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Abstract

Abstract:The aim of this study was to compare differences in 15 tennis match variables between two groups of top 300 male ATP (Association Tennis Professionals) players. The groups consisted of the top 300 ATP players who had positive win-loss number of matches (G_1) and negative win-loss number of matches (G_2) in professional tennis tournaments at three different points in time, approximately 10 years apart (1991, 2000 and 2010). A t-test for independent samples and multivariate ANOVA (MANOVA -Wilks' lambda) assessed the differences between the two groups of players. The comparisons revealed that players in Group 1 achieved a significantly better statistical performance in selected aspects of the serve, the return and in general matchplay, independent of the year. The largest number of differences in the analysed match statistics was observed in 2010, where 12 match statistics varied significantly between the two groups. Some evidence also suggests that the efficiency of the serve and return of serve have improved over the past two decades, therein highlighting their important role in modern professional tennis. The present findings suggest that the observed performance indicators are sufficiently sensitive to discriminate between top 300 ATP players with variable number of winloss matches.

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

“…Break point has a positive effect on receiving players' winning possibility in that they are more motivated to win the return game when a break point is created (Knight & O'Donoghue, 2012). Roland Garros was found to be the event where all players had more chances of break points because on slow surface, the advantage of serving players is neutralized by the slower speed and higher bounce of the ball (Filipcic et al, 2015). Therefore, receiving players could have more time to react and try more tactical variability when returning the serves, thus winning more points.…”

“…Tennis is an open-skill sport where players continuously modify their tactics and techniques in response to particular match constraints. To obtain the success, coaches and players are expected to refine the training programming during match preparation, to optimize the strategy prior to the match, and finally players should apply the corresponding tactics efficiently within the match (Filipcic et al, 2015;O'Donoghue & Ingram, 2001). While in order to achieve those objectives, it is critical that they are supported by useful and precise evidence during the cycle of competing, reflecting, decision-making and preparing for further competition (O'Donoghue, 2014).…”

“…In order to maximize the chances of winning a match, the importance of these factors should be reinforced and logically, their influence have been investigated to give coaches and players more evidence while setting up strategies. But unfortunately, most existing studies considered the merely general match performance of players and tried to determine the key performance indicators without exploring the effects of contextual variables (Filipcic et al, 2015;Ma, Liu, Tan, & Ma, 2013;Reid, Morgan, & Whiteside, 2016). Therefore, the applicability and usefulness of future research will be enhanced if those multifactorial influences are considered.…”

“…But unexpectedly, all players had the similar performance in "net success of total points won%" in all Slams, which made us to infer that regardless of the absolute difference of court surface, the game strategy and tactics in elite tennis are becoming similar. This is likely because, first of all, the improvement of technology in racket and ball enables players to hit faster serves and groundstrokes (Filipcic et al, 2015);…”

“…Research in professional tennis has been focused on describing game strategies (Gillet et al, 2009;O'Donoghue & Ingram, 2001), playing patterns (Hizan et al, 2014), technical and tactical efficiency (Filipcic et al, 2015;Ma et al, 2013) and players' movement profiles (Pereira et al, 2017). The obtained results allowed us to understand the match characteristics and offered a grounding to coaches to develop accurate training plans.…”