Murray's first serve percentage and it's impact

Andy Murray will step into the Rod Laver Arena to face Novak Djokovic for their 11th meeting of their professional careers on Friday. Interestingly, this is only their second meeting in a Grand Slam. Their only other meeting at a Slam ended in a straight sets victory in last year's Australian Open final.

Having a look at first serve averages for both players from all matches played at last year's four Slams, the stats tell a very interesting story. The points won when first serve goes in is almost identical with only 0.02% of difference. This makes intriguing reading considering this average is taken over 27 matches for Djokovic (one walkover) and 25 for Murray.

The stats would tell us get if either of these guys gets a first serve in, they'll win 76.1 (give or take a tenth %) of those points. The trouble for Murray is that he got less than 60% of first serves in whilst Djokovic finished close to 70%.

	Djokovic	Murray
1st Serve %	68.01	59.46
1st Serve Points Won	76.09	76.11

If Murray wants to beat Djokovic and make it 1-1 in Grand Slam matchups, then he needs to find his rythmn on first serves. It is one of a number of important factors, but this one is certainly key.

More interesting stats to follow, so keep me a lookout.

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