Roger Federer celebrates after winning his exhibition match against Rafael Nadal in Cape Town, South Africa. (Getty Images)
When two players play equally nicely, we often see sets being decided in a tie-break. The first player to win 7 points in the tiebreak, wins the set.
This is only if he has a lead of at least two points against his opponent (e.g. 7-5). Otherwise, the tie-break would continue until a player has a lead of two points over his opponent.
The Grand Slam Board announced earlier in the year that the 10-point tie-breaks will be played when the score reaches six games all in the final set. This rule was implemented in the French Open and the Wimbledon. It will also be used in the 2022 US Open. As per this trial, if the score reaches six games all in the final set, the match winner(s) will be the first player(s) to win 10 points with an advantage of two or more points.
A tie-break brings with it a lot of pressure. We have seen on many occasions that the better player throughout the set fails to hold his nerves in the tie-break. In such crunch situations, the player with the stronger mettle prevails more often.
Thanks to Reddit, we have got some data on our hands as to which players have the highest tie-break win percentages in the Open Era.
The 20-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer tops the list with a win percentage of 65.30. Novak Djokovic, who recently won his 21st Grand Slam title, comes a close second with a win percentage of 64.77. The American Arthur Ashe comes third on the list with a tie-break win percentage of 64.18.
‘The Big 3’ have broken and created numerous records. On most lists of records, their names feature quite close to one another. However, there is a fair bit of social distancing on the part of the 22-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal on this list.
The former world No. 1 lies in the 9th position on this list. Numbers 4-8 are Andres Gomez, Pete Sampras, Felix Auger Aliassime, Andy Roddick, and Gullermo Perez Roldan. Their respective tie-break win percentages are 63.54, 62.84, 62.30, 62.09, and 62.07.
The legendary Spaniard Nadal has a tie-break win percentage of 61.50. The 36-year-old will have the chance to better his numbers at the upcoming US Open competition.
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