MATCH CHARACTERISTICS IN EARLY AND LATE TOURNAMENT ROUNDS AT AUSTRALIAN OPEN AND FRENCH OPEN IN 2017
Abstract
Grand-slam tournaments last two weeks and a player can play up to seven singles matches. In late tournament rounds, the opponents are usually more equal and also can be tired from previous matches.
The aim is to compare rally pace in men's tennis singles in early and late stages of the tournaments at Australian and French Open 2017. Next, we compare other match characteristics (rally shots, point duration, time between points and work/rest ratio).
At each tournament we analyzed 4 early rounds matches and 3 late rounds matches. Results showed that the time between points was significantly longer in late tournament rounds (overall 23.85 +- 2,53 s; p = 0.01 and at French Open 2017 24.47 +- 1,63 s; p < 0.05) compared to early rounds.
In late tournament rounds, there are more rally shots, there is longer rally time and the time between points is longer. The rally pace had opposite bias at these tournaments - at late rounds of French Open 2017, the rally pace slowed down from early rounds 1.31 +- 0.04 s to 1.36 +- 0.02 s at late rounds, however the rally pace was faster at late tournament rounds at Australian Open 2017 (1.24 +- 0.02 s) compared to early rounds (1.20 +- 0.04 s).
Opposite bias was also observed in work/rest ratio between early and late rounds of the tournaments. These findings show differences between the early and late tournament rounds and can be used specific training and practice designs.