How Novak Djokovic’s Brick Wall Backhand Dominated the Paris Closing

Novak Djokovic defeated Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 6-3 within the ultimate of the Rolex Paris Masters on Sunday by relying closely on his backhand to manage the circulate of factors from the again of the court docket.

This was a defensive, old-school method from Djokovic, who solely went to the online 5 instances and hit simply 15 run-around forehands standing within the Advert court docket for the match. Djokovic invested closely in his backhand, and after a rocky begin, it paid dividends along with his fortieth ATP Masters 1000 crown.

Djokovic dedicated six errors in his first 13 backhand groundstrokes (excluding returns & volleys), as Dimitrov efficiently attacked it along with his slice backhands and aggressive run-around forehands. Djokovic stated post-match that he thought each gamers had been tight at the start of the match, nevertheless it was the Serbian who settled down the quickest.

Djokovic made his final 29 backhands of the opening set and cranked up the stress on Dimitrov to mainly need to hit winners to gather factors. General, Djokovic hit extra backhands than forehands for the match as he was content material to construct factors by means of the Advert court docket and power Dimitrov to crimson line his sport to win baseline exchanges.

DJOKOVIC GROUNDSTROKES

Complete Pictures
Backhands = 57% (101)
Forehands = 43% (76)

Winners
Backhands = 3 winners
Forehand = 2 winners

Errors
Backhands = 15
Forehands = 9

Forcing Opponent Errors
Backhands = 11 (5 forehand/4 backhand)
Forehands = 9 (8 forehand/1 backhand)

Djokovic’s grasp plan was to commerce as many backhand blows as needed by means of the Advert court docket to put on down Dimitrov’s one-hander. Djokovic hit a large 73 per cent of his backhands cross court docket, 10 per cent by means of the center and simply 17 p.c down the road. Dimitrov, by comparability, solely hit 60 per cent of his backhands cross court docket, 23 per cent by means of the center and 17 per cent down the road.

Dimitrov might very nicely have felt comfy rallying to Djokovic’s backhand by means of the Advert court docket, nevertheless it had the flow-on impact of lowering the variety of aggressive forehands he may discover. Dimitrov hit simply 52 per cent forehands for the match (101 forehands/93 backhands), which was by no means going to get the job completed.

Djokovic turned it right into a defensive battle by primarily taking part in backhand to backhand and in addition by taking part in from deeper within the court docket. Dimitrov merely couldn’t discover a option to undergo, over, or round Djokovic’s proverbial brick-wall backhand.

RALLY HIT POINT COMPARISON

Pictures Hit Inside The Baseline
Djokovic = 14%
Dimitrov = 19%

Pictures Hit Inside Two Metres Of The Baseline
Djokovic = 52%
Dimitrov = 67%

Pictures Hit Previous Two Metres
Djokovic = 34%
Dimitrov = 14%

The telling statistic is that Dimitrov couldn’t benefit from Djokovic’s very deep court docket place, the place he contacted the ball over a 3rd of the time (34%) previous two metres behind the baseline. Dimitrov received a commendable seven of 10 factors on the internet, which begs the query: Why didn’t he go to the online twice or thrice that quantity to maintain harvesting the superior profitable share on the entrance of the court docket?

Dimitrov’s baseline woes additionally flowed over to his return sport. Dimitrov solely received six of 32 (19%) return factors towards Djokovic’s first serve and 5 of 16 (31%) towards the Serbian’s second serve. Dimitrov didn’t put a large 50 per cent of Djokovic’s first serves again within the court docket and didn’t see a single break level for the match.

Djokovic typically wins matches by bossing opponents to all factors of the court docket. On this match, he went into lockdown mode by betting massive on his backhand.