By Chris Oddo | Tuesday September 20, 2016

A dive into some of the more compelling numbers after the completion of the 2016 Grand Slam season.

Novak’s stronger than the strongest

There is only one ATP Top 50 player with more than five wins against the Top 5 this season: Novak Djokovic. The Serb may not have claimed the Calendar Slam this year, and he’s temporarily stuck at a meager 12 major titles, but when it comes to beating the best of the best, Nole has been the baddest by a longshot.

He’s gone 7-2 vs. the Top 5 this season. The only other players with a winning record against the Top 5 is Juan Martin del Potro. The Argentine is 3-2 vs. the Top 5, including a win over World No. 1 at the Olympics. (Thanks to @il_mmo for correcting this stat.) Damir Dzumhur, who defeated Rafael Nadal in Miami, owns a 1-0 record vs. the Top 5 this year.

Here’s a list of some other top players records vs. the Top 5:

Murray: 3-4
Nadal: 2-4
Nishikori: 3-10
Berdych: 0-7
Federer: 0-1

Azarenka was very good this season when she played

Victoria Azarenka had her season cut short by pregnancy (best wishes, Vika!) but while the former No. 1 did play she looked very much like a current No. 1. Azarenka is the only player to have won more than half of her return games (51.2 percent) and more than half of her return points (51 percent). She is also No. 4 in first-serve points won and No. 2 in service games won. Pretty impressive stuff.

Strange, but true

Four WTA players have hit 20 or more aces in a match this season and none of them have the last name Williams.

Here are the four:

Krystina Pliskova, 31, in a 2nd-round win at Australian Open over Puig
Maria Sharapova, 21, in a 4th-round win over Bencic at Australian Open
Naomi Broady, 21, in a 2nd-round win at Auckland over Ostapenko
Karolina Pliskova, 20, in a Nottingham quarterfinal win over Barty

Double Bagels, WTA

There have been nine double bagels on the WTA side so far in 2016 and Victoria Azarenka is the only player who has more than one.

Aces, Baby

John Isner currently leads the ATP in aces with 955. Here are the rest of the Top 5:

Ivo Karlovic, 867
Gilles Muller, 686
Milos Raonic, 643
Sam Querrey, 642

Karolina Pliskova leads the WTA in aces with 451 aces. Here are the rest of the Top 5:

Serena Williams, 324
Timea Babos, 237
Johanna Konta, 226
Madison Keys, 216

Aceable Babies

On the ATP side, only one player gets aced more than ten percent of the time. That would be Bernard Tomic, at 10.7 percent.

Other aceable babies:

Steve Johnson, 9.1 percent
Nick Kyrgios, 9.1 percent
Jack Sock, 9.0 percent

Thiem Tough in Deciders

Dominic Thiem owns an absolutely remarkable record of 20-1 in deciding sets. His 95.2 percent winning percentage in deciding sets is tops in tennis and it is the only deciding-set winning percentage above 90 percent. Here are the four next best in the ATP in winning deciders this season:

Raonic, 10-2, 83.3 percent
Berdych, 8-2, 80 percent
Murray, 15-4, 78.9 percent
Nishikori, 13-4, 76.5 percent

On the WTA side, Madison Keys has the highest third-set winning percentage among top players with a 14-4 record.

Youngest Title Winner

Oceane Dodin of France is currently the WTA’s youngest title winner in 2016. She won the Quebec title last week at the age of 19 years 10 months and 18 days. Francesca Schiavone is the WTA’s oldest title winner, taking the Rio title at 35 years, 7 months and 28 days.

On the men’ side Nick Kyrgios is the youngest winner thus far, at 20 (Marseille) and Ivo Karlovic, who won Newport at the age of 37, is the oldest.

Titles

Novak Djokovic leads all ATP player with seven titles, including two majors. Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka and Dominic Thiem each have four titles, while a group of five players (Nadal, Klizan, Cuevas, Bautista Agut and Kyrgios) each have two.

On the women’s side there is a four-way tie for the title lead at the moment. Victoria Azarenka, Angelique Kerber, Sloane Stephens and Simona Halep each have three titles, while five players (Serena Williams, Radwanska, Garcia, Pliskova, Cibulkova) each have two.