Straight-Game Sweeps Often Lie About Match Closeness

A 4-0 scoreline reads as a blowout. The games behind it usually do not. In the main draw, most straight-game sweeps hide at least one deuce game.

37% of main-draw 4-0 sweeps in the local match table include a game where a side reached 12 or more — a game that went to deuce. In qualifying, the share is 32.8%.

The point is editorial, not statistical. A 4-0 looks like the loser was never in it. The game-level data says the loser often was — one close game, sometimes two, that simply broke the wrong way. 'Swept' and 'never threatened' are not the same thing.

The sweep table: Main Draw: 37.0% of 5,455 sweeps; Qualification: 32.8% of 3,880 sweeps; Position Draw: 37.5% of 32 sweeps.

Caveat: this counts any deuce game, not the deciding margin. A 14-12 game and a 21-19 game both count the same here. The measure is 'was there a close game at all', not 'how close'. That is enough to make the point: the cleanest-looking scoreline is usually messier than it appears.