Another year in the books, and the Match Charting Project keeps reaching new heights.
Here are just a few milestones we’ve hit recently:
- 17,000 charted matches
- 10,000,000 (yes, ten million) charted shots
- 1,000 different women with at least one charted match (we reached the same number of men last year)
2025 was the most productive year yet for the project. For the second year running, we added more than 2,000 matches. More than 1,400 of them were from the 2025 season itself, meaning that we kept the database up-to-date in close to real time.
Do the math, and you’ll see that we boosted the historical data, as well. 2025 brought in nearly 800 matches from previous seasons. While we long ago finished up the biggest matches of the past (slam finals and semi-finals, masters finals, big-four meetings, etc.), we’re continuing to flesh out the 30-plus years before the start of the project. Contributors dug into the archives and charted dozens of tour-level finals, second-week slam matches, and consequential Davis Cup rubbers.
Of all the stats I could cite to illustrate the MCP’s progress, my favorite is that 2025 saw more contributors than any previous year. 32 different people charted matches. Three contributors (plus yours truly) have crossed the 1,000-match mark, with one more likely to do so in the next few weeks. Another dedicated contributor has already submitted 300 matches despite getting started barely one year ago.
You can help, too. 1,400 current-year matches sounds like a lot–it is a lot!–but it is only represents about one-quarter of tour-level contests. (Plus, we do ITFs and Challengers!) We have Sabalenka, Swiatek, Alcaraz, Sinner and a few other personal favorites pretty well covered, but there’s always a need to deepen our coverage of the rest of the tour.
Here’s the Quick Start Guide. Charting isn’t for everybody, and it takes a little time and effort to learn. Still, you might be one of the select few to discover that you love it.
The benefits accrue to the entire tennis community. In addition to the detailed match reports (like this one for the Sincaraz US Open final), the Tennis Abstract site has detailed charting data on every player page (here’s Mirra) and leaderboards full of stats you won’t find anywhere else.
Much of the raw data is available, as well. The MCP is one of the most underrated, underused tennis datasets. Like charting itself, it’s complicated: Making sense of shot-by-shot data is tricky business, even before you write your first line of code. But if you want to go beyond aces, break points, and Elo ratings, this is where you’ll end up. A ton of the research on this blog is powered by MCP data, and I always feel like I ought to do more.
Here’s to an even better 2026 full of charts both epic and obscure. I hope you’ll join us.