4nv Match Characteristics of Professional Singles SARAH MORANTE AND JOHN BROTHERHOOD

Key Words: professional tennis, competi­ tion, , activity analysis, nota- ABOUT THE AUTHORS tional analysis, player performance. Sarah Morante, BappSc (Ex & SpSc) and John Brotherhood, MBBS, are both affiliated Introduction to the School of Exercise and Sport Science, Tennis is played throughout the world by Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney. people of all ages and standards on a recre­ Address for correspondence: ational or competitive basis. Despite the Sarah Morante, School of Exercise and global popularity of tennis, the physical Sport Science, Faculty of Health Sciences, demands and player performance in com­ The University of Sydney, Cumberland petition are not fully understood. A tool is Campus C42, PO Box 170, East Street, required to analyse competitive tennis for Lidcombe, NSW, 2141 Australia. Sarah Morante John Brotherhooc the objective evaluation of matters such as Telephone: +61 2 9351 9726, associations between performance and Fax: +61 2 9351 9204 Abstract E-mail: [email protected]. The purpose of this study was to investi­ player characteristics, training and gate the characteristics of professional nutritional interventions, and environ­ BappSc (Ex & SpScI = Bachelor of Applied Science mental conditions. (Exercise and Sport Science) male and female tennis competition during MBBS = Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery singles matches at the 2005 and Wimbledon Championships to Previous reports of time-motion and determine activity patterns and player performance analysis in tennis inade­ Study protocol skill. Thirty nine matches were analysed, quately describe the true nature of compe­ Singles matches from each of the rounds, involving 44 different players to give tition because they have either involved the quarter finals, semi-finals and finals 78 sets of data. drills designed to represent points,1,2 simu­ were randomly selected for analysis. Observations were made of: dura­ lated matches with time restrictions,3,4 or Matches covered all time slots of the tion, game duration, match duration and only considered segments of competitive competition schedule (day and night). the number of strokes in each point. From matches for analysis.5 All matches analysed were played on these observations, the proportion of centre court and were observed through match time spent in play (effective playing The aim of the present study was to assess being a live spectator or from television time) and the stroke frequency were deter­ activity patterns and performance during broadcast. mined. Each of these factors was com­ real competition singles tennis. A stopwatch was used to measure the total pared in males (n=28) and females (n=18) Procedures similar to those described by duration of the match from the first and between matches at the Australian Smekal et al.4 and Christmass et al.6 were until the final point of the match. Another Open (n=21) and Wimbledon (n=18). used to analyse entire singles matches for stopwatch was used to measure the dura­ Point duration (s) was discovered to be males and females during the 2005 tion of each game, being started at the first higher in both males and females at the Australian Open and Wimbledon serve of the game and stopped after the Australian Open compared with Championships. Effective playing time, final point of the game. The duration of Wimbledon (Male: 6.4 ± 1.4 vs. 5.2 ± 0.8; duration of points, games and matches, each point was measured with a third Female: 7.0 ± 1.3 vs. 5.6 ± 0.6) (P<0.01). and the stroke frequency were measured stopwatch, where timing started at the Effective playing time (%) was found to be to provide information on the stresses of service ball toss an