Serving big data at Grand Slam tennis

The Australian Open is currently underway and that means fans are expecting a supercharged atmosphere as their favourite tennis players battle on courts for two weeks, while commentators and critics busy dissecting statistics.

For decades tennis fans have been served with statistics such as first and second serves percentages, forced and unforced errors, winning points and not to forgetting ranking points.

Watching an exciting tennis match, whether you're on court or off court, provides plenty of entertainment and adrenaline-inducing thrill. The overall experience is further enhanced with the inclusion of big data.

Businesses have adopted big data, using it to increase retail sales, boost e-commerce performance and improve supply chain operations. In the sports arena, big data analytics seem like a good fit. For the past several years, it is proving an effective catalyst for transforming the fan experience at major tournaments particularly in the Grand Slams.

With data captured from sensors placed all over the court, fans have the advantage of accessing to real-time statistics during a match. Many avid tennis fans love to study tennis matches by comparing the statistics of their favourite players. Big data play a significant role in helping these fans analyze the game they are following. IBM has been the official technology provider for the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments for many years. The partnership has allowed for unprecedented access to tennis scoring and statistical data that we have been feeding into Watson Analytics to find out what interesting insights we can gain about the matches and players.

Accessing stats through digital devices

The amount of big data being looked at is extremely massive, with more than 50 millions data points being analyzed since 1990. The statistics measure basic information such as the speed of serves and the number of double faults to complicated and advanced data such as winners on the forehand side of the court. The in-depth analysis helps provide insights to the strengths and weaknesses in a player’s game, while also providing a predictive analysis at what may happen during and at the end of a match. Separately, tournament organizers also examine player popularity and volume of social media conversations to predict the data demands from fans viewing a tournament website and engagement on social media platforms.

Must-have tennis apps on my phone

With the incredible analysis offered by this big data platform, it creates a remarkable effect on the overall fan experience. The insights derived from big data can be channelled to fans through data visualization. As a tennis fan, if I'm not able to stream a match or be at a live event, I can always turn to the app on my smartphone to find out the predictive analysis of the matches happening at that moment. Coupled with my engagement with other tennis enthusiasts at real time on Twitter, the experience is out of this world!

Hawkeye data

With the growing demands for processing power to handle large numbers of records with many attributes, the capability in managing digital traffic is essential to create undisrupted access to the user behaviors and their access to the statistical data. In the Australian Open 2015 alone, there were:

• 14.3 million unique visitors to the ausopen.com
• 24.3 million views across all official AO video platforms
• 1.2 million unique visitors on the Australian Open mobile app
• 23 Terabytes of Internet traffic was handled by the network infrastructure, a 136 percent increase on 2014
• 10,784 games, 68,345 points and 1,128 sets captured, analysed and distributed via the AO scoring system.

All of that traffic captured requires robust cloud computing technology to ensure the entire infrastructure run smoothly during the course of the tournament. It also requires advances in network security to make sure users are protected from cyber attacks keeping their personal data safe from potentially malicious malware.

While there maybe fans who were unaware of how big data has changed the way we experience tennis, they are very likely taking part in contributing to the data. The next time you use the Australian Open app or browsing through their website, try look at the key statistics in a different perspective. Let the data be the guide to help you understand the game better and perhaps to even predict the outcome of the match before it ends. Although, bookies such as WilliamHill have the odds on current and ongoing matches, they can help you out if you're going to use data analytics for your predictions during this hard court season.

To find out more relevant materials on big data in tennis, visit the following links:

• https://www.bernardmarr.com/default.asp?contentID=724
• http://www.afr.com/business/sport/tennis-australia-mines-big-data-for-new-performance-metrics-20170118-gttwxr
• http://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2018-01-16/australian-open-tennis-statistics-clutch-time-pressure-work-win/9329322
• https://www-03.ibm.com/press/uk/en/pressrelease/52728.wss
• https://www-07.ibm.com/innovation/au/ausopen/analytics.html

How is technology helping our tennis stars?

For a game as seemingly simple as tennis, it’s been one of the main sports that has made great use of technology to improve the skills of the players in order to reach phenomenal levels.

From improvements in racket technology, Hawk-Eye ball tracking, to the psychological benefits of playing online games, it’s clear that technology is not only helping tennis players of all levels improve their gameplay but also tennis fans to enjoy their fullest experience including in tennis betting.

Racket technology has advanced from the likes of wooden and metal rackets to the current range of composite rackets that feature graphite, carbon and titanium to deliver more power and precision. And many of today’s tennis courts routinely feature an advanced plexicushion surface that has helped the likes of Melbourne’s Australian Open become such a gripping competition. All these enhancement will help fans make better decision along with the tennis betting odds available online such as Online Betting NZ.

Even the performance of our tennis stars have been enhanced by technology. As well as 3D motion tracking hardware that can help deliver more precise serving and avoid injury, there’s been the interesting introduction of a theory that allows something like games to provide transferable skills that can be used on the tennis courts. This means that even something as simple as a game could be used to provide tennis players with a little extra practice in terms of how they approach the long-term strategy of a tennis game. It’s the fact that these classic table games provide players with the opportunity to develop their skills of concentration that has helped online gaming become a valuable tool in the development of many stars.

However, in an outdoor game, things are a little more difficult in a fast-paced game of tennis. This is why the Hawk-Eye ball tracking system has revolutionized the way that calls are made in the game as the technology is able to produce a digital image of where the ball lands with startling accuracy.

Such technology helps many coaches implement a Big Data approach to the simple game of tennis that helps players isolate any troublesome areas of the game in a way that was unimaginable just a decade ago.

So much as technology may appear to offer a gamified approach to tennis practice for the 21st century, it also looks to be providing us with faster, better and more accurate games of tennis too.