Bruce S. Old: Tennis First Great Statistician

[Kieran]

I found this article during Wimbledon:

Bruce S. Old: The tennis data pioneer who interrogated Nazi scientists​

It’s very interesting and far seeing of the people in it:

JM Heathcote recorded and wrote about the frequency of volleys and groundstrokes in a match at what was Wimbledon's sixth edition in 1883. In the United States, similar data was published for the 1890 National Championship and included details about passing shots, aces and double faults.

However, none of this number-gathering went very far and it wasn't used to inform playing styles or coaching ideas until a certain Bruce S. Old took the time to investigate further.

The American Bruce S. Old was really the first man to collate tennis data in the 1930’s, and apply it in a practical way. Kind of a pre-Big 3 @El Dude . He also as a sidelined debriefed captured Nazis during the war, to ascertain the extent of their nuclear program.

It’s an interesting read, fascinating to any of us with an interest in statistics and how they came to be applied to sports, and in interest in tennis history…

 

[tented]

The section which begins with the excerpt below, discussing the Big 3’s use of data analysts, is informative:

“So where does the use of tennis data stand today?

Perhaps the best three male players of this generation - or indeed of any generation - have different approaches.

Rafael Nadal claims to have no interest in data and says he does not use it in his preparations. Novak Djokovic takes the opposite approach and, since 2013, has employed a personal data analyst. Roger Federer is said to be wary of using data but, according to reports, pays a hefty premium to a third-party data supplier for exclusive access to certain information.”

 

[Kieran]

The section which begins with the excerpt below, discussing the Big 3’s use of data analysts, is informative:

“So where does the use of tennis data stand today?

Perhaps the best three male players of this generation - or indeed of any generation - have different approaches.

Rafael Nadal claims to have no interest in data and says he does not use it in his preparations. Novak Djokovic takes the opposite approach and, since 2013, has employed a personal data analyst. Roger Federer is said to be wary of using data but, according to reports, pays a hefty premium to a third-party data supplier for exclusive access to certain information.”

Yeah I was surprised at Roger. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was wary of using the data, but I am surprised that he seems to use it in a big way, but pretends he doesn’t.

Nowadays sports statistics and data are very sophisticated. I remember Agassi said he guessed (quite successfully) where the Becker serve would go because Boris stuck his tongue out before every serve, pointing at where he was about to hit it. Not the first time Becker should have kept his mouth shut, I imagine. Come to think of it, Agassi seems to have a weird fetish about watching his rivals tongues. I remember him once rebuking the great Sampras for having his tongue lolling on his chin like an ape.

From the perspective of statistical analysis though, the great apes tongue gave nothing away…