Every week, Tennis Analytics dives deep into the data, bringing you a stat of the week to help you understand tennis better and become a little smarter.
April is conference month for college tennis. This month we will take a look at some brand new college data from a study by Warren Pretorius (Tennis Analytics) and Craig O’Shannessy (Brain Game Tennis). They’ve compiled this data and more in their online course A Million Points of College Tennis (coupon code “StatOfTheWeek” for 20% off).
Stat of the Week: 55%
A conversation that I have had one too many times when talking about the net as a valid strategy in today’s game… Naysayers grab onto the hypothetical that the more you come to the net, the more you will lose.
Well here are the facts.
From analyzing our data set, all the match winners consistently, year-after-year, came to the net more than match losers did. No exceptions in men’s collegiate or women’s collegiate tennis. Of all the times a player came to the net in the tagged matches, it was the match-winner that was there the most.
Total Points At Net: Men
- Match Winners = 59,673
- Match Losers = 48,751
This is really strong data for the net. And once you pair it with the data about points won, there is a stunning conclusion.
Total Points At Net: Women
- Match Winners = 41,345
- Match Losers = 34,149
Match winners come to the net more than match losers, and they win more up there as well.
The data is basically identical for men and women. Match winners came to the net 55% of total net points and match losers came to the net 45%. When you slow down and think about it, the net has always delivered a strong winning percentage in the 60-percent range, so it makes perfect sense that match winners would be doing well here.
Point of the Week
How many times do you or your players come to the net? And, do they have the strokes that enable movement forward? A square stance is more conducive to forward movement than an open stance.
Get your match tagged to really understand your own game and then use this information to drive the practice court.
Check out A Million Points of College Tennis and use coupon code statoftheweek to get 20% off the course fee.
Photo of the Week
Venus Williams’ forehand.
Henry Sandberg says
To say the conclusion of these stats is go to the net is not right. It confuses correlation with causation and ignores the player’s positioning and point situation in general prior to approaching the net. For the vast majority of players, they would not approach the net unless they felt some level of confidence they could finish off the point at net.
An admittedly very extreme analogy would be to say that since only extremely rich people tend to fly on private jets, if you would like to be extremely rich you should fly on private jets.
Also FYI there is a typo in the table for women on 2020 line.
All that said, really appreciate the great work you do.
Gratefully,
Henry
Warren Pretorius & Will Boucek says
Thanks for the feedback Henry!
Like all stats, this should be taken with context. It should be a goal to get to the net because it does lead to winning. Then the question becomes, “how do we get there?” or “when should we move forward?”
It’s probably a poor strategy to come to the net after hitting a defensive backhand from behind the baseline. Instead, perhaps work on taking balls inside the court with a more offensive mindset to try to transition to the net.
Work on this part of your game and then you’ll be in that 55% column 😉
Mason Spencer says
Good Afternoon, Guys! Thanks for the data and analysis.
I’m wondering how all other shots won/lost compares to net points between match winners and losers. Is that available?
Warren Pretorius & Will Boucek says
Thanks Mason! You can check out a few college case studies that have more data here.
— https://www.tennisanalytics.net/womens-college-tennis-case-study/
— https://www.tennisanalytics.net/mens-college-tennis-case-study/