An analysis of competition in young tennis players

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyse the temporal structure of individual tennis play on hard courts in adolescence. Thirtytwo national-level tennis players (16 females, 16 males) participated in the study (age 15.690.9 years, weight 61.791.4 kg, height 1.7090.14 m). All participants played an official competition on hard courts and with the same type of balls. Games were recorded for later analysis of total play time, real play time, and resting time, both in absolute values and as a percentage of total time. The average duration of a point and the number of strokes per rally were also determined. Results showed no differences based on gender, with a total play time of 105.00920.00 min, real play time of 31.5095.83 min, and resting time of 73.598.50 min. The ratio of work to resting time was 1:2.7, the number of strokes per rally was 5.1290.17, and a point lasted an average of 9.0890.60 s. Our results show the importance of keeping in mind the technical evolution of players at this age, with the goal of reaching maximum athletic performance. The adolescent players showed approximately the same number of strokes per rally, but with a greater average duration compared with adult elite athletes.

Effect of Modification Rules in Competition on Technical–Tactical Action in Young Tennis Players (Under-10)

“…Meanwhile, in GC, the main error in the serve is the impact of the ball against the net, which is the first obstacle to start the point. These values affirm three needs: (a) modifying the net and the court dimensions to develop children's tennis to be as similar as possible to that of adults (Torres-Luque et al, 2011;Schmidhofer et al, 2014); (b) adapting the system of competition to the needs and preferences of young tennis players (Ortega et al, 2017;Ortega-Toro et al, 2018); and (c) carrying out longitudinal studies for players to gain experience in SSGs to observe the real impact in play patterns (McCarthy et al, 2016).…”

“…In a global sense, GC must be studied extensively, as it is too advanced a stage to meet the needs and preferences of young players (Farrow and Reid, 2010;Schmidhofer et al, 2014;Bayer et al, 2017). Further research might explore which technical-tactical ratios would be ideal at the formative stages for an integral development, whether the competition should create a technical-tactical pattern similar to that used by Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP)/Women's Tennis Association (WTA) players (Torres-Luque et al, 2011;Schmidhofer et al, 2014;Timmerman et al, 2015), or the development of specific technical-tactical ratios for young tennis players (Timmerman et al, 2015;Gonçalves et al, 2016). Finally, longitudinal studies with different samples' characteristics playing in different competition formats are required to discover more scientific evidence in this topic (Gonçalves et al, 2016;Fitzpatrick et al, 2018).…”

The influence of gender on temporal structure and match activity patterns of professional padel tournaments

“…De igual modo, ítems sobre las acciones de juego: Total golpes por partido; Total golpes por partido sin saque; Total globos; Total golpes. La descripción de los aspectos temporales anteriormente citados aparece detallada en otras investigaciones similares (Sañudo et al, 2008;Torres-Luque, Cabello-Manrique, Hernández-García, & Garatachea, 2011). Además, partiendo de estos datos otras variables fueron calculados: Índice esfuerzo total (duración punto total/duración pausa total); Índice de esfuerzo intrapunto (duración punto/ duración pausa entre puntos); nº golpes totales/punto; nº globos/punto; nº golpes/punto; nº juegos/set; nº puntos/juego.…”

Analysis of the effect of playing surface on men’s singles wheelchair tennis

“…Referente al tiempo total de juego, se han encontrado duraciones en torno a los 75 min, similar a lo hallado por Roy et al (2006) en tenistas de silla, superior a lo aportado por Sindall et al (2013) y ligeramente inferiores a los determinados por otros autores en tenis convencional (Bergeron, 1995;Kovacs, 2007;Torres-Luque et al, 2011). A su vez, existen diferencias aunque no significativas entre las dos superficies, mostrando la tendencia que se da en tenis de que en superficie lenta los tiempos son mayores que en superficie rápida (O´Donoghue & Ingram, 2001).…”

“…De los escasos estudios que valoran el TT del tenis en silla de ruedas Roy et al (2006) lo marcan en torno a 80 min, aunque hay estudios actuales que informan de unos tiempos de poco más de 50 min (Sindal et al, 2013). Más extensas son las investigaciones realizadas en tenis convencional, que marcan una media de en torno a 90 min cuando se juega al mejor de 3 set (Bergeron, 1995;Torres-Luque et al, 2011;Kovacs, 2007), llegando a valores de hasta 4 y 5 horas cuando se juega al mejor de 5 set (Bergeron, 1995;Kovacs, 2007;Hornery et al, 2007a), aspecto que nunca sucede en tenis en silla de ruedas (ITF, 2012).…”