Around the Net is my attempt to provide a clearinghouse for tennis analytics on the web. Each week, you’ll find a summary of recent articles, podcasts, papers, and data sources, as well as trivia and the occasional bit of interesting non-tennis content. If you would like to suggest something for a future issue, drop me a line.
Articles
- Which ATP Tournaments Are the Most Competitive? (hiddengameoftennis.com)
- Identifying Surprising Performances with Prediction Intervals (on-the-t.com)
- Juan Ignacio Londero’s First Five ATP Match Wins (tennisabstract.com/blog)
- Is Doubles As Entertaining As We Think? (tennisabstract.com/blog)
- Do Rallies Get Longer as Matches Progress? (tennisabstract.com/blog)
- Forecasting the Davis Cup Finals (tennisabstract.com/blog)
Podcasts
- Thirty Love: Simon Denman
- Tennis Abstract Podcast Episode 48: Fed Cup and a Survey of Tennis Analytics
Data
- The Racquet CPI Data: A google doc recording published Court Pace Index measurements in one place (@MattRacquet)
- Match Charting Project: Since last week’s announcement that the MCP crossed the 5,000-match milestone, we’ve added 83 more. Here’s a link to the last fifty, including several grand slam men’s semi-finals, Andy Murray’s first match at Wimbledon, and Juan Ignacio Londero’s breakthrough final in Cordoba.
Trivia
- Marco Cecchinato finally broke a 21-match doubles losing streak that dated back to 2016. The streak ties the previous mark set by Albert Ramos, which I wrote about back in 2017.
- Here’s a chart showing weeks in the top 20 for active ATP players, reminding us (among other things) how good David Ferrer was, and for how long.
- Aliaksandra Sasnovich was bageled in a match for the 10th time since the beginning of last year, more than any other WTA tour player. Also in Doha, Barbora Strycova recorded a rare “bagel sandwich” by beating Anna Blinkova 6-0 3-6 6-0.
- In Rotterdam, Gael Monfils ran off 13 straight points against Andreas Seppi. A few days later, Kei Nishikori did even better, winning 14 in a row against Ernests Gulbis. Here’s a list of notable streaks, though it doesn’t include Julian Reister’s golden set over Tim Puetz, which was part of a 32-point streak. I did a quick query on 2018 ATP matches and found several dozen streaks of at least 13 points, roughly one per 40 matches.
Miscellaneous
- Lindsey Vonn, the most dominant alpine skier ever, retires (economist.com/blogs/gametheory)
Thanks to Peter, Jeff, and Carl for help with this week’s issue.