What to practice? Approaching serve-behavioural impact facing break points in world-class men‘s tennis at Wimbledon 2016

Publication: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution - Published abstract for conference with selection processResearchpeer-review

Abstract

The serve is well accepted being one of the most dominant strokes in world-class Men’s Tennis. With this, the serving behaviour in pressuring match situation (i.e. facing break points) is considered to have major impacts on the outcome of a match, which, however, remains to be elucidated in modern Men’s Tennis. Thus, the presented study used serve-beneficial surface data (i.e. lawn) to analyse the serving behaviour facing break points (BP) compared to regular serve points played (RP). Official IBM data generated at the 2016 Men´s Wimbledon Championship was conduced for analyses, comprising a total of 28843 serve points played (BP: n=2035; RP: n=26808). Repeated measures ANOVA were computed for first serve-in percentages (1st-in) with factors points played (BP, RP) and group (match-winners W, match-losers L) as well as for first (1st-won) and second serve-won percentages (2nd-won) with factors points played, group and serve (1st, 2nd). For 1st-in there was no significant interaction between factors group and points played (p=0.21); however, main effects for group revealed an increase (p<0.01) in W (BP 64.32 ± 22.88%, RP 64.75 ± 6.71%) compared to L (BP 59.33 ± 15.83, RP 62.68 ± 6.56%), whereas played points were not modulated by 1st-in (p=0.18). No interaction was shown for 1st-won and 2nd-won with factors serve, points played and group (p=0.18); however, regardless of W and L, factors serve and points played interacted significantly (p<0.05) for 1st-won and 2nd-won. Post-hoc test revealed decreased BP compared to RP after 1st serves (p<0.01; BP: W 72.80 ± 29.59%, L 59.58 ± 68.09%; RP: W 78.88 ± 7.36, L 68.09 ± 8.04%) but not after 2nd serves (p=0.73; BP: W 67.02 ± 46.80%, L 50.13 ± 30.70%; RP: W 61.22 ± 10.39%, L 54.52 ± 11.37). The present findings underline a well-accepted impact of serve behaviour on the outcome of a match. Additionally and as a first step, it may be suggested that practice patterns taking specific match situation such as the ones considered to be pressuring (i.e. facing break points) into account, require careful coaching to not only improve serve-in but also serve-winning percentages – in particular on the 1st serve behaviour.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationBook of Abstracts : 22nd Annual Congress of the European College of Sport Science, 5th-8th July 2017, MetropolisRuhr - Germany
EditorsAlexander Ferrauti, Petra Platen, Elke Grimminger-Seidensticker, Thomas Jaitner, Ulrich Bartmus, L. Becher, M. de Marées, Thomas Mühlbauer, Anna Schauerte, Thimo Wiewelhove, Elias Tsolakidis
Number of pages1
PublisherEuropean College of Sport Science
Publication date06.07.2017
Pages239
ISBN (Print)978-3-89966-776-9
Publication statusPublished - 06.07.2017
EventAnnual Congress of the European College of Sport Science - Bochum, Germany
Duration: 05.07.201708.07.2017
Conference number: 22

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