Serve efficiency development in women’s vs. men’s professional tennis

Abstract

Purpose. The purpose was to identify possible gender-specific differences in long-term serve efficiency development in professional women’s and men’s tennis. Methods. The analyses focused on 2 approaches: (1) total tournament comparison and (2) 2 nd tournament week vs. 1 st tournament week comparison. The data include all single matches at the Wimbledon Championship between 2002 and 2015 (ladies: n = 1771, gentlemen: n = 1772). Results. The findings showed significant development differences in favour of elite men over elite women in both comparisons. regarding the total tournament comparison, men’s development of 2 nd serve points won ( p < 0.001; r = 0.86), 1 st serves in ( p < 0.05; r = 0.72), and double fault ( p < 0.001; r = 0.85) percentages improved significantly more. As per the 2 nd tournament week vs. 1 st tournament week comparison, men’s development of 2 nd serve points won ( p < 0.05; r = 0.68) and double fault ( p < 0.01; r = 0.86) percentages improved significantly more. Conclusions. The study revealed serve efficiency development advantages for men over women in both comparisons, especially regarding the quality of the 2 nd serve, whereas no development advantages in favour of women over men could be observed in any analysed parameter, indicating possible needs to adapt elite women’s coaching.