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Analyst reveals what has taken Marton Fucsovics ‘to another level’ at Wimbledon


Hungarian number 1 Marton Fucsovics is the surprise quarter finalist of the 2021 Wimbledon men’s singles but, as Tennishead’s own stats expert reveals, maybe it’s not such a shock if you look at the incredible improvement in one key factor of his game

“Márton Fucsovics has been the surprise package of the 2021 Wimbledon Gentlemen’s Singles Championships. He is through to his first-ever Grand Slam quarter-final, chalking up three extremely impressive victories over Sinner, Schwartzman and Rublev. The Hungarian is in the best-grass court form of his life, producing some career-best tennis on his worst surface. While his serve has been as good as before, it is his vastly improved return game that he owes his success to.

“Fucsovics’ serve has been good, but no better than before. Behind his first serve he has won 78% of points, which is a 4% improvement compared to previously on grass. But on second serves he is slightly worse. So far this year at SW 19 he has won 47% of second serve points, a 3% decrease on his previous grass-court average.

The surprise Wimbledon run of Fucsovics“On return is where the Hungarian has taken his game to another level. At the 2021 Wimbledon Championships he has won 33% of first serve return points, which is an impressive 5% improvement on his average across previous grass events. On second serve returns he has won an incredible 58% of points, which is a massive 12% increase on his previous grass-court average. Fucsovics is putting increased pressure on the serve of his opponents, especially going after their second delivery.

“Fucsovics has played at a very high level so far at the 2021 Wimbledon Championships. He has been far more aggressive when receiving second serves and it is precisely his much improved return game that has been the key to his success. He has beaten 3 top players to make his first-ever Grand Slam quarter-final and as a reward he gets to face Novak Djokovic. It does not get any better and tougher than that.”

Luka Elliott has a B Com in Economics & Statistics from the University of Cape Town where his thesis was titled “Engineering Features for Tennis Match Outcome Prediction in a Statistical Learning Framework”. He now writes for Tennishead focussing on how statistics effect the outcome of ATP matches


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Tim Farthing, Tennishead Editorial Director & Owner, has been a huge tennis fan his whole life. He's a tennis journalist and entrepreneur as well as playing tennis to a national standard. He also helps manage his local club and volunteers for his local tennis organisation. He's a specialist in content about the administration of professional tennis and tennis coaching for all levels.