More 3rd Shots

Back to our APP tournament, this is a semifinal with Patriquin/Stone … they defeated McMakin/Taylor 11-9 / 11-3 (click here to watch the match).

This time, I charted drops (ending with a small p) and drives (ending with a capital D) and prefixed the letter with the number of shots it took to win/lose the point. In other words, 13p in green means that the player hit a 3rd shot drop and it took 13 hits to win the point … 9D in red means that the player hit a 3rd shot drive and it took 9 hits to lose the point.

Here’s the chart … the bottom half is Game 1 (11-9 win) … the top half is Game 2 (11-3 win).

First of all, look at how effective the returns of serve against Patriquin/Stone (I’m only charting their third shots). Those balls are DEEP!!!!

Let’s see if a summary of the data tells us anything.

There’s a little bit of a story here. They attempted 32 drops vs. 5 drives, and if the drop rallies went 7-12 hits they won 50% of the points. If the drop rallies went 13+ shots, they won 73% of the points. Since the returns of serve were so deep, the key to winning was to hit drop shots that bought time to get to the kitchen, where the duo had an advantage if the point lasted 13+ shots.

But my goodness, look at how far they were pushed back to hit their 3rd shots!