By Chris Oddo | Monday December 4, 2017
The 2017 WTA season is in the books, and we're searching through the stats to find clues that might be able to tell us more about the season and what might be in store for 2017.
1. Konta’s Hold Rate
With Serena Williams inactive for most of 2017, we ask the question: Who is the WTA’s best server? Well, it depends on how you measure a great serve. For us, the best server is the player who holds serve the greatest percentage of times. That would be Johanna Konta, who held serve 79.3 percent of the time in 2017. She barely edged Karolina Pliskova, who held 79.1 percent of the time while also raining down a tour-leading 452 aces.
Konta was able to win more service games than Pliskova because she made use of her second serve. The Brit was one of only two WTA players to win more than half of her second-serve points.
2. Svitolina Set Monger
Have to love the efficiency and consistency that Elina Svitolina played with in 2017. The Ukrainian was ruthless and won 73.1 percent of the sets she played, winning 114 and dropping just 42. She was the only player that won more than 100 sets and also higher than 70 percent of them.
3. Svetlana Kuznetsova: Strong in Breakers
Svetlana Kuznetsova went 12-2 in tiebreakers in 2017, and her 85.7% success rate in such breakers was highest among WTA players that won 10 or more tiebreakers. CoCo Vandeweghe (11-2, 84.6%) and Venus Williams (11-3, 78.6%) also performed exceptionally in breakers.
4. Break Point Starlets
There were only three Top 50 players that earned more than 10 break point opportunities per match—Jelena Ostapenko (10.8), Elena Svitolina (10.3) and Timea Bacsinszky (10.1).
5. Double Fault Queen
Petra Kvitova double-faulted on 9 percent of her service points and 21.2 percent of her second serves in 2017. There’s something she can easily improve upon in 2018.
6. Ostapenko’s First Serve Needs Accuracy
Jelena Ostapenko had the lowest first-serve percentage among the WTA’s Top 50 at 52.7%. It’s probably why she also had the lowest hold rate among the WTA’s Top 50. The Latvian only held serve 48 percent of the time in 2017. She was one of four Top 50 players that held serve less than half the time. The other three were Sloane Stephens (49.3%), Timea Bacsinszky (49.7%), Magdalena Rybarikova (49.7%).
7. Nobody was better at saving break points than Lucie Saforova in 2017
Six players won more than 60 percent of the break points that they faced in 2017, but nobody had a higher success rate than Lucie Safarova, who saved 64 percent of them.
8. Best in Deciders
Of all the players that played 20 or more deciders, France’s Caroline Garcia was the best at winning them.
9. Beating the Elite
Caroline Wozniacki didn’t just lead the WTA in wins in 2017 with 60, she also won nearly a quarter of those victories against Top 10 players. Wozniacki went 14-6 against the Top 10 in 2017. Elina Svitolina did the most impressive work against the Top 5—the Ukrainian went 8-1 against the Top 5 in 2017.
Probably the most remarkable stat of all in 2017 was Ekaterina’s record against the Top 5. The Russian went 6-0 against the Top 5 and 21-21 against the rest of the tour.
10. Seeds vs. Unseeded
One of the wilder stats we’ve seen this season is this: No.1 (6), 2 (9) and 3-seeded (5) players won a total of 20 titles in 2017, while unseeded players won a total of 22 titles.