Relative age effect on elite tennis strategy for players born before and after 1st January 1985

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Author
O'Donoghue, Peter
Date
2014-08-01Acceptance date
2014-07-11
Type
Article
Publisher
Cardiff Metropolitan University
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Relative age influences participation in professional tennis. The purpose of the current investigation was to compare the %net points played between players born in the first 6 months of the calendar year (H1 players) and players born in the second 6 months (H2 players). There were 116 players included in the current investigation because net statistics were provided for at least 6 of their matches in the 2011 to 2013 US Opens and the 2012 to 2014 Australian Opens. Players were also classified by generation; born before 1st January 1985 or after due to the introduction of surface grading in 2002. The %net points for male players was significantly influenced by generation (p = 0.041) and the interaction of generation and half year of birth (p = 0.040). The 17 H1 male players born in 1985 or later played 12.1±2.5% net points compared with 10.4±2.8% for the 16 H2 male players born in 1985 or later. The H1 players may have developed a greater tendency to go to the net as junior players with a relative age advantage. These players have continued to play more net points as seniors even though they no longer have a relative age advantage.
Journal/conference proceeding
International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport;
Citation
O’Donoghue, P.G. (2014) 'Relative age effect on elite tennis strategy for players born before and after 1st January 1985', International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport, 14(2), pp. 453-462
URI
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/uwic/ujpa/2014/00000014/00000002/art00010http://hdl.handle.net/10369/8201
Description
This article was published in International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport in August 2014, available at http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/uwic/ujpa/2014/00000014/00000002/art00010
Sponsorship
Cardiff Metropolitan University (Grant ID: Cardiff Metropolian (Internal))
Collections
- Sport Research Groups [1088]
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