Vinay Jessani introduces tennis and his experience with his wife's family's devotion to the sport. He witnessed her play at the US Open and describes her parents' dedication to regularly traveling long distances to play matches. Jessani provides context on the history of black tennis players breaking barriers, like Althea Gibson becoming the first black player allowed in the US National Championships in 1950. The document also summarizes a lengthy 5 set match between Rafael Nadal and Grigor Dimitrov at the Australian Open, with Nadal ultimately winning in the 5th set.

1. Introduction to Tennis for Beginners
by Vinay K. Jessani, MBA, FRM®
My amazing wife Bobbi and her family have been involved in watching and playing tennis for Bobbi’s entire life. When I
first started dating Bobbi she introduced me to many of the fascinating aspects of the game; I even watched her play in an
amateur league in the same courts that the professionals now use for the US Open: The Billie Jean King National Tennis
Center in Flushing Queens. To say her family is devoted to the sport would be a grand understatement; her parents, now
in their mid-80’s bought a 2nd home in Torrington Connecticut so they could play increase their tennis playing time. For
about 40 weekends each year, for over 20 years, and until just a few years back they would travel 6 hours back and forth
from New York City so they could take part in regular tennis matches with friends. Tennis has been a way of life for them.
Tennis can be complicated so I thought I would write a few articles to share some of the information that I have learned, in
order to help other novices gain a better understanding of the sport. As a Global sport, Tennis has some lessons and
parallels, which I will cover in more detail in other articles that are worth noting from a societal perspective. I welcome any
comments and questions and my intention is catalyze interest in a sport that gets short shrift from a US coverage vantage
point. In terms of coverage, I would be surprised if the total air time during the local nightly news of year added up to more
than 2 hours in any given year. This is true even though Serena Willams, the #1 rated female player, is a pioneer in the
sport. To boot, Serena along with her sister Venus, Althea Gibson, Arthur Ashe and James Blake have been some of the
most ground breaking African Americans in a sport long dominated by Caucasians across the Globe.
In 1950, Ms. Gibson was the first black player allowed to play in the United States National Championships, now the US
Open. She broke color bars across the world, as the colonial era was ending but prejudice was still prevalent. In the US,
where racism was widespread throughout society and sports, her contributions to Tennis and latter Golf compares to
Jackie Robinson, who made his major league baseball debut in 1947. "Her road to success was a challenging one," said
Billie Jean King, "but I never saw her back down." "To anyone, she was an inspiration, because of what she was able to
do at a time when it was enormously difficult to play tennis at all if you were black," said former New York City Mayor
David Dinkins. "I am honored to have followed in such great footsteps," wrote Venus Williams. "Her accomplishments set
the stage for my success, and through players like myself and Serena and many others to come, her legacy will live on."
Below are the scores and key statistics from an epic 5 set Quarter Final match at the Australian Open (AO) played last
Friday between Rafael Nadal and Grigor Dimitrov that lasted 4 hours, 56 minutes and ranks in the top 50 for match
duration. It had tremendous back and forth and a nail-biting finish. In comparison the much more publicized Nadal and
Roger Federer Final, played 2 days later, lasted 3hr 37min, with Federer finally winning in the 5th set, in that match. The
Nadal and Federer match had significance beyond the extended playing time as both players experienced very large
professional setbacks in getting back to this major tournament final, after an absence of several years in a sport where 30
is considered old. Nadal is 30 and Federer is 35. Both are examples of athletes with great character and resilience.
1 2 3 4 5
R. Nadal 6 5 7(7) 6(4) 6
G. Dimitrov 3 7 6(5) 7(7) 4
R. Nadal MATCH STATISTICS G. Dimitrov
8 ACES 20
3 DOUBLE FAULTS 5
135/184 (73%) FIRST SERVE % IN 124/181 (69%)
93/135 (69%) WIN % ON 1ST SERVE 87/124 (70%)
27/49 (55%) WIN % ON 2ND SERVE 28/57 (49%)
25/29 (86%) NET POINTS WON 36/48 (75%)
5/13 (38%) BREAK POINTS WON 4/16 (25%)
66/181 (36%) RECEIVING POINTS WON 64/184 (35%)
45 WINNERS 79
43 UNFORCED ERRORS 70
186 TOTAL POINTS WON 179
5,227.1 DISTANCE COVERED (M) 5,322.8
14.3 DISTANCE COVERED/PT. (M) 14.6

2. Typically matches are 3 sets but men play a best of 5 sets in 4 Grand Slam Tournaments: AO, French Open, Wimbledon
and US Open. Each opponent winning 2 earlier sets, forced the 5th set. In the 5th set, Nadal won with 6 victories versus
Dimitrov’s 4 game wins. Winning a 5th set requires winning at least 6 games, with a 2 game margin. Winning by 2, is
common differential in tennis. For example, to win a game, a person must attain 4 points and have a 2 point victory
margin. Tennis scoring starts at 0 to 0, like almost every sport, but the first point is scored as 15, the second brings the
total to 30 and the third to 40. The next point for an opponent, with the 2 point differential, wins the game. A common
occurrence is when the game is tied and each person has 40; it is referred to as “deuce”, meaning tied, 2 or equal
depending on the source of the French translation. After deuce, the next point is referred to as “advantage”, which means
that opponent is potentially on the cusp of winning a game. If the person with the advantage wins the next consecutive
point, he or she wins the game. If that opponent instead loses the next point, the score reverts back to deuce. There is no
score beyond 40 and deuce is always 40 to 40. Also, the person serving will have his or her score listed first, so after the
first point the score will be referred to as 15 to Love, meaning the server has 1 point to the opponent 0 or if the server
loses the point, then score is referred to as Love to 15. After each opponent has scored at least 1 point, the love (0) term
is retired for that game. Love is sometimes used to refer 0 games won or 0 sets won i.e., winning a match 3 sets to Love.
In this match, after 9 games the score was Nadal 5 and Dimitrov 4, the 10th game completed the match because Nadal
achieved both a 6th game in the set as well as the 2 game differential. Had Nadal lost game 10, the set would have been
tied at 5 games apiece and it would have required someone to then win at least 2 games in a row to establish a 2 game
differential, win the set and the match. In the 2009 Wimbledon championship between Roger Federer and Andy Rodick,
the fifth set lasted 30 games. Eventually Federer outlasted Rodick 16 to 14 in the fifth set, to win. That match lasted 4
hours and 17 minutes; it holds several statistical significances, as well, and game 15, as a storied turning point.
In earlier sets 1 through 4, (or 1 and 2 in a 3 set match) it is still the first person to get to 6 games wins as long as there is
a 2 game differential exists; but a tie breaker is instituted, if such set is tied at 6 games apiece. In the first set, Nadal won
6 games to Dimitrov’s 3 so that set is straightforward for Nadal. In the second set Dimitov had won 6th game against
Nadal’s 5 game victories, which required a 12th game to be played. Had Nadal won the next game a tiebreaker would
have ensued. But, Dimirtov won the 12th game and won the set 7 games to 5 games to tie the match 1 set to 1 set. In the
3rd and 4th sets, at the 12th game the set was tied at 6 games apiece. Nadal won the 3rd set tiebreaker to take a 2 to 1 set
lead but lost the 4th set tiebreaker. Had he won the set, he would have won the match, at that point. Instead, it was 2 to 2.
Tiebreakers utilize an extended overtime period format and are designed to settle the winner of the set quicker than the
AO 5th set tie protocol. They are typically the sign of a tight and lengthy match; the tiebreaker game is decided by the first
person to win 7 points, with at least a 2 point differential. In the 3rd set Nadal won the tiebreaker 7 to 5; in the 4th set
Dimirtov won 7 to 4 to extend the match to a 5th set. Tiebreakers can last beyond 7 points. In 2013, in Plantation Florida,
Benjamin Balleret defeated Guillaume Couillard 36-34 in the 1st set; then won 6 – 1 in the 2nd, for the match.
In terms of the statistics presented above, I will focus on one statistic, which is break points won and %. Break wins occur
when the non-serving opponent wins a game. Serving is a large advantage and some of the preeminent male and female
plyers take great pride in seldom losing their service games. One can compare serving as akin to home field advantage in
Football; breaks are like road wins. It is expected that a championship team wins at home, but also, they find a way to win
on the road in key games, if they expect to make it deep into the playoffs. I know only one match where the person with
more converted break opportunities lost and that was the 2009 Wimbledon Final where Rodick broke Fereder in two
games and Federer only broke Rodick once, in the 15th game of the 5th set, but Federer never-the-less won the match 3
sets to 2. (Besides the 5 set discussed above, Federer’s other 2 set victories involved tiebreakers not breaks.) The timing
of breaks is important and statistics cannot capture that. In a close match, it is the person with the last break that
invariably wins, which is what Federer did. Here, both players missed several chances to break; some are less relevant
because the player to still went on to win the game. But in others, the server came back to rally, win the game and deny
the opponent a big opportunity. In total, Nadal had 5 breaks and Dimitrov had 4. According to the UK based Telegraph:
Both players stabilised their serves so well in the 3rd set that we went 27 straight games without another
break – a run that lasted until the penultimate game of the match. It could easily have stopped at 26,
because Dimitrov had 2 break points to move 5-3 ahead in that deciding set. But the threat of imminent
catastrophe brought the real Rafa out of his shell.
Had Dimitrov won game 8, his potential 5th break, it is not clear that Nadal could have ever reached his eventual 5 break
total. But in game 8, Nadal came back and held serve (tying the match with 2 sets each, plus 4 games to 4 games for the
5th set); broke Dimitrov in game 9 and then closed the door in game 10, by holding serve again. Nadal’s 5th match break
in the 9th game became a final turning point and deciding event. Great Tennis is marathon, not a sprint; capitalizing on
opportunities, results in victories. This is true in our professional lives as well. And that is what Nadal did.