Stroke placement in women’s professional tennis: What’s after the serve?

The aim of the present study was to investigate the placement of the return, 3rd and 4th stroke in professional women’s tennis as well as possible differences related to the level of play and finally derive practical recommendations from the results. In total this study contains examination of 2,56...

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Main Authors: Philipp Born, Louis Malejka, Marius Behrens, Ralph Grambow, Dominik Meffert, Jonas Breuer, Tobias Vogt
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universidad de Granada 2021-06-01
Series:International Journal of Racket Sports Science
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journal.racketsportscience.org/index.php/ijrss/article/view/46
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author Philipp Born
Louis Malejka
Marius Behrens
Ralph Grambow
Dominik Meffert
Jonas Breuer
Tobias Vogt
author_facet Philipp Born
Louis Malejka
Marius Behrens
Ralph Grambow
Dominik Meffert
Jonas Breuer
Tobias Vogt
author_sort Philipp Born
collection DOAJ
description The aim of the present study was to investigate the placement of the return, 3rd and 4th stroke in professional women’s tennis as well as possible differences related to the level of play and finally derive practical recommendations from the results. In total this study contains examination of 2,562 Returns, 2,065 3rd strokes and 1,606 4th strokes from 19 professional women’s tennis matches of 14 players (both WTA and ITF) from 2018-2020. All strokes were classified using a specific court division method taking outcome (i.e., in, out, net) and placements into account for statistical analyses. Results show that returns are mainly placed into the court’s middle zones (66.7%), whereas 3rd strokes are placed more into offensive zone groups (i.e., Outer Zones 58.1%, Outside Forbidden Zone 72.6%, and C-zones 28.7%) with 4th strokes similarly placed, however, more scattered. No correlation was found between the placement of the return and the 3rd stroke (r = 0.517, p = 0.085). Correlations were found between the placement of 4th stroke and the return (r = 0.653, p < 0.05), between the 4th and the 3rd stroke (r = 0.961, p < 0.001) as well as between WTA and ITF players regarding all three strokes (return r = 0.818, p < 0.01; 3rd stroke r = 0.942, p < 0.001; 4th stroke r = 0.821, p < 0.01). Present findings may be of higher interest for female tennis players and their coaches aiming to improve practice patterns in training and competitive performance in matches.
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spelling doaj.art-9cd44c05782346db86739b74503764cc2022-12-22T02:29:10ZengUniversidad de GranadaInternational Journal of Racket Sports Science2695-45082021-06-013110.30827/Digibug.70281Stroke placement in women’s professional tennis: What’s after the serve?Philipp Born0Louis Malejka1Marius Behrens2Ralph Grambow3Dominik Meffert4Jonas Breuer5Tobias Vogt6Institute for Professional Sport Education and Sport Qualifications, German Sport University CologneInstitute for Professional Sport Education and Sport Qualifications, German Sport University CologneInstitute for Professional Sport Education and Sport Qualifications, German Sport University CologneInstitute for Professional Sport Education and Sport Qualifications, German Sport University CologneInstitute for Professional Sport Education and Sport Qualifications, German Sport University CologneInstitute for Professional Sport Education and Sport Qualifications, German Sport University CologneInstitute for Professional Sport Education and Sport Qualifications, German Sport University Cologne. Faculty of Sport Sciences, Waseda University, Japan The aim of the present study was to investigate the placement of the return, 3rd and 4th stroke in professional women’s tennis as well as possible differences related to the level of play and finally derive practical recommendations from the results. In total this study contains examination of 2,562 Returns, 2,065 3rd strokes and 1,606 4th strokes from 19 professional women’s tennis matches of 14 players (both WTA and ITF) from 2018-2020. All strokes were classified using a specific court division method taking outcome (i.e., in, out, net) and placements into account for statistical analyses. Results show that returns are mainly placed into the court’s middle zones (66.7%), whereas 3rd strokes are placed more into offensive zone groups (i.e., Outer Zones 58.1%, Outside Forbidden Zone 72.6%, and C-zones 28.7%) with 4th strokes similarly placed, however, more scattered. No correlation was found between the placement of the return and the 3rd stroke (r = 0.517, p = 0.085). Correlations were found between the placement of 4th stroke and the return (r = 0.653, p < 0.05), between the 4th and the 3rd stroke (r = 0.961, p < 0.001) as well as between WTA and ITF players regarding all three strokes (return r = 0.818, p < 0.01; 3rd stroke r = 0.942, p < 0.001; 4th stroke r = 0.821, p < 0.01). Present findings may be of higher interest for female tennis players and their coaches aiming to improve practice patterns in training and competitive performance in matches. https://journal.racketsportscience.org/index.php/ijrss/article/view/46game openingtarget zonesreturncourt divisioncoaching
spellingShingle Philipp Born
Louis Malejka
Marius Behrens
Ralph Grambow
Dominik Meffert
Jonas Breuer
Tobias Vogt
Stroke placement in women’s professional tennis: What’s after the serve?
International Journal of Racket Sports Science
game opening
target zones
return
court division
coaching
title Stroke placement in women’s professional tennis: What’s after the serve?
title_full Stroke placement in women’s professional tennis: What’s after the serve?
title_fullStr Stroke placement in women’s professional tennis: What’s after the serve?
title_full_unstemmed Stroke placement in women’s professional tennis: What’s after the serve?
title_short Stroke placement in women’s professional tennis: What’s after the serve?
title_sort stroke placement in women s professional tennis what s after the serve
topic game opening
target zones
return
court division
coaching
url https://journal.racketsportscience.org/index.php/ijrss/article/view/46
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AT ralphgrambow strokeplacementinwomensprofessionaltenniswhatsaftertheserve
AT dominikmeffert strokeplacementinwomensprofessionaltenniswhatsaftertheserve
AT jonasbreuer strokeplacementinwomensprofessionaltenniswhatsaftertheserve
AT tobiasvogt strokeplacementinwomensprofessionaltenniswhatsaftertheserve