The serve impact in tennis: First large‐scale study of big Hawk‐Eye data

Abstract

Analysis of dual sports performance typically involves observational techniques to gather data samples during actual competition. These techniques are limited by the amount of data that can be collected and the need to define the observable variables in advance. Today's advanced technologies have considerably overcome these limitations, enabling high‐volume data collection for post‐recording analysis. The present study was based on the three‐dimensional kinematic data recorded by the automated ball‐tracking Hawk‐Eye system between the 2003 and 2008 seasons in elite tennis tournaments, which provided a database of 262 596 points. The analysis consisted of an examination of the relationships between the various characteristics of the serve summed up by the resulting ball trajectory and winning‐point probabilities. The influence of factors such as serve speed, serve location, court surface, gender differences, and spin intensity on the winning‐point rate was assessed to gain insight into efficient serve tendencies in world‐class tennis. The implications for practitioners are highlighted and directions for future research in tennis performance analysis based on automatic ball tracking are proposed. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Statistical Analysis and Data Mining: The ASA Data Science Journal, 2016

The Relationship Between the Service and Score in Professional Tennis Game

“…No tênis masculino atual a efetividade em sacar tem se apresentado como um fator determinante para o rendimento. De acordo com Mecheri et al 10 a proficiência nesse fundamento possibilita aos melhores sacadores da atualidade vencer mais 80% dos pontos quando jogam com o primeiro serviço. A importância alcançada pelo saque tornou-se tão proeminente que 18 dos 20 tenistas que lideraram estatísiticas relacionadas ao serviço encerraram a temporada de 2014 no Top 30 do ranking da ATP 4 .…”

“…As pesquisas sobre esse fundamento apontam: o papel desempenhado pelo saque no contexto de jogo [2][3][4][5] ; as características e/ou padrões de saques adotados pelos tenistas em torneios [6][7][8][9] ; o saque sobre a perspectiva da velocidade empregada na ação e nos resultados obtidos [4][5][6]10 ; a performance apresentada por tenistas de diferentes níveis, momentos da carreira, gerações, vencedores ou perdedores [11][12][13][14] ; comparam a eficiência e eficácia do saque entre atletas do sexo masculino e feminino 7,13,15,16 ; comparam os padrões adotados e os resultados obtidos em distintos tipos de superfície 9,15 ; debatem aspectos biomecânicos relacionados ao saque 4,17,18 ; o impacto de diferentes sessões de treino na velocidade [19][20][21] ;e os fatores intervenientes no rendimento do saque [22][23][24][25] .…”

Analysing time pressure in professional tennis

“…There is a growing number of papers that are utilizing positional tracking data to advance the statistical analysis of professional tennis. These studies have focused on the prediction of shot and point outcomes (Wei et al, 2013;Wei et al, 2016) characterizing shots (Kovalchik and Reid, 2018;Mecheri et al, 2016), or describing the characteristics of matchplay (Reid, Morgan and Whiteside, 2016;Kovalchik and Reid, 2017). Metric development from tracking data has received less attention in the sports statistics literature.…”

Exploring match performance of elite tennis players : the multifactorial game-related effects in Grand Slams

“…In total, there were 543 individual sets collected and they were played on courts where ball speed and player's movement tracking systems were available. The objectivity and reliability of tracking technology have been previously verified, showing slight measurement error (ITF, 2005;Mecheri, Rioult, Mantel, Kauffmann, & Benguigui, 2016). Players involved in the research were ranked 1 to 631.…”

“…The radar system comprises two radar units that are installed behind both baselines of the court and measures the serve speed with acceptable accuracy (average absolute measure difference: 0.8%) (ITF, 2005). The Hawk-Eye system consists of eight to ten high-speed video cameras that are located around the arena and the camera feeds are synchronized to track the movement of ball and player every 40 millisecond within point-play with a measurement mean error of 3.6 mm (Mecheri et al, 2016). Accordingly, a total of n=1188 players were selected (Australian Open: range of ranking = 1 to 692; Roland Garros: 1 to 296; Wimbledon:…”