Abstract
(1) Background: Tennis ball tracking technology allows the aquirement of novel and reliable data about several performance indicators, such as volley positions. This information is key to understand match dynamics in doubles tennis and to better help preparing players for the demands they will face in match play. As such, the purpose of this study was to describe and compare the different types of volley positions in men’s and women’s doubles professional tennis. (2) Methods: Ball tracking data were collected for 46 women (Billie Jean King Cup) and 96 men’s doubles matches (Davis Cup). The variables used were the distance to the net, the distance to the centre of the court and the height of the impact. A K-Means cluster analysis was used to identify in each subsample different profiles of volley locations. (3) Results: The inferential analysis revealed differences in men’s (distance to the net η2 = 0.72, distance to the centre of the court η2 = 0.77 and impact height η2 = 0.63) and women’s subsamples (distance to the net η2 = 0.48, distance to the centre of the court η2 = 0.52 and impact height η2 = 0.51). (4) Conclusions: The results allowed the suggestion of a higher variability in men’s matches, as there were seven different clusters identified, and only four in women’s.
Highlights
The use of the Hawk-Eye, the most widely used tracking system in tennis, in the two most important team competitions, the Davis Cup and the Billie Jean King Cup, provides a unique opportunity to delve into doubles tennis
The groupings obtained in the matches of both the Davis Cup and the Billie Jean King Cup presented clear differences depending on the position parameters
It was found that men played a greater number of volleys higher and closer to the net than women
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. There are some examples of profiling the athletes’ features and the competition demands in basketball [1], tennis [2] and other sports that clearly serve this purpose. The specific case of doubles in tennis remains quite unexplored, despite the fact that this sport configures a very unique opportunity to better understand the complexity of small groups at the levels of intra and inter-player coordination to perform in such time–space conditions. The use of the Hawk-Eye, the most widely used tracking system in tennis, in the two most important team competitions, the Davis Cup and the Billie Jean King Cup (former Fed Cup), provides a unique opportunity to delve into doubles tennis
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