@tennisanalytica: 🧨 Unreturned Serve | The Devel In The Detail 🎬 The unreturned serve is the most common point outcome in tennis, but what can we learn from this? A 2019 study gives us one of the clearest answers. Across 44,722 total service points that were analysed, these were the results: 🟦 Men: 👉 6,983 of 18,020 first serves were unreturned. That’s 38.8% of made first serves. 👉 For second serves, 1,897 of 9,502 were unreturned = 20.0%. 🚨 But here’s the more important calculation. 🔴 Out of 27,522 total service points: 👉 Unreturned 1st serves = 25.4% of all service points 👉 Unreturned 2nd serves = 6.9% 👉 Total unreturned serves = 32.3% 🧠 So, roughly 1 in every 3 men’s service points ended without a return coming back. 🟦 Women: 👉 3,183 of 11,364 first serves were unreturned = 28.0%. 👉 1,009 of 5,836 second serves were unreturned = 17.3%. 🔴 Out of 17,200 total service points: 👉 Unreturned 1st serves = 18.5% of all service points 👉 Unreturned 2nd serves = 5.9% 👉 Total unreturned serves = 24.4% 🧠 That means roughly 1 in 4 women’s service points ended with no return coming back. 📈 The first serve is clearly the bigger source of these immediate points. 🚨 But look at the second serve: 😮 A second serve was still unreturned 20% of the time for men and 17.3% for women. ✅ Key Takeaway: Unreturned serves make up such a significant component of our sport. If we focus on 2nd serves alone, it is now clear as to why marginal gains in 2nd serve return are so highly correlated to match outcome. There is essentially 20% and 17.3% of scope for returning players to eat into. This is a phenomenal result. 🫵 What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments section! 👉 #tennisdata #tennisanalytics #tennisstrategy

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Friday 25 September 2026 11:06:34 GMT