Association Of Tennis Professionals Research Articles

Retirements of professional tennis players in ATP and WTA tour events.

Professional tennis competition at the highest levels requires high physical, technical, tactical, and mental demands. Player retirement is a scenario that often occurs at the highest echelons of the game. The objective of this study was to descriptively determine which factors influence retirement of matches in tennis. Matches from the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) and Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tours played over 44 and 46years were included in the study, respectively. The results showed an increasing trend in the incidence of retirements in both ATP and WTA events, especially in recent years. Factors associated with the match characteristics, such as the type of surface, the type of tournament, and the round of the draw, were shown to influence retirement. Variables associated with player characteristics, such as the age difference between players, did not show to influence retirement, whereas the ranking difference did. When comparing ATP and WTA matches, similar results were observed in which surfaces and tournaments had the highest or lowest incidence of retirements. On the other hand, as per the rounds, the results are not conclusive. The findings highlight the growing trend of match retirements in professional tennis and emphasize the relevant influence of match characteristics such as surface type, tournament type, and round of the draw. These insights can guide coaches, players, and tournament organizers in developing strategies to mitigate retirements and inform future research on enhancing player longevity and performance in tennis.

Machine Learning-Based Player Performance Analysis for Association of Tennis Professionals Tour

This study explores the use of data analysis in professional tennis, using the dataset of the world-renowned Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Tour, which is the top-class men's professional tennis tour. Utilizing the match data of all the players, mainly Novak Djokovic, the research applies various models and methods of data preprocessing and selection to predict match outcomes. The main objective is to provide data-supported insight to professional tennis players and coaches to help analyze and further improve their tennis. The analysis and model take factors like player performance, court types, and tournament importance into consideration. This study shows the potential of data analysis in sports where such resources are often limited to well-funded teams. Not only the effect of different models in forecasting tennis match outcomes is evaluated, but also the influence of non-critical tournaments and external factors like injuries and policies on the accuracy of predictions are explored. The research findings offer insights into the evolving role of data analysis in enhancing sports strategies and performance, indicating a promising future for data-driven decision-making in professional tennis for different levels of players.

Early career wins and tournament prestige characterize tennis players’ trajectories

Success in sports is a complex phenomenon that has only garnered limited research attention. In particular, we lack a deep scientific understanding of success in sports like tennis and the factors that contribute to it. Here, we study the unfolding of tennis players’ careers to understand the role of early career stages and the impact of specific tournaments on players’ trajectories. We employ a comprehensive approach combining network science and analysis of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tournament data and introduce a novel method to quantify tournament prestige based on the eigenvector centrality of the co-attendance network of tournaments. Focusing on the interplay between participation in central tournaments and players’ performance, we find that the level of the tournament where players achieve their first win is associated with becoming a top player. This work sheds light on the critical role of the initial stages in the progression of players’ careers, offering valuable insights into the dynamics of success in tennis.

Medical withdrawals in elite tennis in reference to playing standards, court surfaces and genders.

To examine the relationships between medical withdrawals, playing standards, court surfaces and genders in tennis players participating in all elite tours. Descriptive epidemiology study. Medical withdrawals of men and women tennis players from Association of Tennis Professionals, Women Tennis Association, Challengers and International Tennis Federation Futures tours' matches have been identified considering the court surfaces (fast vs. slow). Proportion comparison and the binomial regression model were used to determine the influence of playing standards, court surfaces and genders on tennis players' likelihoods to withdraw. A higher proportion of withdrawals was found for men in Challengers and Futures vs. Association of Tennis Professionals (4.8 %, 5.9 % vs 3.4 %; p < 0.001), but without difference between court surfaces (0.1 %, p > 0.05) whatever the playing standards. Women reported higher proportion of medical withdrawals sustained on slow surfaces (0.4 %, p < 0.001), but without different withdrawal rates between playing standards (3.9 %, p > 0.05). After adjustment, the odds of medical withdrawals were higher for Challengers (1.18, p < 0.001) and Futures (1.34, p < 0.001), with a higher likelihood to withdraw (1.04, p < 0.001) when playing on slow surfaces and with a gender-dependent effect indicating higher odds (1.29, p < 0.001) to withdraw for medical reasons in men in reference to women. These findings demonstrated a gender-dependent effect on medical withdrawals from an elite tennis tournament with higher likelihood for men participating in Challengers/Futures tours and for women playing on slow surfaces.

LoRa-Based Smart Waste Bins Placement using Clustering Method in Rural Areas of Indonesia

Abstract ATP Tennis stands for the “The Association of Tennis Professionals” which is the primary governing body for male tennis players. ATP was formed in Sep 1972 for professional tennis players. A study has been done on tennis players’ datasets to implement supervised machine learning techniques to illustrate match data and make predictions. An appropriate dataset has been chosen, data cleaning has been implemented to extract anomalies, data is visualized via plotting methods in R language and supervised machine learning models applied. The main models applied are linear regression and decision tree. Results and predictions have been extracted from the applied models. In the linear regression model, the correlation is calculated to find the relation between dependent and independent variables, furthermore the results and prediction are extracted from the linear regression model. Also, three hypotheses are applied for multiple linear regression model. The decision tree modeled the best of 3 or best of 5 sets of matches and predicted which set of matches would be considered best. Keywords: Machine Learning, supervised learning, linear regression, decision tree, R language, Tennis, ATP.

Applying Machine Learning- Supervised Learning Techniques for Tennis Players Dataset Analysis

Abstract ATP Tennis stands for the “The Association of Tennis Professionals” which is the primary governing body for male tennis players. ATP was formed in Sep 1972 for professional tennis players. A study has been done on tennis players’ datasets to implement supervised machine learning techniques to illustrate match data and make predictions. An appropriate dataset has been chosen, data cleaning has been implemented to extract anomalies, data is visualized via plotting methods in R language and supervised machine learning models applied. The main models applied are linear regression and decision tree. Results and predictions have been extracted from the applied models. In the linear regression model, the correlation is calculated to find the relation between dependent and independent variables, furthermore the results and prediction are extracted from the linear regression model. Also, three hypotheses are applied for multiple linear regression model. The decision tree modeled the best of 3 or best of 5 sets of matches and predicted which set of matches would be considered best. Keywords: Machine Learning, supervised learning, linear regression, decision tree, R language, Tennis, ATP.

Feature Selection to Win the Point of ATP Tennis Players Using Rally Information

Abstract In tennis, the accumulation of data has progressed and research on tactical analysis has been conducted. Estimating strategically important factors would have the benefit of providing players with useful advice and helping audience members understand what tennis players are good at. Previous research has been conducted into ways of predicting Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tennis match outcomes as well as estimating factors that are important for victories using machine learning models. The challenge of previous research is that the victory factor lacks concreteness. Since we thought the root of the abovementioned problem was that previous researchers used game summary as a feature and did not consider the process of rallies between points, this research focused on calculating the frequency of single shots, two-shot patterns, and specific effective shot patterns from each point rally of ATP singles matches. We then used those data to predict point winners and useful features using L1-regularized logistic regression. The highest accuracy obtained was 66.5%, and the area under the curve (AUC) was 0.689. The most prominent feature we found was the ratio of specific shots by specific players. From these results, our method could reveal more concretely tactical factors than previous studies.

Gender Competitiveness and Predictability, and Prize Money in Grand Slam Tennis Tournaments

Tournament competitiveness and predictability of outcomes are inversely related. We introduce a new measure of competitiveness or predictability using discrepancies between tennis players’ seed values and attained ranks in all rounds of the four Grand Slam Tennis Tournaments (GST). Using data from the Association of Tennis Professionals and Women’s Tennis Association, we study gender-differentiated competitiveness or predictability and its dependence on prize money. Men’s GST are less predictable and more competitive than women’s GST. While competitiveness increases with prize money, the increase for women is significantly larger than for men.

Pecuniary incentive in tournaments and effects of players’ heterogeneity on efforts in the association of tennis professionals

This article addresses the issues of players? heterogeneity in individual efforts and winning probability in the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) games. ATP players? personal characteristics and performance from 2011 to 2013 are collected. The results show that a negative impact of the matchup?s heterogeneity on the intensity of the game is found. The evidence thus indicates that the two players play harder when the heterogeneity is smaller. Evidence also indicate that the pecuniary incentive in tournaments is supported, and appearance of a superstar makes his opponent exert less effort. In the odds ratio analysis for the players? heterogeneity, a rank differential increases a favorite player with 1.004% winning percentage in ATP matches. Younger, lower BMI, experienced, and right-hand players are more likely to win.

The Winning Probability of a Game and the Importance of Points in Tennis Matches

ABSTRACT Purpose: This study builds a stochastic model of a discrete-time Markov chain (DTMC) that fits well with a dataset of professional playing records. Methods: The point-by-point dataset of Men’s single matches played in the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tour from 2011 to 2015 is analyzed. A long-debated assumption on the iid-ness in the point winning probability of the server is statistically tested. A DTMC model is then developed to analyze the dataset further. Results: The statistical test results indicate that the identicality of point winning probabilities is not a valid assumption. For example, the server’s point winning probability from scores 40:0, 30:15, 15:30, and 0:40 are significantly different. On the other hand, the independence is a generally valid assumption except for 40:15 where who won the previous point influences the point winning probability. Game winning probabilities and the importance of each point in winning a game are analyzed using the DTMC model by court surfaces and player groups of the different levels of serve effectiveness. Conclusion: Extensive empirical validation concludes unsealed debates over the stochastic models for tennis. The presented results reveal interesting properties in professional tennis matches.

The Effect of an Arthroscopic Orthopaedic Procedure on a Professional Tennis Player's Career.

Orthopaedic injuries can significantly impact the careers of professional tennis players. It is currently unknown how professional tennis players fare after arthroscopic surgery. For the purpose of this study, players ranked in the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) who underwent arthroscopic surgery of any joint between 1996 and 2016 were identified through a well-established, previously published protocol of injury reports and public archives. Performance statistics both before and after surgery, time to return (TTR) to play, and career length following surgery were collected for each player. Statistical analysis was performed with significance accepted at a probability value (p) of <0.05. A total of 55 (39 males and 16 females) players met the inclusion criteria (shoulder, n = 15; elbow, n = 15; wrist, n = 13; hip, n = 12). The average age of the players at the time of surgery was 25.8 (±4) years, and the average career length before surgery was 8.4 (±4) years. Tennis players who underwent arthroscopic shoulder surgery experienced a longer TTR to play (279 days, p <0.01), as well as a greater decline in their rankings, both in the first and second years postoperatively (p <0.01 and p = 0.01, respectively), compared to all other surgical cohorts. Players who underwent surgery on the elbow, wrist, and hip had no significant decline in the ranking by the second postoperative year. There were no significant differences between genders. This study represents the largest database of professional tennis players who have undergone arthroscopic surgery and may allow physicians to provide evidence-based recommendations about expectations after surgical treatment.

Height- and surface-related variations in match-play outcomes and rankings in professional men’s tennis

The purpose of this study was to examine whether serve- and return-related match-play outcomes and ranking of the top 100 male professional tennis players vary with regards to court surface and stature. Anthropometric and match-play statistics were recorded from the official webpage of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and distributed into three consecutive height groups. Main results revealed that when playing on grass courts, players produced significantly more aces and double faults, and achieved significantly higher percentage scores on the first serve, serve game won, and serve point won, but significantly lower percentage values on return game and point won than they did on other surfaces. The tallest players produced a significantly greater number of aces per match than the players in other height groups and had a significantly greater percentage of first serve points won than the players in the shortest group on all surfaces. Conversely, on the second serve, the shortest players achieved a significantly higher percentage of return points won on clay than their taller counterparts. Regardless of the surface, the ranking was found to be predominantly associated with serve-related outcomes and comparable between height groups. The findings of the study highlight the considerable variations in various match-play outcomes and rankings among professional male players with regards to court surface and stature.

Predicting the Outcome of a Tennis Tournament: Based on Both Data and Judgments

This paper is about predicting the outcome of tennis matches of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) using both data and judgments. There are many factors that influence that outcome. An important question is which factors have significant influence on the outcome. We have identified numerous factors and systematically prioritized them subjectively and objectively, so as to improve the accuracy of the prediction. We then used them to predict the win-lose outcome of the 2015 US OPEN tennis matches (63 men and 31 women’s games) before they took place. The tennis match prediction in sports literature thus far reported an accuracy rate of 70%.The accuracy of our proposed model which combines data and judgment reaches 85.1%

Gender Competitiveness and Predictability, and Prize Money in Grand Slam Tennis Tournaments

Tournament competitiveness and predictability of outcomes are inversely related. We introduce a new measure of competitiveness or predictability using discrepancies between tennis players’ seed values and attained ranks in all rounds of the four Grand Slam Tennis Tournaments (GST). Using data from the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), we study gender-differentiated competitiveness or predictability and its dependence on prize money. Men’s GST are less predictable and more competitive than women’s GST. While competitiveness increases with prize money, the increase for women is significantly larger than for men.

Shock microcycle of repeated-sprint training in hypoxia and tennis performance: Case study in a rookie professional player

The aim of this case study was to investigate the effects of a shock microcycle of repeated-sprint training in hypoxia (RSH) on physical fitness and tennis performance. One rookie professional tennis player performed repeated-sprint ability (RSA) and Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery level 2 (YYIR2) tests before and after (+3 days and +21 days) six sessions of RSH (4 sets of 5 × ∼6 s repeated-shuttle sprint interspersed by ∼24 s of passive recovery) practiced during a 14-day “in-season” period. Tennis performance was subjectively measured from match results and Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) points obtained during four professional tournaments played before and after intervention. While no changes were found at +3 days post-RSH, improvements in physical fitness (single sprint time (−4.5%), RSA total time (−3.1%) and sprint decrement (−16.7%), as well as YYIR2 total distance covered (+21.4%)) were observable at +21 days post-RSH. Tennis performance obtained during the tournaments was better after intervention. From pre to post-RSH, the decreases in opponents’ ATP ranking during matches won (1109 ± 334 points vs. 818 ± 212 points) and lost (499 ± 68 points vs. 256 ± 58 points) revealed a stronger opposition. Consequently, a three-fold increase (from 4 to 12 ATP points gained from pre to post-RSH) in participant’s ATP ranking was recorded. In summary, a 14-day “in-season” shock microcycle including six sessions of repeated-sprint training in hypoxia revealed interesting effects in specific fitness and tennis performance in a rookie professional tennis player.

Epidemiology of injuries in tennis players.

To review the recent literature regarding the epidemiology of tennis injuries at all levels of play, and to discuss recent findings in injury surveillance by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). Following the release of a consensus statement in 2009 calling for standardized documentation and analysis of tennis-related injuries, multiple studies have been published describing longitudinal injury incidences at Grand Slam tournaments and the Davis Cup. Recent efforts by the ATP have further elucidated injury patterns on tour. There have also been recent high-quality studies on injury trends among collegiate and elite junior tennis players, bringing attention to musculoskeletal injuries and systemic illnesses that young tennis players may be susceptible to. Recent efforts in injury surveillance by the ATP and at the collegiate and junior levels have highlighted injury trends that will help guide injury prevention strategies at various levels of play.

Professional Tennis on the ATP Tour: A Case Study of Mental Skills Support

Success on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) World Tour requires a specific blend of perceptuomotor abilities, technical proficiency, tactical awareness and mental skills. This case study describes the competitive structure of professional tennis and outlines the program of mental skills delivered to a professional tennis player over a 3-year period. The program embraced five stages: (1) education; (2) assessment/profiling; (3) mental skill learning; (4) application of mental skills in context and (5) evaluation, and was associated with some positive outcomes. This case study provides some possible guidelines for sport psychologists who may wish to provide consultancy services within professional tennis.

Analysis of errors made by line umpires on ATP tournaments

This is the first study in this field investigating the number and extent of line umpires’ errors during two international, Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) “Masters 1000” tournaments. Hawk-Eye technology was used on these courts, allowing players to challenge line umpires’ calls. The goal of the study was to determine line umpire error rates for calls reviewed by the Hawk-Eye system. We subsequently determined the mean size of errors and analyzed these errors on specific court lines. Data were obtained from official records of the Hawk-Eye system in selected matches and were provided by ATP. Results showed that line umpires made errors in 27% of cases where Hawk-Eye review technology was utilized. This means that an umpire error occurred once per 17.4 games. The mean size of line umpires’ errors reached 33.2 mm. Most errors occurred at the baseline. A difference in the number and size of errors between cross (transverse) and long lines was found, which suggests that the results for long and cross lines should be treated separately in the evaluation of line umpires’ performance. The line umpires made fewer and smaller mistakes towards the end of a tournament in comparison to its beginning. It is misleading to evaluate line umpires’ performance in %. We suggest that the coefficient 1 error per N games should be used instead.

A comparison of service efficiency between players of male and female doubles at professional tennis tournaments

Male and female players have a different quality of service. For example, men can reach a higher service speed, or use more ball spin. Tennis service has also a different efficiency on different surfaces. Every surface has specific characteristics and has different effects on ball impact and ball bounce. The aim of our study was to compare the amount of service points won between male and female players in men’s and women’s doubles at ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) and WTA (Women Tennis Association) tournaments on three different surfaces. We observed a total of 303 matches. Matches were played on clay, hard and grass courts. With the help of match records, we found that men won around 10% service points more than women. Results indicate that women’s doubles matches show greater differences in performance between opponents. Men also need to win more service points than women, to win a match. Fast surfaces provide a greater advantage for serving teams, both for men and women. The lowest serve efficiency was reached on clay (slow surface) both in the men’s and women’s doubles.

Medical Reasons Behind Player Departures From Male and Female Professional Tennis Competitions

Background: The number of retirements, withdrawals, and “lucky losers” (the replacement of a player who withdraws before the start of the tournament by a losing player from the qualifying round) from professional tennis tournaments has increased, but the reasons behind such departures have not yet been analyzed. An official consensus statement has been conducted to allow a general categorization of injuries in tennis. Purpose: To determine the reasons for departure and injury rates in professional tennis. Study Design: Descriptive epidemiology study. Methods: All reasons for departures were collected from official Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) web pages. All tournaments apart from the 4 major competitions (the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and US Open) were included for the period 2001-2012 for men and women. Personal data, tournament information, surface, match setting, date, and reason were obtained for each departure scenario. Results: Variations in departure and injury rates were seen throughout the season. Women left and were injured significantly more than men. Women mainly left because of thigh injuries, whereas men left mainly because of back injuries. Playing surface only had an influence on the risk of lower back injuries. Only women’s departures were affected by the tournament round. Conclusion: A high number of departures from tournaments have occurred during the past 10 years on the ATP and WTA circuits. Injuries were the main reasons of these departures, regardless of the type of departure and player sex. The back and thigh were the main locations of injuries for men and women, respectively.