2020 Volume 25 Issue 2 Pages 85-92
A skilled service is important for an effective tennis match. There are primarily three types of tennis service styles: a flat service, a slice service, and a kick service. There is a trade-off between the speed at which a tennis ball is served and its RPM. Studies indicate that a high-quality kick service or slice service requires hitting the ball at a high speed with a rapid spin. Japanese top tennis players including Kei Nishikori have ascended to the top of the rankings at the ATP World Tour tournaments, but no study has quantified the speed and spin rate of tennis balls served by Japanese top-ranked professional male tennis players (Pro group), top university male tennis players (UT group), and top junior male tennis players (JrT group). This study compared and quantified the correlation in ball speed and RPM within the top tier of each competition level in japan (Pro group, UT group, JrT group) to determine the relationship between the level of competition and the service success rate.
The following were revealed. 1) A significant negative correlation between the speed at which a ball is served and its spin rate (trade-off relationship) was observed in all groups, as measured using TRACKMAN. 2) The higher the competition level, the greater the tendency of the values to be at the upper right of the graph (X axis speed, Y axis RPM). 3) The performance of the serve can be evaluated from ball speed, RPM and the number of attempts to achieve the task.
