10 Best Way To Hold A Tennis Racket

After losing his first three finals in Grand Slam events during the past three years and all three close matches he has had in 2020 with Nadal and Djokovic, two of the three players ranked above him, Murray clearly would benefit from some coaching help. And Cahill may be just the guy to supply it, at least partly because Murray seems to chafe at even the prospect of a full-time coach and Cahill's other duties would seem to prevent him from becoming one anytime soon.

Every serious tennis fan probably has a theory about where Cahill needs to begin and what Murray needs to improve. But let's start with the numbers.

Murray's 13-7 match record in 2020 represents his worst start to a season since 2020. His match record ties him for 20th place in both the number of matches played and the number of matches won among the ATP Top 25 players. (Six of his wins came in Melbourne alone.)

After Murray's loss to Djokovic in the final of the Australian Open, Murray played just three matches during the next two months, losing each of them to players ranked No. 20, No. 143, and No. 118 before losing to Nadal in Monte Carlo. Injury? Prolonged funk? Nobody seems to know '" or to be willing to say.

The European clay court season has been better for him. Murray is 7-3 so far, with Roland Garros still to come. But it's hard to consider him on much of a roll after Rome, despite his insistence in his post-match press conference that the tournament has boosted his confidence going into the French Open in Paris next week.

Even more troubling numbers than the match record can be seen in the statistics kept by the ATP, known as the Ricoh Match Facts. They provide a clear view of the strengths and weaknesses in Murray's game in 2020.

All knowledgeable tennis fans know that Murray's return game is among the finest in the world. This year's statistics confirm this again, despite his other problems. He leads the ATP tour in break points converted (52% just ahead of the second ranked Djokovic at 50%), and he is second in return games won (42% just behind Djokovic's tour leading 43%). Nadal is third at 40%, emphasizing just how closely this statistic correlates with the players' overall success and rankings.

But Murray's return game and his capacity to hit aces at key moments mask a number of major problems with his serve. If I were in Darren Cahill's shoes, I'd try to start there, probably with some of the issues of technique, rather than with Murray's head.

Those who watched the semifinal with Djokovic will remember the final double fault at 5-4 when Murray was serving for the match, giving away the most critical game played until that point. It was his second double fault of the game, a telling sign in itself. But it's not that Murray hits inordinate numbers of double faults. He had four during the match against Djokovic in Rome (compared to his opponent's two), but Murray is averaging 2.3 per match this year, a figure that puts him right in the middle of the pack in the ATP Top 25. (It's worth remembering that it was Djokovic who was struggling with both double faults and his second serve just a year ago, but he and his coach Marian Vajda clearly worked out the technical kinks by the middle of 2020. Djokovic seems to have complete confidence in it now, and his 2020 service statistics reflect the change.)

It's a good thing Murray leads the tour in return games won because his service games won (72%) ranks only 57th on the tour, sandwiched between the little known Ricardo Mello and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. By contrast Djokovic ranks second in service games won at 89%.

I must confess I was surprised by Murray's overall percentage of service games won when I first found it in the Ricoh Match Facts because my impression of him is that he is a better server than that. But he is also ranked 42nd in break points saved (58%), another key measure of serving effectiveness. Djokovic is third at 70%. Nadal is eleventh.

Murray's percentage of first serves in (58%) is lower than only four other players in the ATP Top 25. And even more shockingly, his percentage of second serves won (44%) is the lowest of any player presently ranked in the ATP Top 50.

If this doesn't suggest an agenda for a coach, I don't know what would.

Murray may still be too stubborn to admit that he needs to develop a more sophisticated understanding of the game and of himself than he already has. Only time will tell. But if I were Darren Cahill, I don't think I'd wait until after Wimbledon to suggest that Murray start retooling the serve that has proven to be the major technical barrier to his success.