As the Serve Goes...
Maria Sharapova managed to squeak through her opening round match 8-6 in the third at the 2008 French Open despite hitting a record 17 double faults. Overall, Sharapova hit 68 unforced errors during the three set match. However, American Mardy Fish, who relies on his first serve to win free points, lost easily to Lleyton Hewitt when he had only a 38% first serve percentage and committed 58 unforced errors. One can’t forget
that the Sharapova match was played during extremely windy conditions. Nonetheless, it’s not uncommon for players who are struggling with their first serve percentage and/or hitting a lot of double faults to also have a tremendous number of unforced errors. Elena Dementieva may be the only player who has struggled for years with double faults, but still managed to play excellent tennis off her ground strokes, returns, etc. For most players, the serving woes can become a mental distraction such that they are often not fully ready for the return after their serve because they are working so hard to simply get the serve in the court. In addition, if a player is hitting a lot of double faults, then he/she will feel extra pressure to do more with the rest of his/her game and therefore presses at times causing additional unforced errors. For a player such as Maria Sharapova, it is a true testament to her heart and mental fortitude that she managed to win such a frustrating match against an unknown player when she was missing so many serves, as well as her trademark ground strokes.
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