Serve efficiency development in women’s vs. men’s professional tennis

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose was to identify possible gender-specific differences in long-term serve efficiency development in professional women’s and men’s tennis.MethodsThe analyses focused on 2 approaches: (1) total tournament comparison and (2) 2<sup>nd</sup> tournament week vs. 1<sup>st</sup> tournament week comparison. The data include all single matches at the Wimbledon Championship between 2002 and 2015 (ladies: <i>n</i> = 1771, gentlemen: <i>n</i> = 1772).ResultsThe findings showed significant development differences in favour of elite men over elite women in both comparisons. Regarding the total tournament comparison, men’s development of 2<sup>nd</sup> serve points won (<i>p</i> < 0.001; <i>r</i> = 0.86), 1st serves in (<i>p</i> < 0.05; <i>r</i> = 0.72), and double fault (<i>p</i> < 0.001; <i>r</i> = 0.85) percentages improved significantly more. As per the 2<sup>nd</sup> tournament week vs. 1<sup>st</sup> tournament week comparison, men’s development of 2<sup>nd</sup> serve points won (<i>p</i> < 0.05; <i>r</i> = 0.68) and double fault (<i>p</i> < 0.01; <i>r</i> = 0.86) percentages improved significantly more.ConclusionsThe study revealed serve efficiency development advantages for men over women in both comparisons, especially regarding the quality of the 2<sup>nd</sup> serve, whereas no development advantages in favour of women over men could be observed in any analysed parameter, indicating possible needs to adapt elite women’s coaching.