Roger Federer’s early career

Roger Federer won his 20th Grand Slam at the Australian Open recently

Roger Federer is undoubtedly the greatest tennis player of all time and is still currently ranked as the number 2 singles player in the world at the age of 36. The Swiss professional has now been playing for 20 years since making his debut in the 1998 ATP Tour and has managed to win 82% of the 1389 singles games that has played over the years.

He first entered the top 100 rankings in 1999 but it wasn’t until 2001 that he won his first major tournament being the Hopman Cup while representing Switzerland in the mixed doubles with Martina Hingis. His first singles win came the same year at the 2001 Milan Indoor tournament but his first real international breakthrough came at the Wimbledon Championships the same year when at just 19-years-old Federer played and defeated the seven-time Wimbledon champion Pete Sampras and progressed to the Quarter-finals where he was subsequently knocked out by Tim Henman.

In 2003 Federer won his first ever grand slam singles title at Wimbledon following victory’s over Andy Roddick and Mark Philippoussis. Later that year he had his first ever chance to become the world number 1 singles player however, a few losses late that year meant that he didn’t quite manage to overtake Andy Roddick that year. Moving forward to 2004 the real dominance of Federer started to shine through as he won three grand slam singles titles over the course of the year finishing with a record of 74-6 and reaching world number 1 for the first time.

The following year was another successful one and saw him facing Rafeal Nadal, his main rival, for the first time. Although he missed out on the Australian Open and the French open, he still managed to win Wimbledon and pick up 11 singles titles finishing the year with a very impressive win percentage of 95.2%. Finishing the year on such a high put Federer in a great position going into 2006 where he had statistically the best season of his career. He reached the final of all 4 Grand Slams winning 3 but unfortunately losing to Nadal in the French open, this was the first time they had met in a Grand Slam final but certainly not the last. He managed to reach 16 out of the 17 tournaments he entered during the year coming away with $8,343,855 in prize money. One of his personal highlights for this year was returning to his home town in Basel and winning the Swiss Indoors tournament having not won it previously.

Now Federer had established his dominance in the game he has continued to win tournaments over the years most recently winning the Hopman Cup with Belinda Bencic and also winning the Australian Open after beating Marin Cilic in the final in turn securing his 6th Australian Open of his career. In addition to this he recently became the first man to win 20 Grand Slam titles and will be hoping that he can knock Nadal off the top spot and become world number one again this year. If you’re interested in betting on the Tennis, then be sure to check out Oddschanger for daily betting tips as well as weekly insights into the world of tennis. Federer currently has a 100%-win record in 2018 and the next major tournament he will play will be the Rotterdam Open for the 9th time in his career, he only needs to make the semi-finals here to become the oldest ATP world number one of all time.

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

Maria Sharapova arrives at Shenzhen Open

Source: Maria Sharapova's Twitter

Tennis icon Maria Sharapova and 16-year-old Chinese sensation Wang Xinyu got themselves ready for a roaring start to the new season with a visit to the Longgang Dragon Square here in Shenzhen. ‘Long Cheng Guang Chang’, as it’s known locally, is a famous landmark square in the heart of the Longgang district of Shenzhen city and features a towering statue of a bronze dragon as its centerpiece.

Sharapova made her long-awaited return to tour this April and has steadily climbed up the rankings since, culminating with her first title in two years coming at Tianjin in October.

“Last year’s title in Tianjin was quite meaningful after not having a title for a couple of years. I felt like I’ve built quite a good base at the end of last season and now to start the year in a new place is always exciting. We travel around the world often to the same places and see the same people, so to see a new set of fans here in Shenzhen and to experience a new environment and stadium - it’s always invigorating to start a year that way,” said the 30-year-old Russian, who will be making her Shenzhen Open debut next week.

Meanwhile, Wang is set to be the youngest female player in the main draw of next month's Australian Open. The plucky lass defeated top seed Misaki Doi in the semi-final and Abigail Tere-Apisah in the final of the Australian Open Asia-Pacific wildcard playoff early this month to book her spot in Melbourne.

“I think the key to my victory was to just keep going and never give up, even when you’re not playing your best tennis. It just felt amazing because me and my team, we didn’t think I could make it and so we’re very happy I did. I haven’t played matches in a long time because of the off season so it would be nice to start 2018 with a good performance in Shenzhen. I’m excited to play here in front of my home fans as I’m sure I will get a lot of support,” said the Shenzhen native, who will be youngest ever Chinese tennis player to feature in the main draw of a Grand Slam.

The Shenzhen Open is organized by the Chinese Tennis Association, Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Culture, Sport and Tourism and CCTV-IMG Sports Management Company and is co-organized by the Bureau of Culture, Sport and Tourism of Longgang District, Shenzhen Gemdale Sports Industry Co. Ltd. and Kaisa Culture Sports & Tourism Group.

Roger Federer engages in 'a cooking match' with Michelin star chef Davide Oldani

Press release

A nice plate of spaghetti with tomato sauce, the triumph of simplicity and a true symbol of Italian cuisine and the Mediterranean Diet around the world, marks the encounter of two extraordinary champions in their respective fields. On one side, the greatest tennis player of all times, Roger Federer, an icon of style and lover of good food who does not hide that he’s “unfamiliar” with cooking. On the other, Davide Oldani, the Michelin star Chef who made ‘Pop’ cuisine his tenet: simple ingredients affordable to all, but always cooked with great mastery. Two talents who meet for the first time in front of an icon of Italian food for a special occasion: the shooting of a global commercial in Italy for Barilla, the world’s most loved pasta brand.



Roger Federer & Barilla: Masters of Pasta 
“I’ve travelled a lot of countries, with different traditions and gastronomic cultures… but pasta remains one of my reference points. I’ve been eating it since I was little; I find it to be a fantastic food. Yet, I don’t know how to cook it” – the Swiss champion admits – “To tell you the truth, when it comes to cooking, I’m far from perfect”.

Federer is not someone to shy away from challenges, however. He will not stop halfway on the path to perfection. The time has now come to engage in a very difficult challenge for him, the quest for perfection in the kitchen. This is the first step in a journey that will see Roger Federer succeed in bringing his mastery perfection from sports to daily life.

A box of Barilla Spaghetti N°5 and a few simple ingredients are his tools. His gestures and the way he puts himself to the test show that he has the makings and talents of a champion. This is the narrative framework of the partnership between Roger Federer and Barilla.

So one discovers that, like in tennis, the recipe for perfection is made of simplicity, passion and commitment. An accessible and daily art that yet needs training and perseverance.

“Pasta has been in my daily diet since I was a kid. I am really happy to be part of the Barilla team: they are the best in their field”.

Federer & Oldani: Together in the quest for the excellence of simplicity 
Federer & Oldani: an impromptu meeting that promises plenty of surprises. An unexpected pair that actually share many traits: talent, discipline, commitment and - most of all - the passion for the excellence of simple things. A master playing the role of the apprentice and a challenge that proves rich of surprises. All this seasoned with glamour, style, humor and fun. But what will the strict “maestro” think of Roger’s début in the kitchen?

“You can immediately recognize a champion: whatever he does, he puts all he’s got in it. Filming the spot with Roger was a real pleasure,” coach Davide Oldani said.

Spaghetti with tomato sauce: A symbol of Italy all over the world 
Just like Roger Federer represents the apparent simplicity of the technical gesture in the tennis world, so the instant translation of “less is more” in the cooking world is represented by spaghetti with tomato sauce: the simplest pasta recipe, healthy and iconic, the symbol of the Mediterranean Diet. A recipe that Oldani has proposed with a touch of creativity by adding mint instead of the traditional basil, to reinforce the concept that simplicity and tradition are always evolving, as long as one keeps the importance and quality of the raw materials in mind.

An ageless champion with a healthy lifestyle 
During his long and brilliant carrier, Federer has collected many records and titles: he holds the no. 1 ranking for total weeks as best tennis players in the world (302); he won 91 single ATP tournaments, with a record 19 victories in Grand Slam tournaments. In his career, he also won two Olympic medals. In 2017, he won three tournaments, including the Australian Open and Wimbledon. At these levels, nothing can be left to chance, least of all the diet.

This is particularly true for a perfectionist like Federer, who has become an example of longevity in sports also thanks to a correct dietary lifestyle.

Pasta is the centrepiece of his dining table: “A correct diet is essential to my success: pasta perfectly combines my nutritional needs with the desire to eat good-tasting food”, Roger Federer concludes.