Blake Mott wasn’t sure if he wanted to pursue a pro tennis career less than 12 months ago, but the Australian is now firmly committed and quickly rising up the Emirates ATP Rankings.

Under the tutelage of former ATP World Tour pro Peter Luczak, the 20-year-old achieved a career breakthrough this February at the $75,000 ATP Challenger Tour event in Launceston, Australia. Entering the draw as a wild card, Mott beat several veteran players en route to winning the title. At No. 721 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, Mott became the fifth-lowest ranked Challenger winner since 2000 and one of three teenage titlists this year (joining Andrey Rublev and Taylor Fritz).

Although Mott called his experience in Launceston “one of the best weeks of my life,” he said it wasn’t a surprise to win matches against Top 200 players.

“I was out for three or four months last year just to take some time off to figure out what I wanted to do, so I knew my level was much higher than my ranking,” said Mott, speaking from last month’s ATP Challenger Tour event in Sarasota, Florida. “I had a good training block the week before and was seeing the ball well. I was showing a lot of discipline for every point. The Aussie crowd were awesome and I really liked the town. When you’re happy and everything is going well off the court, it’s easy to play well on the court.”

Afterwards, Mott came down with a case of the flu, which kept him from full strength from over a month. Although the virus halted the momentum he had built in Launceston, the Australian said it was part of the ebbs and flows of being on tour.

“That’s the thing about tennis: One week you’re in the final and the next week you’re playing in the first round of qualifying,” said Mott. “You just have to accept it.”

Mott is part of a wave of young Australians climbing the Emirates ATP Rankings, including Jordan Thompson, James Duckworth and Luke Saville. Although they’re all looking to achieve the same Top 20 status that Nick Kyrgios currently has, Mott perhaps has extra incentive in knowing he defeated Kyrgios less than three years ago at an ATP Challenger Tour event in Melbourne, Australia.

“I won, but he’s still somebody to look up to. He’s Top 20 and just a freak of talent,” he said. “We’ve got some great players coming up now. Our nation is quite lucky in terms of funding and sponsorship, which makes a big difference.”

With ATP Challenger Tour events in Australia held from October through February, Mott finds himself on the road for the remainder of the year. Although he’s enjoyed many of the places he’s traveled to on tour, he’s spent an increasing amount of time playing events in the U.S.

“I really like the U.S. tournaments because it’s the same language and a lot of the same atmosphere as Australia,” said Mott. “It’s like a home away from home.”

Top seeds Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut topped Aussies Sam Groth and Bernard Tomic 6-3, 6-3 in the first round of the Roland Garros doubles tournament on Wednesday. The Frenchmen did not face a break point in the 54-minute win.

Herbert/Mahut, the reigning US Open doubles champions, are attempting to become the second French team in three years to lift the doubles trophy at Roland Garros. In 2014, Julien Benneteau and Edouard Roger-Vasselin topped Spaniards Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez to break a 20-year title drought for the home nation (Leconte/Noah in 1984). Mahut was a finalist in 2013, partnering Michael Llodra (l. to Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan). Benneteau/Roger-Vasselin reprised their partnership at this year’s tournament, beating Albert Ramos-Vinolas and Jiri Vesely 6-0, 4-6, 7-6(2) in their opening match.

Four-time champion Daniel Nestor is still in contention after teaming up with Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi to beat Inigo Cervantes and Paolo Lorenzi 7-6(5), 6-2. The Canadian last tasted victory in Paris alongside Max Mirnyi in 2012. Mirnyi and Treat Huey moved into the second round thanks to a 6-7(3), 7-6(5), 6-1 win over Italians Fabio Fognini and Andreas Seppi.

Marcin Matkowski and Leander Paes, seeded No. 16, edged Aliaksandr Bury and Denis Istomin 7-6(3), 7-6(6). Paes won three Roland Garros doubles titles alongside Mahesh Bhupathi (1999 & 2001) and Lukas Dlouhy (2009).

“You have to back yourself,” Andy Murray said after overcoming Frenchman Mathias Bourgue in five sets at Roland Garros on Wednesday. “For me today it wasn’t easy, because I wasn’t hitting the ball well for a long period of the match.”

Murray came into the second-round encounter as the prohibitive favourite. Bourgue, No. 164 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, had never played in the main draw of a tour-level event and was facing a Top 50 player for the first time, but the Frenchman found his best level to take a two-set-to-one lead against Murray. To the Brit’s credit, he remained calm and let his talent do the talking.

“Over the course of five sets, the higher-ranked player can be a little bit more solid, a bit more consistent in the important moments,” Murray, who now has 576 wins under his belt, noted. “In the end, in the fifth set, that was the difference. I came up with some good shots and some lucky shots as well.”

Despite being the highest seed in his half of the draw, the World No. 2 has not had it easy in Paris so far. It was his second straight five-set escape after he saw off Radek Stepanek over two days in the first round. “I managed to win the match. That’s what I’m here to do, but I don’t want to play five sets every round and don’t want to have big drop-offs in matches.

“It’s been a pretty stressful couple of days.”

With 10 hard-fought sets under his belt already, Murray may look forward to a respite from the typical clay-court grind when he faces big-serving Croat Ivo Karlovic on Friday.

“Tomorrow I will be tired, but at least I get a day’s rest now. But you can’t continue playing matches like that and then expect to win the tournament,” Murray, who leads 6-0 in the FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry against Karlovic, said. “I think maybe once I have started a Grand Slam playing two five-set matches in the first couple of rounds.

“The positive is that I’ll play Karlovic in the next round. The average rally length will only be a few shots. Maybe three, four shots max. So if I can get through the next one, it will be nice to win it a bit quicker.”

As he prepares for a seventh meeting with the towering Croat, Murray might be happy to know that Karlovic himself is coming off an epic five-setter. On Thursday, the World No. 28 needed to hit 41 aces to edge Jordan Thompson 12-10 in the decider.

Imagine playing a match where you get three serves and your opponent gets only one.

Sounds very unfair, but that’s the dynamic the world’s elite players artificially create to gain their competitive edge. There are four separate serves hit in a match – a first and second serve for each player – and the best of the best manage to consistently create a winning percentage with three of them.

The hidden key is to own your opponent’s second serve, and to at least break even on your own. An Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis uncovered just 21 players on tour last year managed to maintain a winning percentage against their opponents’ second serve and also be above 50 per cent on their own second serve.

The first thing to understand is that nobody will consistently average a winning percentage against an opponent’s first serve. In the 2015 season, David Ferrer ranked No. 1 in this category, winning 35 per cent of his opponents’ first serves. In the past 52 weeks, Bernard Tomic has maintained a ranking of around No. 20 in the world, and has won just 25 per cent of his opponents’ first-serve points. The career best, since 1991, is Argentine Guillermo Coria, who won 36 per cent against his opponents’ first serves.

Once the first serve misses its mark, the world’s best returners flick the switch from defense to offense to take advantage of the second serve’s slower delivery with a faster return. Simply, the faster serve dictates a slower, more defensive return, while a slower serve invites a lot more offense from the returner.

Below is the list of the 21 players in the 2015 season who averaged a winning percentage on their opponents’ second-serve points and on their own second serve.

In the 2015 season, there were 24 players who had a winning percentage on their opponents’ second serves, but three of them failed to generate a winning percentage on their own second serves. They were Andreas Seppi (49.9 per cent), Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (49.7 per cent) and Fabio Fognini (49.3 per cent).

Some players, such as World No. 2 Andy Murray, actually win more second-serve points from their opponenst than on their own second delivery. In the 2015 season, Murray won 56 per cent returning second serves, and 52 per cent of his own second-serve points. In the table above, there were seven players with a similar performance, and another three who were within half a percentage point of doing better on their opponents’ second serve than on their own second serve.

As you would expect, this is an area of extreme focus for World No. 1 Novak Djokovic. In the past 52 weeks, the Super Serbian is ranked No. 1 in second-serve points won (59.3 per cent) and second-serve return points won (56.8 per cent). More than any other player, Djokovic maximises the battle surrounding second serves. He also happens to be the world leader in first-serve return points won in the past 52 weeks at 34.6 per cent.

Having a winning percentage on three of the four serves hit is one of the most important tactical concepts that directly translates to a W at the end of a match at all levels of the game.