Djokovic and the statistics in tennis: Are they as important as they seem?

Novak Djokovic is already in the quarterfinals of his first tournament of the year, an ATP Brisbane 2025 where he is aiming for his 100th title and where he still faces several more challenges. Along the way, he will encounter several big servers, such as Reilly Opelka or Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, but that doesn’t worry Nole, who stopped by the press conference to analyze his victory against Monfils, his relationship with tennis statistics, and the low compensation that tennis players receive from tournaments.

– Another victory against Monfils: the balance against the Frenchman is now 20 wins and 0 losses

“His game suits me very well. In a way, the more victories you accumulate against someone, the happier you are to face them (smiles). We have had some very tough battles. On a couple of occasions, he was just one point away. I remember in Dubai, a few years ago, when he had several match points, he should have won that match, but things happen. Also, when you are in such a negative streak, it affects you mentally.”

“I believe he deserves all our recognition for continuing to play at such a high level at his age. He is a super athletic guy, a great man loved by millions of people, and there is a reason behind it. He is very entertaining, has huge charisma, and is the best dancer we have on the tour (smiles). He has been in the top 10, reached the final rounds of the Slams… in a way, for two players of 37 and 38 to face each other in the first tournament of who knows how many seasons we have in the circuit is truly special. I enjoyed it a lot, and I think it was a match of great quality.”

– Upcoming challenges, facing possible big servers

“Opelka is one of the best servers on the circuit. He’s someone who has struggled a lot with injuries in recent years, and it’s very frustrating to play against him, like Isner in his prime and also now with Mpetshi Perricard, a young guy, huge and with a tremendous serve. Sometimes, against them, you just have to walk in the service games, more than play. You have to get used to it. When you get opportunities, in the tiebreak or maybe earlier, that’s when you have to put pressure on the server. That’s what I have achieved many times throughout my career. My performance today gives me a lot of confidence for tomorrow.”

– The use of statistics in tennis, particularly contrasting with playing ‘by instinct’ and leveraging your strengths

“It varies greatly from person to person. We are part of an individual sport, each of us is different and prepares in a different way for each match. Some prefer to receive minimal information and follow their instinct, their automatism, feel their opponent on the court; others prefer to immerse themselves in the details. I belong to the second group. I love statistics, especially video analysis. I am a very visual person. I like to identify the playing patterns of my next opponent. I have dedicated a lot of time and money throughout my career to that, along with the members of my team.

Of course, the key is how you translate that to your tennis on the court, right? Everyone can see and read statistics, but how do you implement them so that they work efficiently for you? Once inside the tournament, I like things to remain on a conceptual level, to know precisely what I need to do or what my opponent is going to do; however, I like it to be somewhat simpler compared to the weeks leading up to the tournaments, where I do like to deconstruct my game, my opponents’ game, and search for the subtleties that help me improve.”

“This is something that has always interested me. My first tennis coach, my ‘tennis mother,’ who passed away in 2012, taught me the foundations and the correct approach to this sport when I was very young, around eight or nine years old. She would take me to her house after training, in between school, and I would learn about the importance of listening to classical music or video analysis, things that I didn’t quite understand at that time, but I did it because I had to. Later on, I learned why all that gave me an impressive foundation.”

“I have always been a very analytical person, something that I also believe has allowed me to stay at a high level for a long time. I am always looking to improve my game. Most elite tennis players aspire to be the best, so they do that, right? They have great teams, and it’s something I have never hesitated about; I have always tried to invest in the technology and the team that allows me to be better.”

– His arrival in Australia went viral, with a backpack featuring Pikachu, the 25th Pokémon. Would you like to explain that?

“All I can say is that my kids love Pikachu, especially my son. They are very subtle subliminal messages (smiles). It’s his backpack, actually, but I carried it with me when leaving the airport. I have seen all the buzz on social media, yes. It makes me laugh; I love it.”

– Extensive reflection on the distribution of earnings on the circuit and the little money that players receive from tournaments

“This is a fact, not my opinion. It is a fact: the distribution of earnings among the governing bodies of the major sports, of all sports in the United States, like the NFL, the NBA, baseball, or the NHL, is around 50% or close to that figure. Ours is much lower than that. It is a reality. Obviously, our sport is different because it is international. We operate under different rules and legislations, taxes, etc. Each tournament independently manages its own money distribution. Then you have the ATP, the WTA, and of course the Grand Slams, different entities that do as they please.

Everything is very fragmented. It is not easy to bring people together in one place and come to an agreement on a percentage. Moreover, the distribution of earnings is very different in a Grand Slam compared to a 250 event. In the competitions I mentioned earlier, there is a players’ union. Under their rules and laws, they can negotiate those percentages. For us, that is very different, and it is one of the reasons the PTPA was founded, to better represent the rights and voices of the players, as I don’t think that has been achieved at a satisfactory level within the ATP and the WTA in recent years.

I was the president of the Players Council for several seasons. I have been within the Council for almost 10 years. I know perfectly well how the system works and, in the end, unfortunately, players do not make any significant decisions on the most important issues. If you look at the system within the ATP, you have three player representatives on the Council, three tournament representatives on the Council, and the CEO and president. In recent years, the president is the one with the decisive vote, right?

You would think, furthermore, that within the ATP Council, the player representatives would agree and vote for what was decided within the Players Council. That has not always been the case, and there lies a problem. We have an issue, how to say, within the ATP’s structure, in the sense that players can only reach up to 50% within the organization. Many times there are conflicting interests between tournaments and players; the players wanted different things.

We are part of the same system and we cannot exist without each other, but we often find ourselves in conflict situations. We want more money, they may not want to give us as much, although there are many layers within the prize money debate, it is not that simple. If you look at it from a broader perspective, from the percentage that players take from earnings in general, that percentage is much lower compared to other global tournaments, especially the American ones.”

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