he's an unlucky dude. of all the serve records karlovic has set, he seems to always end up losing the match... he is also the one with the worst winning record for five set matches in the atp history, winning only 3 of 16 matches going to five sets :( :(

In a way it's good that big serves alone don't win matches. If he hasn't done well inspite of his serve, than he must be lacking in other departments, because he can hold his serve at will.

If big servers won all their matches, people would be turned off, because there would hardly be anything to talk about apart from who served the most aces. I'm always pleased when a big server gets beaten so that real tennis can take over. Just imagine if most matches ended up like the marathon between Mahut and Isner at Wimbledon last year, if big servers took over, that would happen more often, and would eventually kill the sport.

nadline, completely agree and well remember that match in which Karlovic served a zillion aces and Hewitt still beat him!

+1 ... I wouldn't regret even if there is no serve at all

atg: one of rules Goodall would abolish is "let." I agree, if it hits net and goes in, play on!

deuce. that would be a great rule if let serves would count!

so what was that weird match, on semifinal day in san josé: between raonic and karlovic, when raonic's semifinal opponent monfils was injured?? an ace competition? karlovic won the match! and ranoic won the title.

deuce, I haven't heard from you re the Guardian article about tour best. Could you post a link or copy and paste.
Thanks.

Sorry holdserve, don't think I can. It was in the Guardian newspaper and was a grid, published sometime after USOpen last year. It was called "Serving up trouble" and was an analysis of how Andy appeared against other players in things like R of second serve etc., as u say percentages. It was so interesting I scanned it onto my PC, hence I can refer to it. However, just googled and nothing relevant turned up. :(
Still think your name should be "Return of Serve"! So many guys can serve lights out, but can they return, no they can't!

Deuce, if you cannot hold your service but you can break your opponent's service, how will that be better than holding one's service but not being good at returning? You obviously require both and the hold of service is more important because you have more control over it. You will win if you break your opponent's serve only once in each set and hold your service the remaining 5 times.

Deuce, could you copy and paste your scanned guardian article?

Hi holdserve, don't think I can do that, I'll try and send it to you via tt.
We're going to have to disagree, I think :) The top 6 players, except Sod have two things in common- a fabulous ROS and gr8 speed. Just think about Mahut, Isner marathon to see what happens when your ROS isn't good.
I do agree though, your serve is the only thing on court that you have complete control of, so it is v. important.

Deuce, the top 30 and definitely the top 5 have very good hold serve % and probably what makes the difference among the top guys is the ROS. This has led you to draw the erroneous conclusion that ROS is more important. What if a player did not have good hold serve %? Could he hope to be anywhere near the top?
ROS is a less efficient predictor than hold serve because it depends more on the quality of the opponent.
The ATP site is giving stats for 2011 which is right now not that useful as it is based on a small number of matches. I wish I had the data for 2010.
What do you mean by send via tt?
What's the problem with copy and paste?