Analyzing Wimbledon: The Power of Statistics

by Franc Klaassen, Jan R. Magnus

The game of tennis raises many questions that are of interest to a statistician. Is it true that beginning to serve in a set gives an advantage? Are new balls an advantage? Is the seventh game in a set particularly important? Are top players more stable than other players? Do real champions win the big points? These and many other questions are formulated as hypotheses and tested statistically. Analyzing Wimbledon also discusses how the outcome of a match can be predicted (even while the match is in progress), which points are important and which are not, how to choose an optimal service strategy, and whether winning mood actually exists in tennis. Aimed at readers with some knowledge of mathematics and statistics, the book uses tennis (Wimbledon in particular) as a vehicle to illustrate the power and beauty of statistical reasoning.

269 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Braedan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gets a little too lost in the statistics to be readable for both target audiences (tennis fans and analytics heads). The best parts of the books come from the thought processes that were broken down to explain the journey from broad research question to answers within the data.