title at the Turkish Airlines Open Antalya.

 Player
 First-Serve Return Points Won
First-Serve Return Points
Winning %

 1. Rafael Nadal
 865
 2,425
 35.7%

 2. Novak Djokovic
 1,191
 3,463
 34.4% 

 3. Damir Dzumhur
 838
 2,568
 32.6%

 4. David Goffin
 688
 2,117
 32.5%

 5. Alexander Zverev
 1,156
 3,568
 32.4% 

Second-Return Points Won
Frenchman Gilles Simon enjoyed a resurgent year, climbing from No. 89 to No. 30 in the ATP Rankings. He can credit some of that success to his performance returning second serves, winning 54.3 per cent of those points. The last time Simon cracked the Top 10 in this category in a season was 2009, when he claimed 53.8 per cent of second-serve return points.

 Player
 Second-Serve Ret Pts Won
Second-Serve Ret Pts
Winning %

 1. Rafael Nadal
 859
1,518
 56.6%

 2. Diego Schwartzman
 982
1,761
 55.8% 

 3. Novak Djokovic
 1,148
2,106
 54.5%

 4. Gilles Simon
 963
1,774
 54.3%

 5. Roberto Bautista Agut
 807
1,492
 54.1%

View the rest of ATPTour.com’s 2018 In Review series.
Source: ATP World Tour

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