Benchmarking Junior Tennis Stats pt 3

At Next Level Stats, we were upgrading the more than 150 player benchmarks we use for giving junior players better context for their match stats, and I noticed a few interesting trends in the data. Here are some of the areas that stand out for lower level-players as they move from UTR 4.5 to 11+.

WHAT DOESN'T MATTER

Net play does not seem to change much between these levels either in frequency or success. There were relatively few (7) volleys per player per match at all levels, basically zero serve and volleys or return and volleys, and higher skilled players did not come into the net any faster (fewer shots before approaching the net for a volley).

The percentage of volleys that landed deep (beyond the service line) did, however, meaningfully increase from 17% of all volleys to more than 24%, indicating that the quality of volleys improves, even if their effectiveness doesn't improve significantly--exactly 50% of volley points were won at all levels until the highest tier where it reaches 55% on average.

Very realistic net play :)

There’s one more stat that shows statistically meaningful improvements as skill level rises, although it’s a little less clear what conclusions to draw from it. The percent of all rallies that are over 10 shots more than doubles from 5% of all low-skill rallies to 12% of rallies at the college level.

But given the low number of these types of rallies, this is an increase from 5 times in a match to around 13 times in college. Compared to the 50+ rallies of three or fewer shots in a typical match, long rallies are still rare, even if more memorable. So this seems like a byproduct of strength, stamina and form allowing a few longer rallies.

UP NEXT: These were models based on the men's stats. What was different for women.... ...and, check out the previous posts in this series.