The format changes at Majors are the most prominent of a number of rule changes that are being considered to reduce the length of tennis matches in order to make the tennis ‘product’ more attractive. In this guest post, Francesco Lisi and Matteo Grigoletto of the Department of Statistical Sciences at the University of Padua investigate how removing the first serve or advantage points could impact match lengths.
A constant conundrum for tennis fans is deciding which match to watch at any particular time. In this post, I look at how we can quanitfy the ‘must-seeness’ of a match based on it’s overall quality and competitiveness using player ratings.
A new section of the website is debuted: ‘Ratings’. Here (the hope) is to provide the top 100 singles and doubles men and women on tour each week using MOV Elo ratings.
With the US Open hard court swing just around the corner, Ash Barty heads into the last leg of the season with the highest rating in women’s singles and doubles. Such simultaneous dominance in singles and doubles has, in the past decade, only been matched by Serena Williams.
After the first weeks of the clay season, who is making fwaves and who has had a wipe out? Here are men’s and women’s twenty biggest movers so far on clay.
Any measure of playing style is only as good as what it can explain beyond player overall ability. If we apply this standard to playing style categories derived from basic match stats, how do they hold up?
Last week, I looked at whether basic match stats, like aces and minutes played per point, could help describe a player’s playing style. In this post, I expand on the set of style features and delve into the clusters of playing styles they reveal.
Recently, I’ve had a few posts on head-to-head effects. The biggest takeaway was one we probably all knew going in: Head-to-head effects may exist, but good luck finding them. With so many small sample sizes for most head-to-heads, we need a way to group ‘similar’ players. In this post, I look at whether categorizing players by playing style might be possible using basic match stats.
Ahead of the final matches in Miami this weekend, we look back on the players who triumphed in the face of the most pressure-filled matches so far this month.
If you thought Serena vs Maria was a lopsided head-to-head, you are right. But it isn’t the biggest head-to-head effect in recent WTA history.
