Tennis Intelligence

A tennis data journal · main-tour matches · from 1 October 2016

The journal · 2 sources

What we can draw.

These are the public datasets behind the charts. Read the edges, then ask for a plot that fits. Prefer a short note with the tour, the question, and which source you think it needs.

Request a chart ↓

Sources in plain language

01 Match warehouse

TennisMyLife match rows

One row per completed or retired main-tour (and related) match: winner and loser, surface, level, round, score, minutes when present, match-time ranks and points, and box-score serve/return lines when the feed has them. Local Elo and season aggregates are derived from this table.

  • Credit — TennisMyLife (stats.tennismylife.org), non-commercial use
  • Window — analysis from through about
  • On the site — Topics (hot-topic chapters)

We can draw

  • Win rates, Elo, and age curves for named players inside the window
  • Season counts: retirements, walkovers, top-10 churn, load for year-end top 20
  • Slam / Masters paths, seed upsets, ace and hold heatmaps by event
  • ATP and WTA side by side when both tours have the fields

We cannot (yet)

  • Career totals that need pre-2016 peaks (Big 3 primes sit partly outside)
  • Official year-end rankings lists (we use late-season match-time ranks as a proxy)
  • Shot-by-shot tactics — that is Match Charting, below
  • Live in-progress scores or betting odds

02 Match Charting

Jeff Sackmann point-level charts

Volunteer-charted matches with shot types, serve direction, rally length, winners and unforced errors. Linked to warehouse matches when names and dates align. Coverage is a sample of the tour, denser for top players, not every main-draw match.

We can draw

  • Drop-shot frequency and success, forehand / backhand quality scatters
  • Serve patterns (free points, first-serve in/won) for charted players
  • Style radars and attacker / grinder labels when charted volume is high enough
  • Men’s forehand speed when blended with published TennisViz / GIG Hawk-Eye averages

We cannot (yet)

  • Every player on tour — only those with enough charted matches
  • WTA forehand speed chapter (no published speed table wired yet)
  • Frame-by-frame tracking or Hawk-Eye trajectories from the ATP/WTA feeds

Schema (expand)

Field groups, not a full dump. Enough to judge whether a request fits.

Match warehouse — tables and fields

matches — grain: one match. Keys: match_id, event_key, winner_key, loser_key. Identity: tour, tier, tourney_*, surface, indoor, level_norm, round / round_order, best_of, score, minutes. Players: names, hand, height, IOC, age, seed, entry, match-time *_rank / *_rank_points. Box stats when present: aces, doubles, first/second serve in and won, return, breakpoints, etc.

players — bio and window span: player_key, hand, backhand, height, DOB, IOC, first/last match in window.

match_elo — per player per match: elo_pre, surface_elo_pre, post updates (local K=32, start 1500).

player_match_features — leak-safe pre-match row per side: ranks, Elo diffs, 52-week win %, H2H, rest, event form (from 2016-10-01).

player_style / playing_style — season aggregates and style labels (serve/return/safety/winners); charting columns fill in when linked volume is high.

charting_linked — chart_match_id ↔ warehouse match_id with date offset.

Caveats: score-inconsistent matches stay in matches but skip Elo/features; some 2026 rows lack a player id; not an official ATP/WTA feed.

Match Charting — files we use

Raw CSVs from the project (not fully loaded into DuckDB for plotting): match index, Overview stats, ShotTypes, ServeBasics, ServeDirection, Rally totals, and related aggregates. Plots join on charted player identity + aliases, then attach warehouse ranks when available.

Extra published inputs for men’s forehand speed only: TennisViz 52-week averages and GIG Australian Open Hawk-Eye figures (curated in code).

Style / radar gates typically want dozens of charted matches (often 40+) before charting-enriched metrics are trusted.

Request a chart

Public board — short note with the tour, the question, and which source you think it needs. Or email admin@tennisintelligence.org.

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