Gender Differences in the Spatial Distributions of the Tennis Serve

Abstract

The serve location pattern of professional, Under-16 and Under-12 high performance male and female tennis players was examined. In general, male players tended to serve more to the corners of the service box, while female players hit more serves to their opponent's body. An examination of points won through service aces and service winners indicated that male professional players won points on first serve on the deuce side of the court by serving to their opponents' backhand, and female professional players more won points on first serve by serving to the opponent's body. The findings will focus the coaching of serve performance in youth tennis players, and encourage the charting of tennis match performance to enhance player-coach discussion of tactical tendencies that are gender and age-specific.