Insights
Stat leaders: Rothesay International Eastbourne 2023
This year’s Rothesay International Eastbourne created headlines from start to finish, as the top players on the WTA Tour flocked to the South Coast for another week on the grass.
As we look back on another action-packed week at Devonshire Park, we analyse the top stats leaders throughout the tournament – focusing on players who competed in two or more matches.
Serving
When we take a closer look at the serving stats from the week down in Eastbourne, we can see why champion Madison Keys was such a force throughout the week. Despite the windy and unpredictable conditions that the Rothesay International Eastbourne always throws up, the American led the stats on aces with 22 and also on points won on first serve at an impressive 74.79% (178/238) across her five matches.
While Keys led in aces, she shared the title with France’s Caroline Garcia, who also hit 22 in two fewer matches having been forced to retire in the quarter-finals.
First serves win matches right? Well, that was certainly the case for runner-up Daria Kasatkina, who was the most consistent on her serve in Eastbourne. Kasatkina averaged an incredible 79.55% first serves in during the tournament. To put that in perspective, Ana Bogdan finished second with 71.94% - almost an 8% difference.
Returning
If your service game should be your bread and butter, the return is often what sets players apart in the biggest matches. It’s no surprise that once again, Keys led the pack on points won against the first serve at 43.045 (99/230), but fellow American Coco Gauff wasn’t far behind on 42.86% (63/147) off the back of her straight sets wins over Bernarda Pera, Jodie Burrage and third seed Jessica Pegula.
When we look elsewhere across the return stats in Eastbourne – Italian Camila Giorgi is another big stand out, off the back of a brilliant week for the 31-year-old. Throughout the tournament, she won 48.48% (61/90) points against the second serve and won almost half of her games on return with 16 of 33 going in her favour. This included six breaks in just two sets against last year’s Wimbledon runner-up, Ons Jabeur.
Pressure points
They say pressure makes diamonds and that was certainly the case for Britain’s Burrage. The British No.2 came in off the back of reaching her first WTA final at the Rothesay Open Nottingham and proved clinical when she had the opportunities to break in Eastbourne. Burrage converted six of the seven break point chances she created – coming in at an 85.71% conversion rate – before bowing out to Gauff in the second round.
On the other side, Garcia again showed her quality on serve in the big pressure moments. The French star saved a whopping 16 of 21 break points faced, which comes in at just under 7% more than Petra Martic in second (76.19% vs 69.23%).