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ATP Pros abt to get Data From Every Tournament, for Free
Per Simon Briggs at The Telegraph today: "Tennis is on the verge of a belated Moneyball revolution. As of the spring, the Association of Tennis Professionals – who run the men’s tour – are planning to open up ball-tracking data from every match to all their players and coaches."
Problem is, what do does do with a massive dataset of 4.5m shots?
"The shift will do much to level what has previously been an unequal playing field. Until now, millionaire players such as the “Big Four” men have had the opportunity to buy better-quality data analysis than their less wealthy rivals.
One might imagine that access to data would be a basic right for all leading professionals. In fact, anyone wanting to use the information gathered by Hawk-Eye – the leading ball-tracking providers since 2014 – has had to pay a ?150 processing fee per match. On top of that, tour rules say that you can only order data from matches that you actually played in.
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>“The exact roll-out is being worked on,” Hutchins added, “but we are looking to bring player- and ball-tracking online from every ATP tournament. We’re hoping to make this happen by the second quarter of 2023, and then bring in wearable technology – such as heart monitors and GPS location devices – by the second half of the year.”
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The last time that Telegraph Sport investigated this area, Germany’s No1 Alexander Zverev told us that “All the big guys are using data analysis, they just don’t like to talk about it.”
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"So what are the kinds of insight that a big company can provide? “A lot of added value is obtained from using data richer than anything the human eye can detect,” said Ben Depoorter, GSA’s vice-president of player analytics. “Hawk-Eye’s ball-tracking system generates millions of data points. And the insights that show up are not always what you might expect.
“For instance, when Djokovic hits a second serve wide to your backhand from the advantage court [which is on your right-hand side as you prepare to return], returning to his backhand is the best pattern in most instances. That’s no surprise. But where and how on the ad side makes all the difference.
“Contrary to most expectations, Djokovic is actually outstanding with his backhand on fast returns that are hit towards his feet, and weaker on balls that land short but with more of an angle, because he likes to hit on the rise. People come in with set ideas about what works – and the only way to disprove their preconceptions is with data.”
Problem is, what do does do with a massive dataset of 4.5m shots?
"The shift will do much to level what has previously been an unequal playing field. Until now, millionaire players such as the “Big Four” men have had the opportunity to buy better-quality data analysis than their less wealthy rivals.
One might imagine that access to data would be a basic right for all leading professionals. In fact, anyone wanting to use the information gathered by Hawk-Eye – the leading ball-tracking providers since 2014 – has had to pay a ?150 processing fee per match. On top of that, tour rules say that you can only order data from matches that you actually played in.
~~~~~~~~
>“The exact roll-out is being worked on,” Hutchins added, “but we are looking to bring player- and ball-tracking online from every ATP tournament. We’re hoping to make this happen by the second quarter of 2023, and then bring in wearable technology – such as heart monitors and GPS location devices – by the second half of the year.”
~~~~~~~
The last time that Telegraph Sport investigated this area, Germany’s No1 Alexander Zverev told us that “All the big guys are using data analysis, they just don’t like to talk about it.”
~~~~~~~
"So what are the kinds of insight that a big company can provide? “A lot of added value is obtained from using data richer than anything the human eye can detect,” said Ben Depoorter, GSA’s vice-president of player analytics. “Hawk-Eye’s ball-tracking system generates millions of data points. And the insights that show up are not always what you might expect.
“For instance, when Djokovic hits a second serve wide to your backhand from the advantage court [which is on your right-hand side as you prepare to return], returning to his backhand is the best pattern in most instances. That’s no surprise. But where and how on the ad side makes all the difference.
“Contrary to most expectations, Djokovic is actually outstanding with his backhand on fast returns that are hit towards his feet, and weaker on balls that land short but with more of an angle, because he likes to hit on the rise. People come in with set ideas about what works – and the only way to disprove their preconceptions is with data.”
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