You don’t win five titles in a year without a radical change in your gameplay. Andrey Rublev has seen a meteoric rise in 2020. He won five titles and ended the year ranked 8th. But what made him the most improved in 2020?

The answer is his increased pedigree of winning his service games and return games. In 2019, he won just a single tournament. His service wasn’t polished enough, and his ability to pounce on the opponent hadn’t matured.

But in 2020, there has been a monumental rise. His service game win percentage has increased substantially. He is serving more accurately and is becoming harder to break.

Moving over to his return games, there, too, we can see a significant rise with respect to 2019. What is surprising is that he has improved a lot on the clay as well.

It is harder to hold serve on clay but he still has a healthy average among his peers. And his return game win percentage on clay is one of the best in 2020.

In 2019, Rublev‘s service game win percentage wasn’t spectacular, and neither was his return game win percentage. It was average, and that showed in his other stats from the 2019 season as well.

But in 2020, he is winning more points; he is winning more matches and titles. His win record in 2020 is the joint best with World No.1 Novak Djokovic.

Where does Andrey Rublev stand among his rivals?

Rublev’s growth is the best by any player in 2020. No one comes close to matching the improvements he has had with regards to his service and return games win percentage.

The other young players around Rublev have continued their steady rise, but Rublev, out of nowhere, has accumulated stats that can’t be ignored.

This year, Rublev won 3 ATP 500 titles and two ATP 25o titles. Next season’s obvious mission would be to influence the ATP Masters 1000 tournaments and the Grand Slams.

And if he has another skyrocketing season, then we might see him breach the top 5 of the ATP rankings as well.

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