I’m in the process of rolling out more stats based on Match Charting Project data across Tennis Abstract. This is one of several glossaries intended to explain those stats and point interested visitors to further reading.
At the moment, the following tactics-related stats can be seen at a variety of leaderboards.
- SnV Freq% – Serve-and-volley frequency. The percentage of service points (excluding aces) on which the server comes in behind the serve. I exclude aces because serve-and-volley attempts are less clear (and thus less consistently charted) if the server realizes immediately that he or she has hit an unreturnable serve. I realize this is a minority opinion and thus an unorthodox way to calculate the stat, but I’m sticking with it.
- SnV W% – Serve-and-volley winning percentage. The percentage of (non-ace) serve-and-volley attempts that result in the server winning the point.
- Net Freq – Net point frequency. The percentage of total points in which the player comes to net, including serve-and-volley points. I include points in which the player doesn’t hit any net shots (such as an approach shot that leads to a lob winner), but I do not count points ended by a winner that appears to be an approach shot.
- Net W% – Net point winning percentage. The percentage of net points won by this player.
- FH Wnr% – Forehand winner percentage. The percentage of topspin forehands (excluding forced errors) that result in winners or induced forced errors.
- FH DTL Wnr% – Forehand down-the-line winning percentage. The percentage of topspin down-the-line forehands (excluding forced errors) that result in winners or induced forced errors. Here, I define “down-the-line” a bit broadly. The Match Charting Project classifies the direction of every shot in one of three categories. If a forehand is hit from the middle of the court or the player’s forehand corner and hit to the opponent’s backhand corner (or a lefty’s forehand corner), it counts as a down-the-line shot. Thus, some shots that would typically be called “off” forehands end up in this category.
- FH IO Wnr% – Forehand inside-out winning percentage. The percentage of topspin inside-out forehands (excluding forced errors) that result in winners or induced forced errors. This one is defined more strictly, only counting forehands hit from the player’s own backhand corner to the opponent’s backhand corner (or a lefty’s forehand corner).
- BH Wnr% – Backhand winner percentage. The percentage of topspin backhands (excluding forced errors) that result in winners or induced forced errors.
- BH DTL Wnr% – Backhand down-the-line winner percentage. The percentage of topspin down-the-line backhands (excluding forced errors) that result in winners or induced forced errors. As with the forehand down-the-line stat, I define these a bit broadly, catching some “off” backhands as well.
- Drop Freq – Dropshot frequency. The percentage of groundstrokes that are dropshots. This excludes dropshots hit at the net and those hit in response to an opponent’s dropshot (re-drops).
- Drop Wnr% – Dropshot winner percentage. The percentage of dropshots that result in winners or induced forced errors. Note that this number itself isn’t a verdict on the dropshot tactic, as it doesn’t count extended points that the player who hit the dropshot went on to win.
- RallyAgg – Rally Aggression Score. A variation of Aggression Score, a stat invented by MCP contributor Lowell West. At its simplest, any member of this family of aggression metrics is the percentage of shots that end the point–winners, unforced errors, and shots that induce forced errors. RallyAgg excludes serves and is a bit more complex, following the logic that I outlined for Return Aggression by separating winners from unforced errors. For each match, the player’s unforced error rate and winner rate are normalized relative to tour average and expressed in standard deviations above or below the mean. RallyAgg is the average of those two numbers, multiplied by 100 for the sake of readability. The higher the score, the more aggressive the player. Tour average is zero.
- ReturnAgg – Return Aggression Score. Another variation of Aggression score, considering only return winners and return errors. As with RallyAgg, winners and errors are separated, and each rate is normalized relative to tour average. ReturnAgg is the average of those two normalized rates, multiplied by 100 for the sake of readability. The higher the number, the more aggressive the returner, and tour average is zero.