Embed from Getty Images Italian translation at settesei.it The officiating in Saturday night’s US Open women’s final has become a hot-button issue, to put it mildly. Many of the complaints about Serena Williams’s treatment at the hands of chair umpire Carlos Ramos come down to a belief that Ramos’s actions were sexist. Most of us … Continue reading Gender Differences in Point Penalties
This is a guest post by Carl Bialik. Imagine you’re named boss of tennis. Right after being sworn in by Rod Laver and Martina Navratilova, you’re handed an empty wall calendar. You make the schedule for 2018. What’s your first move? Mine would be to move Indian Wells and Miami earlier in the calendar, and … Continue reading Cool Down Tennis
It’s no secret that Milos Raonic‘s return game is a liability. He has reached the game’s elite level with a dominant serve, and he broke into the top five on the strength of a historically-great record in tiebreaks. Last year, Raonic’s tiebreak record fell back to earth (as these things usually do) and he dropped … Continue reading Is Milos Raonic’s Return Game Improving?
Tiebreak outcomes are influenced by luck a lot more than most people think. All else equal, big servers aren’t any more successful than weak servers, and one season’s tiebreak king is often the next season’s tiebreak chump. I’ve written a lot about this in the past, so I won’t repeat myself too much. (If you … Continue reading The Luck of the Tiebreak, 2015 in Review