What Do the Stats Say?
The highly-anticipated French Open women’s quarterfinal match between Justine Henin and Serena Williams yielded some surprising statistics. Henin, who won the match 6-4, 6-3 did win 61 total points compared to 52 for Serena Williams. However, both players had 22 unforced errors and Serena had 8 winners compared to 7 winners for Henin. Serena had 3 aces compared to 2 double faults while Justine had only 4 aces, but
5 double faults. Justine was very successful on break points winning 4-4 while Serena was only 1-2. Henin also won 5 of 8 net approaches compared to Serena who only won 4 of the 11 points when she came to net. In the end, the old adage that not all points are created equal and playing the big points better matters was clearly a part of the story of the match.
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