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The ultimate encyclopedia of tennis
\"The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Tennis is the pre-eminent single volume illustrated work of tennis reference, tracing the game from its relaxed beginnings as a pastime of the 1800s through to what has become the high energy global sport of the 21st century. John Parsons' celebrated book includes comprehensive chapters profiling the legends of the game and more than 150 top players; analysis of tennis's greatest matches; world famous tournaments and global development; as a well as extensive features on the politics, controversies and oddities of the game\"--Publisher's description.
Book
Who Is the Best Player Ever? A Complex Network Analysis of the History of Professional Tennis
We considered all matches played by professional tennis players between 1968 and 2010, and, on the basis of this data set, constructed a directed and weighted network of contacts. The resulting graph showed complex features, typical of many real networked systems studied in literature. We developed a diffusion algorithm and applied it to the tennis contact network in order to rank professional players. Jimmy Connors was identified as the best player in the history of tennis according to our ranking procedure. We performed a complete analysis by determining the best players on specific playing surfaces as well as the best ones in each of the years covered by the data set. The results of our technique were compared to those of two other well established methods. In general, we observed that our ranking method performed better: it had a higher predictive power and did not require the arbitrary introduction of external criteria for the correct assessment of the quality of players. The present work provides novel evidence of the utility of tools and methods of network theory in real applications.
Journal Article
Tennis
Each book in the Inside the World of Sports series takes you from the very beginning of a sport to a look at its future. Inside these pages, learn more about tennis greatest moments, iconic athletes, and what the future holds for the game.
Book
Morphometrics for sports mechanics: Showcasing tennis racket shape diversity
Tennis racket design has changed from its conception in 1874. While we know that modern tennis rackets are lighter and have larger heads than their wooden predecessors, it is unknown how their gross shape has changed specifically. It is also unknown how racket shape is related to factors that influence performance, like the Transverse and Polar moments of inertia. The aim of this study was to quantify how tennis racket shape has changed over time, with a view to furthering our understanding of how such developments have influenced the game. Two-dimensional morphometric analysis was applied to silhouettes extracted from photographs of 514 rackets dating from 1874 to 2017. A principal component analysis was conducted on silhouette outlines, to allow racket shape to be summarised. The rackets were grouped by age and material for further analysis. Principal Component 1 accounted for 87% of the variation in racket shape. A pairwise Pearson’s correlation test indicated that head width and length were both strongly correlated to Principal Component 1 (r = 0.916 & r = 0.801, p-values<0.001). Principal Component 1 was also correlated to the Polar (r = 0.862, p<0.001) and Transverse (r = -0.506, p<0.001) moments of inertia. Racket age and material had a medium (p<0.001, η2p = 0.074) and small (p = 0.015, η2p = 0.017) effect on Principal Component 1, respectively. Mean racket shapes were also generated from the morphometric analyses for the material and age groupings, and we consider how these shape changes may have influenced performance and injury risk. These mean shape groupings could support the development of models, such as finite element analysis, for predicting how historical developments in tennis equipment have affected performance and injury risk.
Journal Article
Left-Handedness in Professional and Amateur Tennis
Negative frequency-dependent effects rather than innate predispositions may provide left-handers with an advantage in one-on-one fighting situations. Support mainly comes from cross-sectional studies which found significantly enhanced left-hander frequencies among elite athletes exclusively in interactive sports such as baseball, cricket, fencing and tennis. Since professional athletes' training regimes continuously improve, however, an important unsolved question is whether the left-handers' advantage in individual sports like tennis persists over time. To this end, we longitudinally tracked left-hander frequencies in year-end world rankings (men: 1973-2011, ladies: 1975-2011) and at Grand Slam tournaments (1968-2011) in male and female tennis professionals. Here we show that the positive impact of left-handed performance on high achievement in elite tennis was moderate and decreased in male professionals over time and was almost absent in female professionals. For both sexes, left-hander frequencies among year-end top 10 players linearly decreased over the period considered. Moreover, left-handedness was, however, no longer seems associated with higher probability of attaining high year-end world ranking position in male professionals. In contrast, cross-sectional data on left-hander frequencies in male and female amateur players suggest that a left-handers' advantage may still occur on lower performance levels. Collectively, our data is in accordance with the frequency-dependent hypothesis since reduced experience with left-handers in tennis is likely to be compensated by players' professionalism.
Journal Article
The United States Tennis Association : raising the game
\"The United States Tennis Association is an in-depth look at the history of the United States Tennis Association (USTA) and how this sports organization has helped cultivate and organize tennis in the United States over the past 135 years. Starting as a group of elite white men from country clubs in the Northeast, the organization has become the largest tennis association in the world, with women in top leadership positions and an annual revenue of well over three hundred million dollars. The USTA was key in establishing the Open Era in tennis in 1968, when professionals began competing with amateurs in Grand Slam events, and for expanding the game in the United States during the 1970s tennis boom and establishing the U.S. Open as one of the most prestigious and largest-attended sports events in the world. Unique among sports governing bodies, the USTA is a mostly volunteer-run organization that, along with a paid professional staff, manages and governs tennis at the local level across the United States and owns and operates the U.S. Open.The association participates directly in the International Tennis Federation, manages U.S. participation in international tennis competitions (Fed Cup and Davis Cup), and interacts with professional tennis within the United States. The story of how tennis is managed by the nation's largest cadre of volunteers in any sport is one of sports' best untold stories. With access to the private records of the USTA, Warren F. Kimball tells an engaging and rich history of how tennis has been managed and governed in the United States\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Historical dictionary of tennis
The sport of tennis has been played in one form or another for more than 800 years. It can trace its roots to games played by monks in the 12th century. Through the years the game has evolved from one in which the ball was struck with the hands to the modern game in which rackets are used to propel the ball in excess of 150 miles per hour. From the sport of the elite to the sport played by elite athletes, tennis has grown immensely in the past 135 years and it remains one of the few sporting pastimes that is played extensively by people of all ages and all nationalities. The Historical Dictionary of Tennis presents a comprehensive history of the game through a chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, photos, and over 500 cross-referenced dictionary entries on places, teams, terminology, and people, including Arthur Ashe, Björn Borg, Don Budge, Chris Evert, Roger Federer, Billie Jean King, Rod Laver, Suzanne Lenglen, John McEnroe, Rafael Nadal, Martina Navratilova, and Bill Tilden. Appendixes of the members of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, the Major Championships of Tennis, and the Olympic games are included. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about tennis.
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