Analysis of the Impact of Unforced Errors in Tennis

TL;DR

This paper introduces a bootstrapping-based method to quantify the impact of unforced errors in tennis, providing valuable metrics for player evaluation and training optimization.

Contribution

It presents a novel statistical approach to estimate points, games, sets, and matches lost due to unforced errors in tennis, applicable to other sports.

Findings

Estimates of points lost due to unforced errors.

Standard errors for the estimates provided.

Method demonstrated in professional tennis context.

Abstract

This paper considers the impact of unforced errors in sport. Although the proposed methods are applicable to various sports, we demonstrate the approach in the context of professional tennis. The value of the approach is that we can provide estimates of the points lost, games lost, sets lost and matches lost due to unforced errors. The methods are based on a bootstrapping procedure which also yields standard errors for the estimates. The approach is valuable in terms of player evaluation, and can also be used for training purposes where it is possible to assess the quantification of improvement based on fewer unforced errors.