Follow the bouncing ball

All players have some sort of ritual they go through prior to serving the ball.  The most spectacular of these is Nadal's, which includes pulling on the shorts, wiping the nose, wiping the brow, tugging on the shirt at the shoulders etc.  This behavior can be annoying to viewers, a fact recognized by TV people who cover Nadal's matches - they now frequently focus on the player preparing to return Nadal's serve while the ritual is going on.

For most players, though, the routine involves idiosyncratic ball bouncing.  Here are a few of the more interesting ones:

Novak Djokovic.  Famous for his numerous ball bounces prior to the serve in the early stages of his career (I once counted 17 in a US open match against Federer that he lost), Djokovic has "normalized" this behavior as rise to dominance on the tour has made him more confident and relaxed.  It's interesting, though, how the old behavior resurfaces in tense moments.  In the Italian Open semifinal with Nishikori, which went to a third set tiebreaker, Novak bounced the ball more than 15 times on several serves, and in the tiebreak reached the spectacular number of 19 on one occasion.  So we don't need a blood pressure cuff to figure out how Djokovic is feeling.  We can just count bounces.

The deliberate bouncers are kind of interesting to watch.  Both Berdych and Sharapova bounce the ball with such deliberation that they almost look like automatons.  The extreme version of this behavior is that of Johanna Konta, who bounces the ball very deliberately and stiffly 3 times, followed by 2 quick bounces on the first serve, and 2 times followed by 2 quick bounces on the second serve.  It really looks weird, but I guess all you can say is: whatever works.

Milos Raonic was a math wiz in his early years, and this history has its vestiges in his ball bouncing routine.  Raonic NEVER bounces the ball an odd humber of times!  When things are going well it's 6 bounces; the normal number is 8 bounces, and tense moments lead to 10 or 12 bounces.

Nick Kyrgios is normal but very reproducible - he ALWAYS  bounces the ball 7 times exactly.

What all of this indicates, in my opinion, is that players are anything but relaxed in matches.  The pre-serve routines clearly function to maintain focus and/or to manage tension.  Obviously, players  will spare no effort to keep from getting "bounced" from tournaments.