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

So when’s Dimitrov’s first Grand Slam win coming?

We’ve become used to the so-called big four dominating men’s tennis for quit some time now. But this is about to change. It will change not least because Roger Federer is getting on a little; 32 is quite an age for a male tennis star in the absolute upper echelons of the game these days.

Roger demonstrated that he still has it at Wimbledon when forcing Novak Djokovic to an incredible five sets. But at 32, his days are numbered, unfortunately. Meanwhile, Andy Murray and the second most successful player of all time, Rafa Nadal have both had more than their fair share o injury problems.

All in all, then, it seems more than likely that the big four will be no more pretty soon – and that other players will break into the absolute top flight. We saw Stan Wawrinka winning the Aussie Open in January – but it seems unlikely that this is the player who will really make the breakthroughs. Wawrinka is now 29 himself and hadn’t made a Grand Slam final before Melbourne this year and, whilst he’s been an amazing player at the top of the game for seven or eight years now, it’s hard to see him suddenly becoming a lot better.

The player most pundits are looking to after his excellent Wimbledon showing is, of course, Bulgaria’s best ever player Grigor Dimitrov. He hit a career high ATP ranking after this year’s Wimbledon at world number nine, and at just 23 years of age can surely improve a whole lot more yet.

He won his first ATP singles title last October in Stockholm and had previously enjoyed an immensely successful junior career – winning the Boys' Singles event at both Wimbledon and the US Open back in 2008.

So it’s surely just a matter of time before the Bulgarian youngster wins his first tennis major title. As things stand, he’s sixth in the tennis betting market for this year’s US Open at Flushing Meadows in August-September behind the traditional big four, with Stanislas Wawrinka fifth favourite.

This year’s US Open may still be a little too early yet, but his odds of 16-1 with Bet365 and other bookmakers looks highly tempting as it’s surely just a matter of time?

Dimitrov comfortably saw off the then reigning champion Andy Murray at Wimbledon before finding Novak Djokovic too strong in the semis in a match he lost 6-4, 3-6, 7-6, 7-6. But this was a tremendously tight affair and it would be very easy to see Dimitrov going one better next time.

What’s more - off-court, the young Bulgarian is reportedly stepping out in style with current world number six, Maria Sharapova. This will surely do his career no harm whatsoever and may help spur him on to greater things.

So we’re very probably already looking at a big five in men’s tennis – and five years from now, Grigor Dimitrov will still be at is peak whilst the other big four sadly won’t. So how many Grand Slam events will he have in his locker by then?

(Image via Grigor Dimitrov's Facebook page)

Notable ATP tennis statistics in 2013

Finally we have concluded a dramatic year with Novak Djokovic retaining his ATP World Tour Finals trophy beating world no.1 Rafael Nadal in straight sets.

The World Tour Finals have always been regarded as the Super Bowl of tennis and by winning the title, it gives Djokovic a boost after losing the no.1 rank in October. Speaking of the Super Bowl, the big event will take place in February 2014 in New Orleans. Assuming you're a fan, we would encourage you to check out the 2014 Super Bowl betting sites.

Set aside the World Tour Finals, Nadal has made a great comeback this year by winning two Grand Slams, the French Open and the US Open that adds up to 13 in total.

Grand Slam winners in 2013

Grand Slam finals in 2013
Australian Open: Novak Djokovic beat Andy Murray 6-7, 7-6, 6-3, 6-2
French Open: Rafael Nadal beat David Ferrer 6-3, 6-2, 6-3
Wimbledon: Murray beat Djokovic 6-4, 7-5, 6-4
US Open: Nadal beat Djokovic 6-2, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1

Besides winning more Grand Slam titles more than any players this year, Nadal also won 5 more ATP Masters 1000 to come up with a massive total of 26! That's an incredible achievement by the 27-year-old. If Nadal continues to be healthy in 2014, he is expected to keep his winning streak especially on clay. If you want to achieve exactly the same winning moments, we strongly recommend you to go to Super Bowl XLVIII prop bets.

Nadal's achievement in 2013

Masters 1000 tournament winners in 2013
Indian Wells: Rafael Nadal
Miami: Andy Murray
Monte Carlo: Novak Djokovic
Madrid: Rafael Nadal
Rome: Rafael Nadal
Montreal: Rafael Nadal
Cincinnati: Rafael Nadal
Shanghai: Novak Djokovic
Paris: Novak Djokovic

Titles in 2013
Rafael Nadal - 10
Novak Djokovic - 6
Andy Murray - 4
Juan Martín del Potro - 4
Richard Gasquet - 3

This has been the year where we have the most winners over 30 years old. Is that a good sign? Not exactly I guess. We hope to see more young players winning more titles but it seems like it's not going to happen so soon.

Over 30 Winners - 16 (most since 1975)
David Ferrer with the Buenos Aires trophy (Reuters)
David Ferrer - Auckland 30 years, 9 months
David Ferrer - Buenos Aires 30 years, 10 months
Tommy Robredo - Casablanca 30 years, 11 months
Tommy Haas - Munich 35 years, 1 month
Albert Montanes - Nice 32 years, 6 months
Roger Federer - Halle 31 years, 10 months
Feliciano Lopez - Eastbourne 31 years, 9 months
Nicolas Mahut - ‘s-Hertogenbosch 31 years, 5 months
Nicolas Mahut - Newport 31 years, 5 months
Carlos Berlocq - Bastad 30 years, 5 months
Ivo Karlovic - Bogota 34 years, 4 months
Mikhail Youzhny - Gstaad 31 years, 1 month
Tommy Robredo - Umag 31 years, 2 months
Jurgen Melzer - Winston-Salem 32 years, 3 months
Tommy Haas - Vienna 35 years, 6 months
Mikhail Youzhny - Valencia 31 years, 4 months

Longest Winning Streaks
Player - Matches - Duration
Novak Djokovic - 22 - September 13-November 11
Rafael Nadal - 22 - April 22-June 24
Rafael Nadal - 22 - August 5-October 6
Rafael Nadal - 18 - February 11-April 21
Novak Djokovic - 17 (22 back to 2012) - January 14-March 16
Fabio Fognini - 13 - July 8-July 28
Andy Murray - 13 - June 10-August 8
Andy Murray - 10 - January 1-January 27

Most aces served
John Isner (Reuters)
John Isner - 979
Milos Raonic - 883
Kevin Anderson - 651

(Images via Menstennisforums; statistics via Eurosport)