Analysing tie-break performance of professional tennis players at Grand Slam matches

Abstract

ABSTRACT A tiebreak in tennis is one of the critical moments where players are expected to excel under mental pressure and maintain high level of performance. Despite the importance of tiebreak points, research exploring the performance of male and female players during such match phrase remains limited. This study aimed to investigate i) the overall tiebreak performance of male and female players in relation to the outcome, ii) to examine their point-level performance by considering different contextual variables. A total of 535 tiebreaks comprising 6380 points from the 2016–2021 US Open men’s and women’s singles matches were collected. The difference in match performance between winning and losing players within the entire tiebreak game was explored. A subsequent decision tree analysis was then used to analyse the effect of the contextual and performance variables on tiebreak point-by-point outcome. The results showed that male and female Winning players outperformed the Losing players in 1st Serve, Serve Width and Net approach performance. The analysis of point-level performance showed that Net point, Score scene, and Point server substantially impacted tennis players’ tiebreak outcome. These findings provide valuable insight for coaches and players, informing tiebreak tactics tailoring and training in relevance to different match status.