a Institute of Sport, Exercise and Active Living , Victoria University , Melbourne , VIC , Australia.
b Game Insight Group , Tennis Australia , Richmond South , VIC , Australia.
J Sports Sci. 2018 Sep;36(18):2096-2104. doi: 10.1080/02640414.2018.1438094. Epub 2018 Feb 8.
Shots are an essential part of the language of tennis yet little is known about the distinct types of shots in the professional game. In this study, we build a taxonomy of shots for elite tennis players using tracking data from multiple years of men's and women's matches at the Australian Open. Our taxonomy is constructed using model-based multi-stage functional data clustering, an unsupervised machine learning approach. Among 270,023 men's and 178,136 women's shots, we found 13 distinct types of serves to both the Ad and Deuce court for male players and 17 and 15 types to the Ad and Deuce for female players. More variety was found among serve returns and rally shots compared to the serve; with less variety on the backhand than forehand. There was also more overlap in the physical characteristics of groundstroke shots between male and female players than on serve. Shot type was strongly associated with winning points and shots in the highest speed and lowest net clearance categories tended to be the most effective. This data-driven dictionary of shots provides a framework for analysis of elite player performance, characterizing playing style, and designing more representative practice.
球是网球语言中不可或缺的一部分，但对于职业比赛中的不同类型的球却知之甚少。在这项研究中，我们使用来自澳大利亚网球公开赛多年男子和女子比赛的跟踪数据，为精英网球运动员构建了一种击球分类法。我们的分类法是使用基于模型的多阶段功能数据聚类构建的，这是一种无监督机器学习方法。在 270033 次男子发球和 178136 次女子发球中，我们发现男性球员的发球到 Ad 和 Deuce 球场有 13 种不同的类型，而女性球员的发球到 Ad 和 Deuce 球场有 17 种和 15 种类型。与发球相比，发球回球和对打击球的种类更多；反手比正手的种类更少。与发球相比，底线击球在男女运动员之间的身体特征上也有更多的重叠。击球类型与赢得分数密切相关，速度最高和净空最低的击球类别往往最有效。这个基于数据的击球字典为分析优秀运动员的表现、刻画比赛风格和设计更具代表性的训练提供了一个框架。
