A Cluster Analysis Approach to Profile Men and Women’s Volley Positions in Professional Tennis Matches (Doubles)

Rafael Martínez-Gallego, Jesús Ramón-Llin and Miguel Crespo
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Rafael Martínez-Gallego: Department of Sport and Physical Education, University of Valencia, 46010 Valencia, Spain
Jesús Ramón-Llin: Department of Teaching of Music, Visual and Corporal Expression, University of Valencia, 46021 Valencia, Spain
Miguel Crespo: Integrity and Development Department, International Tennis Federation, London SW15 5XZ, UK

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 11, 1-9

Abstract: (1) Background: Tennis ball tracking technology allows the aquirement of novel and reliable data about several performance indicators, such as volley positions. This information is key to understand match dynamics in doubles tennis and to better help preparing players for the demands they will face in match play. As such, the purpose of this study was to describe and compare the different types of volley positions in men’s and women’s doubles professional tennis. (2) Methods: Ball tracking data were collected for 46 women (Billie Jean King Cup) and 96 men’s doubles matches (Davis Cup). The variables used were the distance to the net, the distance to the centre of the court and the height of the impact. A K-Means cluster analysis was used to identify in each subsample different profiles of volley locations. (3) Results: The inferential analysis revealed differences in men’s (distance to the net η 2 = 0.72, distance to the centre of the court η 2 = 0.77 and impact height η 2 = 0.63) and women’s subsamples (distance to the net η 2 = 0.48, distance to the centre of the court η 2 = 0.52 and impact height η 2 = 0.51). (4) Conclusions: The results allowed the suggestion of a higher variability in men’s matches, as there were seven different clusters identified, and only four in women’s.

Keywords: racquet sports; match analysis; tactics; analytics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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