Abstract
The development in modern Tennis underlines the importance of the serve, return and the opening shots. Thus, the importance of good serving in men’s world class Tennis seems to be crucial to succeed, particularly on faster surface such as lawn; however, a chronological development of the service game has to be elucidated. Therefore, the present study aimed to systematically analyse the development of serving behavior in men’s Tennis.
Historical data (IBM®), collected from all matches at the men’s Wimbledon Championship between 2002 and 2015 (total matches n=1772) served for analyses. Serve winning percentages (total serves n=401527), aces (total aces n=38173) and double faults (total double faults n=14420) as well as success-rates of service games (total service games n=63838) and serve-and-volley strategies (i.e. played, won) were computed over first compared to second tournament weeks, serving as well-accepted indicators to distinguish success at world class level.
From 2002 to 2015, first (interaction p<0.05) but not second serves (interaction p>0.05) supported winning the point more often in the second (first serve e.g. 2002 70.15 ± 4.96% and 2015 75.86 ± 1.66%; second serve e.g. 2002 47.45 ± 6.22% and 2015 53.91 ± 2.37%) compared to the first week of the tournament (first serve e.g. 2002 73.47 ± 0.22% and 2015 75.00 ± 0.46%; second serve e.g. 2002 49.39 ± 0.25% and 2015 52.88 ± 1.13%), whereas an increase in aces and a decrease in double faults (interaction p<0.05) were consistent in the first (aces e.g. 2002 8.65 ± 0.46% and 2015 10.88 ± 1.31%; double faults e.g. 2002 5.18 ± 0.34% and 2015 3.71 ± 0.52%) compared to the second week of the tournament (aces e.g. 2002 6.37 ± 1.65% and 2015 10.37 ± 2.10%; double faults e.g. 2002 4.12 ± 1.13% and 2015 2.33 ± 0.99%). Additionally, in both the first (played e.g. 2002 35.50 ± 7.40% and 2015 11.51 ± 2.68%; won e.g. 2002 67.10 ± 0.43% and 2015 70.33 ± 1,81%) and the second week of the tournament (played e.g. 2002 22.27 ± 18.38% and 2015 9.18 ± 2.88%; won e.g. 2002 65.72 ± 5.35% and 2015 70.42 ± 2.46%), the serve-and-volley strategy was decreasingly used from 2002 to 2015, whereas winning- percentages having played serve-and-volley remained consistent (interaction p<0.05).
With particular impact on the second week of the tournament, the present findings indicate the development of increased serve efficiency in men’s world class lawn Tennis from 2002 to 2015.
Originalsprache | Deutsch |
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Titel | Book of Abstracts - 22nd Annual Congress of the European College of Sport Science |
Herausgeber*innen | Alexander Ferrauti, Petra Platen, Elke Grimminger-Seidensticker, Thomas Jaitner, Ulrich Bartmus, L. Becher, M. de Marées, Thomas Mühlbauer, Anna Schauerte, Thimo Wiewelhove, Elias Tsolakidis |
Seitenumfang | 1 |
Herausgeber (Verlag) | European College of Sport Science |
Erscheinungsdatum | 06.07.2017 |
Seiten | 239 |
ISBN (Print) | 978-3-89966-776-9 |
Publikationsstatus | Veröffentlicht - 06.07.2017 |
Veranstaltung | Annual Congress of the European College of Sport Science - Bochum, Deutschland Dauer: 05.07.2017 → 08.07.2017 Konferenznummer: 22 |