A Statistical Investigation of Squash

Pollard, Graham

doi:10.1080/02701367.1985.10608449

Cited by 8 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…A sudden death matchpoint has maximal importance I and, generally speaking, the greater the importance of a point, the greater the excitement (Section 2) generated. It is commonly supposed that the better player (especially a "champion") can raise his game on more important points, However, Pollard (1980), in statistically testing all the matches in the 1977 New South Wales Open men's singles championship (won by R. Tanner), found no conflict with the bipoints model; and I feel that such variations will do little to substantially alter the picture painted above deriving from "inevitable randomness", and the conclusions to be drawn therefrom by designers and modifiers of scoring systems.…”

Section: Relevance Of the Duration Distributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Symmetric Sequential Analysis: The Efficiencies of Sports Scoring Systems (With Particular Reference to Those of Tennis)

Miles

1984

Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B: Statistical Methodology

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SUMMARY Bernoulli‐type models are adopted for the sequence of contested points between two players (or teams). In bipoints, there are two types of point – “A serving” and “B serving” – necessary for a realistic model of top (class) men's tennis. Unipoints is the special case of bipoints in which the probabilities that A (and hence B) wins each type of point are the same–a reasonable model for top men's squash rackets. Sports scoring systems based upon such play (“uniformats” and “biformats”) may be regarded as sequential statistical tests concerning the identity of the “better player”. Provided they satisfy certain fairness criteria, these tests are symmetric, with equal probabilities of type I and II error, and a unique efficiency p; then formally 1 – p represents the average fraction of play being virtually wasted through the use of a suboptimal scoring system. Largely because in top men's tennis the proportions of service points won by both players are so high, the efficiency of traditional tennis scoring in such play is unduly low. Whilst the introduction of tiebreaker games has further reduced efficiency, it is shown how a simple entropy‐increasing modification of the traditional scoring system serves to increase efficiency.

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Section: Relevance Of the Duration Distributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Symmetric Sequential Analysis: The Efficiencies of Sports Scoring Systems (With Particular Reference to Those of Tennis)

Miles

1984

Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B: Statistical Methodology

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“…Like the majority of research in this field, the key assumptions in the simulation model are that pa and pb remain constant and that individual points are independent of one another; Pollard (1980) showed these assumptions are adequate. In the simulation, Player A will always be the better player, that is, pa > pb.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Conversely, the authors found that the odds of a stronger player winning a set increase under the "win a set by three games" system. In a very important paper, Pollard (1980) tested whether the assumptions of constant service point win probabilities and point independence in tennis modeling are adequate and, using data from 35 matches at a professional tennis tournament, showed that they are indeed sufficient.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of Different Scoring Systems on Upset Percentage and Match Length in Tennis: A Simulation Study

Harris

2016

Journal of Sports Research

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Keywords: Discrete event simulation, Tennis scoring, Tennis match length, Upset probability, NCAA tennis, Skill difference. Contribution/ OriginalityThis study formally quantifies, through a systematic design of experiment, how different scoring systems affect upset percentage, match length, and match duration in tennis, thus extending upon earlier work which touched upon these aspects in a less comprehensive and quantitative manner.

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“…It is also assumed that the outcome of any point, game or set is independent of the outcome of any other point, game or set. These assumptions are based on Pollard (1980). In analysing 35 matches (5503 points) in the 1977 N.S.W.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Analysis of Classical and Tie‐breaker Tennis

Pollard

1983

Australian Journal of Statistics

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Expressions for the probability that a player wins a game, set or match of classical or tie-breaker tennis are obtained. Also, expressions for the distribution, the mean and the variance of the number of points in a game, set or match of classical or tie-breaker tennis are obtained. These results explain the long matches often previously observed in classical tennis between two players each with very effective serves on fast grass-court surfaces. The methodology used to derive these expressions could be used to obtain corresponding expressions for other "nested-type'' scoring systems. For example, tennis is 3-nested (game, set, match) whereas squash is only 2-nested (game, match).

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A Statistical Investigation of Squash

Cited by 8 publications

References 7 publications

Symmetric Sequential Analysis: The Efficiencies of Sports Scoring Systems (With Particular Reference to Those of Tennis)

Symmetric Sequential Analysis: The Efficiencies of Sports Scoring Systems (With Particular Reference to Those of Tennis)

The Effects of Different Scoring Systems on Upset Percentage and Match Length in Tennis: A Simulation Study

An Analysis of Classical and Tie‐breaker Tennis

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