{"id":94157,"date":"2025-12-14T08:30:28","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T13:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=94157"},"modified":"2025-12-08T13:02:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T18:02:19","slug":"tiebreak-kings-fought-hard-wins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/12\/14\/tiebreak-kings-fought-hard-wins\/","title":{"rendered":"Tiebreak Kings: Who Fought Hard for Wins?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Winning a set is the same whether it&#8217;s 6-0 or 7-6. But in a lot of ways, the 7-6 wins are more exciting. So we&#8217;re breaking down who won the most tiebreak sets.<\/p>\n<p>So essentially, this is a Top 10 list of the players with the most 7-6 set wins this year. Some names you&#8217;ll expect. Others might genuinely surprise you. Let&#8217;s break it down.<\/p>\n<h2><b>1. Felix Auger-Aliassime (36)<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>If you thought number one was going to be a servebot, think again. It&#8217;s Felix Auger-Aliassime, who won a staggering 36 sets by a 7-6 scoreline this year.<\/p>\n<p>While some might consider his excellent serving to be servebot territory, that&#8217;s not really fair. The problem wasn&#8217;t his serve. It was breaking down opponents. He struggled to finish points and close out sets comfortably, which meant nearly everything came down to the wire. Thirty-six tiebreak sets is a massive number, and it tells you everything about how tight his margins were all season long.<\/p>\n<h2><b>2. Reilly Opelka (28)<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>Now here&#8217;s your servebot. Opelka won 28 sets this year with a 7-6 score, and honestly, it shouldn&#8217;t be a massive surprise. While Opelka does have a decent all-around skillset, it&#8217;s not really built for the modern era of tennis.<\/p>\n<p>His game is heavily reliant on the serve, and when you can&#8217;t consistently break opponents, tiebreaks become inevitable. Still, he did a lot of winning this year, which is admirable given how his style struggles against the tour&#8217;s elite grinders.<\/p>\n<h2><b>3. Ben Shelton (27)<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>Ben Shelton did a lot of winning this year, and a good chunk of it came through tiebreaks. Twenty-seven sets decided by 7-6 might sound like a problem, but in a way, it&#8217;s a luxury. Knowing that once you get to a tiebreak, you&#8217;ll have a high chance of winning? That&#8217;s a weapon.<\/p>\n<p>And a win is a win after all. Whether it&#8217;s 6-0 or 7-6, the scoreboard doesn&#8217;t care. Shelton&#8217;s ability to lock in when it matters most is what separates good players from great ones.<\/p>\n<p><a  id=\"sXhGA1k2RyZabZ1S0iVJ_A\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2245789969\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'sXhGA1k2RyZabZ1S0iVJ_A',sig:'6-oMhjzmc-BuTc8rAFOShYZEURlXNBAKstZRi0V18rQ=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2245789969',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2><b>4. Alexander Zverev (26)<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>Zverev finds himself here largely because of the level of competition he faces. These are matches against top players, decided by very little, where a single break can determine everything. It&#8217;s no wonder he places so high.<\/p>\n<p>His relatively defensive style also plays a role. When you&#8217;re grinding from the baseline and focusing on consistency over aggression, sets tend to stay on serve. Twenty-six tiebreak sets is just what happens when you&#8217;re playing tight matches at the highest level.<\/p>\n<h2><b>5. Taylor Fritz (24)<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>Fritz had a pretty lackluster year overall, and this stat reveals part of why. While not defensive per se, he struggled to break down opponents consistently, having to settle for tiebreaks instead of closing sets more decisively.<\/p>\n<p>Twenty-four tiebreak sets is a pretty high number considering how he tends to play. It suggests he was in matches but couldn&#8217;t quite impose himself enough to finish them cleanly. Good enough to compete, not quite dominant enough to separate.<\/p>\n<p><a  id=\"4O6jPmTdQAp05Axy3n1UkA\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2246175650\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'4O6jPmTdQAp05Axy3n1UkA',sig:'drd8sFehe7t0m2BpGfskAx013XXStZ1lCzpTlQnyYRw=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2246175650',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h2><b>6. Tallon Griekspoor (23)<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>Griekspoor on this list shouldn&#8217;t surprise anyone. He&#8217;s quite famous for playing marathon matches that go the distance. Even when he loses, he doesn&#8217;t really lose easily. Everything goes through a tiebreak.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a very interesting quirk about Griekspoor. He&#8217;s a strong server who can hold with the best of them, but he also tends to struggle breaking down opponents. The result? A ton of tiebreaks and a spot firmly in the top ten of this list.<\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2><b>7. Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard (22)<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2024\/11\/04\/giovanni-mpetshi-perricard-is-redefining-what-it-means-to-be-a-big-server\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">supposed tiebreak king<\/a> finds himself only at number seven with 22. The thing about Mpetshi is that he hasn&#8217;t been winning as much this year compared to last, and that&#8217;s part of why the number isn&#8217;t higher.<\/p>\n<p>He&#8217;s still one of the most likely players to feature a tiebreak in any given match. His serve guarantees that. But fewer wins overall meant fewer opportunities to rack up those 7-6 sets, even if the pattern remains the same.<\/p>\n<h2><b>8. Cameron Norrie (22)<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>Cam Norrie doesn&#8217;t seem like a natural name on this list because his matches do tend to feature quite a few breaks. But it mostly comes down to him being a very physical player who extends matches.<\/p>\n<p>At times, opponents simply shift their focus to holding serve above anything else, knowing that trying to break Norrie down is exhausting and often futile. The result? More tiebreaks than you&#8217;d expect from someone with his grinding style.<\/p>\n<h2><b>9. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (20)<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>Davidovich Fokina is generally known as a super aggressive player who doesn&#8217;t really settle for tiebreaks, yet here he is at number nine. Why and how is tough to say with certainty.<\/p>\n<p>But he does have an affinity for complicating matches more than he needs to, going for too much at the wrong times and then scrambling to hold serve when things get tight. That chaos might be part of the answer.<\/p>\n<h2><b>10. Jakub Mensik (19)<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>Mensik being on this list shouldn&#8217;t surprise anyone. He relies quite heavily on his serve, and many of his matches end up finishing via tiebreak because he focuses on holding and doesn&#8217;t really beat opponents by breaking them down.<\/p>\n<p>He also didn&#8217;t play as many matches as some of the other players on this list, which makes 19 tiebreak sets even more notable.<\/p>\n<h2>Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>The tiebreak kings reveal something fascinating about modern tennis: sometimes barely winning is all you need. Whether it&#8217;s elite serving, defensive consistency, or just the ability to raise your level when it matters most, these players found ways to win tight sets all year long.<\/p>\n<p>Thirty-six tiebreaks or nineteen, the pattern is clear. When the margin is razor-thin and everything comes down to a few crucial points, these are the guys who found ways to come through. Barely, maybe. But they got it done.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo Credit: Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Winning a set is the same whether it&#8217;s 6-0 or 7-6. But in a lot of ways, the 7-6 wins are more exciting. So we&#8217;re breaking down who won the most tiebreak sets. So essentially, this is a Top 10 list of the players with the most 7-6 set wins this year. Some names you&#8217;ll [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5393,"featured_media":56967,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2,9],"tags":[5338,85,16662,1688,1219,18755,18805,19,4692,347],"class_list":["post-94157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-atp","category-featured","category-news","tag-alejandro-davidovich-fokina","tag-alexander-zverev","tag-ben-shelton","tag-cameron-norrie","tag-felix-auger-aliassime","tag-giovanni-mpetshi-perricard","tag-jakub-mensik","tag-reilly-opelka","tag-tallon-griekspoor","tag-taylor-fritz"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5393"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94157"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94264,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94157\/revisions\/94264"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}