Sinner decodes Alcaraz yet again

Carlos Alcaraz lost 7-6,6-1. This is a scoreline that has seldom been seen in the recent past. But befittingly, the player on the other side of the net was Jannik Sinner. With this win the Sinner-Alcaraz head-to-head is 4-4.
Sinner stands out as one of the few players on the tour who doesn’t shy away from attacking Alcaraz’s weaponry, particularly his Forehand, and has the ability to match his firepower to outmaneuver him. Here are the key statistical factors that contributed to the Italian’s victory.

Novak Djokovic’s 24th Slam: US Open 2023 Finals Recap

The mens singles finals of the US Open 2023 lasted 3 hours and 17 minutes and was nothing short of a slugfest. Novak Djokovic had a simple strategy for the match. Put one more ball back in play! And preferably to the Medvedev Backhand!
Interestingly, throughout the match, both players played more of Backhands than Forehands. 53% of all Medvedev groundstrokes were Backhands and a whopping 60% for Djokovic!

Carlos Alcaraz vs. Daniil Medvedev – A Data-Driven Breakdown

Prior to yesterday’s match, the IBM SlamTracker provided Daniil Medvedev with a meagre 19% likelihood of win. The scoreline definitely shows something to the contrary. Medvedev delivered an emphatic performance to claim a spot in the Finals against Novak Djokovic. As he mentioned in the post-match interview, he had to deliver a 12/10 performance to defeat Alcaraz and so he did.

Practice & Predict. A data analytics approach to tennis.

It is a well known fact that the casino or “the house” always wins in gambling. The casino is always the winner and not the gambler. Why is this so?

It is because of a statistical factor known as the “house edge”. The house always has an edge of one percent over the gambler. Simply speaking, the house has a winning rate of 51% whereas the gambler has a win rate of 49%. But this modest one percent ensures that the house always wins in the long run.

What does all this have to do with tennis & analytics? Incidentally, tennis analytics is all about providing a coach or a player with an edge over opponents.