US Open Point-by-Point Stats Recap

As regular readers know, I’m working on a system to track every shot in a tennis match and then generate meaningful data based on the results.  Once I hammer out a few final bugs, I’ll introduce that system publicly.  Then, with my interactive Excel doc–and at least a little bit of practice–you can chart matches as well.

In the meantime, I’ve added another set of tables to each one of the point-by-point recaps.  My system allows (but does not require) the tracking of each shot’s direction, which seems particularly valuable in the case of a tactical baseline matchup like Monday’s final.  Follow the link to the men’s final stats, and then click either of the “shot direction” links.  I’ve broken down each player’s shots into crosscourt, down the middle, down the line, inside-out, and inside-in, then broken down each specific shot type (e.g. “forehand inside-out”) and shown the results of that shot.

At this point, the numbers are little more than a basis for conversation and speculation.  Except for Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka, I don’t have stats on more than two matches for any individual player.  In time, however, I expect to amass a fair amount of raw data on the top-ranked men and women, and from there, we might really be able to learn something.

In the meantime, here is a list of all the point-by-point stat summaries available from the US Open.

Men:

• Final: Djokovic-Nadal
• SF: Djokovic-Wawrinka
• SF: Gasquet-Nadal
• QF: Ferrer-Gasquet
• QF: Murray-Wawrinka
• R16: Murray-Istomin
• R32: Benneteau-Berdych
• R64: Anderson-Baghdatis
• R128: Federer-Zemlja
• R128: Baker-Hewitt

Women:

• Final: Azarenka-Serena
• SF: Azarenka-Pennetta
• SF: Li-Serena
• R16: Stephens-Serena
• R32: Azarenka-Cornet
• R32: Halep-Kirilenko
• R64: Duval-Hantuchova

Bonus:

• Cincinnati final: Azarenka-Serena (thanks Amy!)