My buddy Rob sends me some interesting stuff for my review. One such article was from a tennis beat writer in the NY Times. The title of the article was “Keep it Short” and it referred to short rallies.
Apparently there was a study that showed the shorter the rallies, the more the server won. So the analytics stated if you keep a rally short you win. In our sport as well as tennis, that means in simplest form, a serve, weak return and put-away or kill-shot. This is hardly Earth-shattering information. Duh! Why do you think most players at the top levels hit drive serves? That is exactly what they are trying to do, serve, weak return, and winning shot off that return.
But not so fast Stat folks! There is something to be said for cultivating your shots so you have an all around game.
1. Not everyone has a great drive serve or great power for a drive serve.
2. Not every rally will get a winning opportunity from a great drive serve. Sometimes an opponent will hit great returns or hit defensive shots. That means longer rallies.
3. Stats can lie. Be careful how you interpret that data. Of course in 2 shot rallies the server wins 90% of rallies but here is another idea. Why not look at longer rallies and the player who wins those?
4. Suggestion: take each player individually and chart the rallies of 3 shots or more. I’m guessing your best players have a higher percentage of winners in those rallies.
One of my favorite sayings is “use the whole court”! Over time You may not win consistently with 2 shot rallies and the longer the rally, the more the advantage goes to the higher skilled player. Go get’em tigers!