I have a feeling that serving first in a set is an advantage. Is there a statistic like "X % of the sets were won by the player who served first"?
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Why do you feel that is an advantage (when you have to win by two)?– JoeCommented Sep 9, 2014 at 14:09
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@Joe the first player has always the chance to rebreak– Dirty-flowCommented Sep 9, 2014 at 14:20
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That implies that a player isn't trying to win every game though.– JoeCommented Sep 9, 2014 at 14:21
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1Tennis, as a sport, keeps very poor statistics about it's matches. This kind of stat, along with dozens of other useful stats, does not exist for any level of tour matches as far as I'm aware.– jamaussCommented Sep 9, 2014 at 16:45
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1There are some older questions which seem to be (to some extent) related. For example: sports.stackexchange.com/questions/5657/… sports.stackexchange.com/questions/5626/… sports.stackexchange.com/questions/5630/…– MartinCommented Nov 12, 2014 at 14:16
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1 Answer
As of now there are very few standardized statistics taken by the ATP or WTA concerning "percentage of sets won by player who served first". However, Professors Franc Klaassen and Jan R. Magnus recently completed research on a number of Wimbledon tournaments and inspected several questions including the one concerning the outcomes of sets depending on who serves first.
You can find out more information here:http://www.janmagnus.nl/misc/wimbledon.pdf
However, you may have to pay to get the complete set of research. http://www.pinnaclesports.com/en/betting-articles/sport/live-tennis-betting-strategy summarizes that only "...48.2% of sets in the men’s singles are won by the player serving first. In the WTA? Just 50.1%".
