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German Journal of Exercise and Sport Research

, Volume 49, Issue 3, pp 332–338 | Cite as

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

  • Mustafa SöğütEmail author
Main Article
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Abstract

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.

Keywords

Racket sports Match analysis Anthropometry Strategy Performance characteristics 

Von Körpergröße und Platzbelag abhängige Varianten bei Matchspielergebnissen und Rankings im Profi-Tennis der Männer

Zusammenfassung

Ziel der vorliegenden Studie war es zu untersuchen, ob die aufschlag- und rückschlagbezogenen Ergebnisse eines Tennismatches und die Rangfolge der 100 besten männlichen Tennisprofis in Hinsicht auf Platzbelag und Statur der Spieler variieren. Dazu wurden anthropometrische und Matchspielstatistiken von der offiziellen Webseite der ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) erfasst und in 3 konsekutive körpergrößenbezogene Gruppen eingeteilt. Die wesentlichen Ergebnisse zeigen, dass bei einem Spiel auf einem Rasenplatz die Spieler signifikant mehr Asse und Doppelfehler machten und einen signifikant höheren prozentualen Anteil an Punkten beim ersten Aufschlag, gewonnenen Aufschlagspiel und erzielte Punkte beim Aufschlag, aber signifikant geringere prozentuale Werte beim Rückspiel und bei erzielten Punkten als auf anderen Platzbelägen erreichten. Die größten Spieler erzielten signifikant mehr Asse pro Match als die Spieler der anderen größenbezogenen Gruppen und erreichten einen signifikant höheren prozentualen Anteil an Punkten beim ersten Aufschlag auf allen Platzbelägen als die Spieler in der Gruppe mit der geringsten Körpergröße. Umgekehrt erreichten beim zweiten Aufschlag die kleinsten Spieler einen signifikant höheren prozentualen Anteil an erzielten Rückschlagpunkten auf einem Sandplatz als ihre größeren Gegenspieler. Ungeachtet des Platzbelags erwies sich das Ranking als überwiegend mit aufschlagabhängigen Ergebnissen assoziiert und als zwischen den körpergrößenbezogenen Gruppen vergleichbar. Die Ergebnisse der Studie stellen die beträchtlichen Varianten in verschiedenen Matchspielergebnissen und in Rankings unter professionellen männlichen Tennisspielern in Bezug auf den Platzbelag und die Statur der Spieler heraus.

Schlüsselwörter

Schlägersport Match-Analyse Anthropometrie Strategie Leistungsmerkmale 
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Notes

Compliance with ethical guidelines

Conflict of interest

M. Söğüt declares that he has no competing interests.

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants or on human tissue were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1975 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag GmbH Deutschland, ein Teil von Springer Nature 2019

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Faculty of Sport SciencesKırıkkale UniversityKırıkkaleTurkey

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