Tennis Tournament Research Articles

Application of social media data mining in biomechanical and tactical analysis of tennis tournament players

Application of social media data mining in biomechanical and tactical analysis of tennis tournament players

Physiological and perceptual demands of singles and doubles beach tennis in women of different competition levels.

To analyze and compare the physiological responses of women during singles and doubles beach tennis sessions. In this crossover trial, twenty-two women with previous participation in amateur beach tennis tournaments randomly performed two experimental sessions: singles and doubles beach tennis. The routine for both sessions consisted of 10-min of seated rest, followed by 45-min of beach tennis and 30-min of post-exercise recovery. Participants were matched against opponents of the same competition level, defined according to their local beach tennis ranking (advanced or intermediate level). They warmed up with basic techniques for 5-min and played 3 matches lasting 12-min, interspersed with 2-min recovery intervals. Heart rate (HR), energy expenditure (EE), number of steps (STEPS), handgrip strength (HS), rating of perceived exertion (RPE), and enjoyment were assessed throughout the sessions. Generalized estimating equations were employed to examine the main effects between experimental sessions over the time and in relation to competition level. HRmean and HRmax (Δ: HRmean = 13 ± 3 bpm; HRmax = 11 ± 3 bpm) as well as EE and Steps (Δ: EE = 66 ± 22 kcal; RPE = 2 ± 0 A.U.; Steps = 250 ± 52 A.U.) were higher in singles than doubles (p < 0.05). The percentage of total time spent in the highest HR zone (91-100%HRmax) was significantly greater in singles than in doubles (39% ± 22% vs. 15% ± 18%; p < 0.05). Differences were found in the percentage of total time spent in each HR zone, recovery HR, and HS between competition levels (p < 0.05). Singles beach tennis resulted in higher physiological demands than doubles in women, and players' competition level partly affects the training responses.

Tennis Player Momentum Analysis and Match Flow Prediction Model Based on PCA

Momentum is a fluctuating phenomenon that occurs during the course of a game when the seemingly dominant side scores consecutive points or influences the course of the entire game. And as tennis is a popular sport all over the world, exploring the effects and mechanisms of athletes' momentum on match changes and outcomes in tennis matches can provide reasonable match advice to athletes. To this end, this paper systematically establishes a prediction model based on tennis players' momentum analysis and match direction. In this paper, this text first cleaned the data for the 2023 Wimbledon tennis tournament obtained from the American Collegiate Mathematical Modeling Contest website and supplemented the missing values using cubic Hermite interpolation. The processed data is then analyzed using principal component analysis, where a linear combination of each principal component is defined as a momentum value, thus quantifying the momentum and creating a mathematical model between the indicator and the momentum. Finally, a momentum plot of the player is created to visualize the relationship between the player's momentum and the outcome of the race.

Retraction Note: Spatial dynamic image planning based on wearable optoelectronic devices for tactical simulation of table tennis tournaments

Retraction Note: Spatial dynamic image planning based on wearable optoelectronic devices for tactical simulation of table tennis tournaments

A Study of Tennis Tournaments by Means of an Agent-Based Model Calibrated with a Genetic Algorithm

A Study of Tennis Tournaments by Means of an Agent-Based Model Calibrated with a Genetic Algorithm

Meeting the Two Imposters of Triumph and Disaster: Senior Management Perspectives on the COVID‐19 Pandemic’s Impact on Global Tennis Tournaments

This study uncovers insider perspectives on the COVID‐19 pandemic’s impact from four senior management and organizers of two global tennis tournaments. The events are Wimbledon and the Queen’s Club Championship; both annually recurring tennis tournaments played on grass in London, UK. Using an “elite event interviewing” approach, data were collected through semistructured interviews. The interviews were thematically analyzed, and four primary themes emerged from the data. These themes were (i) responding to the initial impact of the global pandemic on tennis events, (ii) planning and preparedness for the ongoing issues facing event organizers, (iii) pandemic implications for other tennis event stakeholders including sponsors, employees and suppliers, and (iv) prevention and learning from the pandemic to help ensure the prosperity of future events. Managerial implications and areas of future research are highlighted, followed by holistic recommendations for event organizers to help better plan, prepare, and prevent future crises and disasters.

Social and Psychological Effects of Tennis on Disabled Individuals

Disability has traditionally been mainly conceptualized individually or medically. In a social perspective disability can be identified as a 'disadvantage or limitation of activity' caused by a contemporary social organization that takes little or no account of persons with physical disabilities and excludes them from participation in social activities. This study focuses on the effects of sports, specifically tennis, on disabled individuals. In this respect, the research purposes to examine the social and psychological impacts of tennis on disabled individuals. The phenomenology technique, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the study. 17 wheelchair tennis players, 10 men and 7 women, who played in the International Wheelchair tennis tournaments held in Antalya between 16 November and 5 December 2023, participated in the research. The data obtained from the interviews were analyzed using the thematic analysis. The data obtained from the study were themed under the umbrella of life routine, social and psychological impact, with the coding made as a result of the interviews. Under the theme of life routine, it was seen that issues such as personal development, sense of accomplishment, getting life in order, holding on to life, accepting disability, and health literacy were emphasized. Socialization, social support, commitment, new friendships, and communication skills stand out as values coded under the social impact theme. Self-confidence, happiness, coping with pressure and stress, controlling emotions, focusing, and feeling valuable are the subheadings of the psychological impact theme.

Lessons and Insights from the Wimbledon Championships for China’s Professional Tennis Tournaments

Lessons and Insights from the Wimbledon Championships for China’s Professional Tennis Tournaments

The Current Situation, Characteristics and Prospects of the Research on Tennis Theme Literature in China from the Perspective of Artificial Intelligence

With the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology, the function of artificial intelligence to help the high-quality development of sports is increasingly visible, and the continuous, comprehensive and deep integration of artificial intelligence and sports will be an inevitable trend. This paper summarized and analyzed the characteristics of the tennis research theme literature published in the core journals of China from 2012 to 2022 by using the methods of literature and logical induction. The results show that, in the past 10 years, there are problems such as insufficient use of artificial intelligence in technical and tactical statistical analysis, insufficient use in tennis professionalization research, lack of artificial intelligence perspectives in tennis tournament research, and shortage of artificial intelligence use in tennis psychology research. In the future, scientific research on tennis in China should rely on scientific and technological means such as 5G technology, big data technology, computer vision and intelligent wearable devices. etc, cross integrate multidisciplinary knowledge, accurately locate the physical fitness weaknesses of Chinese tennis players, focus on building an intelligent measurement system for tennis players, and scientifically develop a big data platform for tennis skills and tactics; And guided by practical problems, we should focus on exploring intelligent wearable devices suitable for tennis sports programs, and integrating computer vision technology with intelligent wearable devices to achieve complementary advantages and enhance the accuracy and credibility of data collection. And use natural science methods to conduct quantitative analysis to provide scientific solutions for the development of tennis.

Network and attribute-based clustering of tennis players and tournaments

AbstractThis paper aims at targeting some relevant issues for clustering tennis players and tournaments: (i) it considers players, tournaments and the relation between them; (ii) the relation is taken into account in the fuzzy clustering model based on the Partitioning Around Medoids (PAM) algorithm through spatial constraints; (iii) the attributes of the players and of the tournaments are of different nature, qualitative and quantitative. The proposal is novel for the methodology used, a spatial Fuzzy clustering model for players and for tournaments (based on related attributes), where the spatial penalty term in each clustering model depends on the relation between players and tournaments described in the adjacency matrix. The proposed model is compared with a bipartite players-tournament complex network model (the Degree-Corrected Stochastic Blockmodel) that considers only the relation between players and tournaments, described in the adjacency matrix, to obtain communities on each side of the bipartite network. An application on data taken from the ATP official website with regards to the draws of the tournaments, and from the sport statistics website Wheelo ratings for the performance data of players and tournaments, shows the performances of the proposed clustering model.

Epidemiology of Musculoskeletal Injuries in Tennis Players During the French Open Grand Slam Tournament From 2011 to 2022.

The epidemiology of musculoskeletal injuries at the Australian Open, Wimbledon, and US Open tennis tournaments has been investigated in recent studies; however, there is no published literature on the incidence of musculoskeletal injuries at the French Open. To describe the incidence, location, and type of musculoskeletal injuries in tennis players during the French Open tournament from 2011 to 2022. Descriptive epidemiology study. A review was performed of all injuries documented by a multidisciplinary medical team during the French Open from 2011 to 2022. All musculoskeletal injuries that occurred during the main draw of the female and male singles or doubles matches were included. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the data. Injury locations were grouped into regions as well as into upper limb, trunk, and lower limb. In total, there were 750 injuries in 687 tennis players, resulting in a mean of 62.5 injuries per tournament; however, there were no obvious trends in injury incidence over the time frame evaluated. The number of injuries in female and male players was similar (392 vs 358, respectively). The most common injury regions were the thigh/hip/pelvis (n = 156), ankle/foot (n = 114), and spine (n = 103). The most common injury types were muscle-related (n = 244), tendon-related (n = 207), and joint-related (n = 163), and the most affected muscles were the adductors (n = 45), rectus abdominis (n = 38), and lumbar muscles (n = 25). Over the 12-year period from 2011 to 2022 female and male players experienced similar numbers of musculoskeletal injuries, with most injuries occurring in the lower limbs compared with the upper limbs and trunk.

Changes in Body Composition and Physical Performance after a Six-Week International Tour in Young Chilean Female Tennis Players.

Junior tennis players travel a lot to play tennis tournaments; this causes them to spend a lot of time away from their homes and disrupts their training, which could reduce their performance and increase the risk of injury. The purpose of this study was to analyze the changes in physical performance and body composition after a six-week international tour in young Chilean female tennis players. Thirty young female tennis players (15.4 ± 0.6) participated in this study. Body weight, skinfolds, and perimeters were measured. Body fat percentage (BFP) and skeletal muscle mass (SMM) were calculated. For physical performance, 5 m sprint, the 505 with stationary start test (505 test), the pro-agility test, countermovement jump (CMJ), and medicine ball throw (MBT) were evaluated. The results show a significant increase in BFP and decrease in SMM (p < 0.01; d = -0.18 and 0.19, respectively). In terms of physical performance, 5 m sprint, the 505 test (p < 0.01; d = -0.95 and -0.95, respectively), CMJ, MBT, and HJ significantly decreased post-tour (p < 0.05; d = 0.96, 0.89 and 0.47, respectively). We conclude that, after a six-week international tour, there were changes in body composition and a significant decrease in 5 m sprint, the 505 test, CMJ, and MBT.

Spatial dynamic image planning based on wearable optoelectronic devices for tactical simulation of table tennis tournaments

Spatial dynamic image planning based on wearable optoelectronic devices for tactical simulation of table tennis tournaments

Opponent choice in tournaments: winning and shirking

Abstract We propose an alternative design for tournaments that use a preliminary stage, followed by several rounds of single elimination play. The conventional “bracket” design of these tournaments suffers from several deficiencies. Specifically, various reasonable performance criteria for the tournament are not satisfied, there is an unnecessary element of luck in the matchups of players, and there are situations where players have an incentive to shirk. To address all these issues, we allow higher ranked players at the single elimination stage to choose their next opponent sequentially at each round. We allow each player’s ranking either to remain static, or to improve by beating a higher ranked player (Guyon, J. 2022. “Choose your opponent”: a new knockout design for hybrid tournaments. J. Sports Anal. 8: 9–29). Using data from 2215 men’s professional tennis tournaments from 1991 to 2017, we demonstrate the reasonableness of the results obtained. We also perform sensitivity analysis for the effect of increasing irregularity in the pairwise win probability matrix on three traditional performance measures. Finally, we consider strategic shirking behavior at both the individual and group levels, and show how our opponent choice design can mitigate such behavior. Overall, the opponent choice design provides higher probabilities that the best player wins and also that the two best players meet, and reduces shirking, compared to the conventional bracket design.

Intelligent Analysis and Predictive Modeling of Tennis Match Data

Abstract In today’s sports environment, prediction has a significant effect on athletes to achieve good performance and improve training efficiency. This study explores the construction of a prediction model for tennis match data based on an intelligent analyzing system in combination with tennis match results. The probabilistic algorithm for predicting tennis tournament performance has been designed and implemented, and the Glicko ranking system has been optimized using the improved Apriori algorithm. After cleaning, integrating, and dimensional standardizing the data from previous tournaments, the player’s match ranking is predicted based on the Glicko ranking system. Players’ eigenvalues, technical averages, and tactical decisions are used to verify the accuracy of the model prediction. All 10 selected features have a certain degree of influence on the match results, as evidenced by the results, suggesting that the model has a certain reference value. According to the ranking prediction based on athletes’ technical averages, the prediction correct rate of both the Australian and French Open reaches no less than 80%, which proves that the model in this paper is able to effectively predict the performance of tennis tournaments.

AI-powered mechanisms as judges: Breaking ties in chess.

Recently, Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology use has been rising in sports to reach decisions of various complexity. At a relatively low complexity level, for example, major tennis tournaments replaced human line judges with Hawk-Eye Live technology to reduce staff during the COVID-19 pandemic. AI is now ready to move beyond such mundane tasks, however. A case in point and a perfect application ground is chess. To reduce the growing incidence of ties, many elite tournaments have resorted to fast chess tiebreakers. However, these tiebreakers significantly reduce the quality of games. To address this issue, we propose a novel AI-driven method for an objective tiebreaking mechanism. This method evaluates the quality of players' moves by comparing them to the optimal moves suggested by powerful chess engines. If there is a tie, the player with the higher quality measure wins the tiebreak. This approach not only enhances the fairness and integrity of the competition but also maintains the game's high standards. To show the effectiveness of our method, we apply it to a dataset comprising approximately 25,000 grandmaster moves from World Chess Championship matches spanning from 1910 to 2018, using Stockfish 16, a leading chess AI, for analysis.

What is it like to be a parent of an elite junior tennis player?

This paper is an Interpretative Phenomenological Analyses (IPA) into the experiences of parents of elite junior tennis players. “Performance narratives” have received attention in professional sports settings, but research has yet to fully investigate the effects on parents of junior tennis players. Parents are a psychologically significant network member of coach-athlete relationships. Narrative theory states that through creating personal stories people can make sense of their lives. A “performance narrative” is a story of dedication to sport performance, where, winning, results, achievements are pre-eminent and link closely to the story tellers’ identity. The purpose of this study is to examine the experiences of 8 parents of elite junior tennis players and describe what it is like to be a parent in the elite junior tennis context. An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of 8 parents of elite junior tennis players describes their experiences of elite junior tennis tournaments. This study found that (a) parents struggle with the development versus winning paradigm in junior tennis (b) “performance narratives” influence how parents evaluate player improvement (c) “performance narratives” influence parents’ behaviours at competition. This paper recommends more face-to-face coach-parent communication to help parents adhere to development narratives and increasing the frequency / relevancy of parent education workshops that give a realistic depiction of the elite junior tennis pathway.

The relative age effect among Chinese junior men's tennis players and its impact on sports performance.

The relative age effect (RAE) has been the subject of many studies, but no relevant literature has discussed the phenomenon of RAE in Chinese tennis. Numerous studies have demonstrated that RAE significantly contributes to brain drain and other occurrences that create inequity. This paper analyzes the birth dates and year-end rankings of all male players (N = 2697) who participated in China's junior tennis tournaments (U12, U14, U16) between 2014 and 2019 and who were selected for China's National Junior Team in 2019 and 2020; the paper classifies the birth dates into quarters and semesters. One of the research objectives of this study is to analyze whether RAE exists in Chinese junior men's tennis and whether RAE exerts an effect on athletes' performance. Differences between the observed and expected birthdate distributions were tested using chi-square statistics, and subsequent calculations were tested using odds ratios. The study found that RAE was present in all Chinese junior male tennis sports groups (p<0.001). The percentages of athletes born in the first half of the year were 56.4% (U12), 60.4% (U14), and 60.4% (U16), and the percentages of those born in the first quarter were 34.1% (U12), 36.4% (U14), and 37.1% (U16). Athletes with birth dates closer to the beginning of the year had a higher probability of achieving excellent athletic performance as a result of RAE, whereas those who were born near the end of the year had a more difficult time achieving strong athletic performance.

The paradox of talent: How chance affects success in tennis tournaments

Individual sports competitions provide a natural setting for examining the relative importance of talent and luck/chance in achieving success. The belief that success is primarily due to individual abilities and hard work rather than external factors is particularly strong in this context. Thus, individual talent is regarded as the most important – if not the only – component in ensuring a successful career for athletes. In this study, we test this belief using tennis as a case study, due to its popularity and competition structure in direct-elimination tournaments. Our dataset covers the last decade before Covid-19 pandemics (2010–2019) of main international events in the ATP circuit and consists of tourney results and annual rankings for professional male players. After a preliminary data analysis, we introduce an agent-based model able to accurately simulate the tennis players’ dynamics along several seasons. We show that, once calibrated on the dataset, the model is able to reproduce the main stylized facts observed in real data, including the results of single tournaments and the development of players’ careers in the ATP community. The strength of our approach lies in its simplicity: it requires only one free parameter a to determine the importance of talent in scoring every single point: a=1 indicates the ideal scenario in which only talent matters, whereas a=0 represents the opposite limit case, in which the outcome of each point is entirely due to chance. We find the best agreement between real data and simulation results when talent weights substantially less than luck, i.e. when a is between 0.20 and 0.30. A further comparison between data and simulations, based on the analysis of the direct networks of all the matches, confirms the previous finding. A posteriori, we notice that this surprisingly important role of chance in tennis tournaments is not an exception. On the contrary, it can be explained by a more general paradoxical effect that characterizes highly competitive environments, particularly in individual sports. In other words, when the difference in talent between top players is minimal, chance becomes determinant. Our findings highlight the impact of the – too often underestimated – external factors on athletes’ performance in individual tournaments and their careers. Our results point out the unfairness of the “winner-takes-all” reward system that enhances the disparities between the first classified players and the others in major competitions.

Balancing academics and athletics: School-level athletes’ results are positively associated with their academic performance

BackgroundUsing data from a nationwide high-school sample, the present study aimed to examine whether school-level athletes’ sporting results are positively or negatively associated with their academic performance. MethodsAthletic performance was assessed using the results of spring and summer regional qualifying interschool tennis tournaments in Japan among both male and female tournaments across all prefectures in Japan. Academic performance was assessed using the standardized rank scores for academic performance at the school level, with higher scores denoting superior academic levels; this is the most common measure of academic performance in Japanese high schools. Linear mixed models were conducted to compare the academic performance of high schools with winning and losing records, respectively, for all games together and for the spring and summer tournaments separately. The results of a total of 4,870 games were analyzed. ResultsHigh schools with winning records showed a significantly higher academic-performance score than those with losing records, and this association was stronger among boys than girls. The observed difference in academic-performance scores between the schools with winning and losing records, respectively, was replicated in both tournament settings (i.e., spring and summer). ConclusionsAthletic results are positively associated with academic performance at the school level. Given the cross-sectional nature of the present study, the present results do not necessarily imply that sports participation can improve academic performance; rather, the present study suggests that balancing academic and athletic commitments is feasible.