* SERG PhD Opportunity [OPEN 2024] *

Tennis is a dynamic and widely celebrated sport that captivates millions around the world with its blend of athleticism, strategy, and finesse. Played on a rectangular court, tennis involves two opponents, or teams of two, who use rackets to hit a ball back and forth over a net. The objective is to outmanoeuvre the opponent by accurately placing shots within the boundaries of the court, aiming to score points by forcing errors or hitting winners.

Tennis enjoys widespread popularity globally, with millions of participants and spectators. Professional tournaments like the Grand Slams draw massive audiences, while recreational players fill courts in parks and clubs. Its accessibility, thrilling gameplay, and star athletes contribute to its status as one of the world’s most beloved sports. As such at an elite level, the smallest of marginal advantages can be the difference between international accolade and second place.

Within SERG, to seek out these marginal advantages, we have turned our sights to short points. Shorts points, in tennis, refer to rallies that are brief in duration, typically involving only a few shots exchanged between players before a point is won. These points are characterised by aggressive and decisive play, where players aim to end the rally quickly by hitting winners or forcing errors from their opponents. Short points often occur as a result of powerful serves, well-placed returns, or aggressive net play, leading to a swift conclusion of the rally. Our previous SERG PhD research programme – partnered with the Lawn Tennis Association and Wimbledon – showed that success in short points (four-ball strikes or less) is highly correlated with winning in tennis. However, what we don’t know is how players construct and link these four ball strikes together to create a high success rate at winning the point. As such we have opened up a new SERG PhD opportunity. In this PhD, you will attempt to determine the causal structure of short points in tennis and the relationship with point outcome. Such understanding will guide applied practice by facilitating the design of more representative training tasks, which, at present, are typically based on anecdotal or qualitative constraints.

Throughout the PhD you will apply sophisticated data analysis techniques, such as machine learning, to the International Tennis Federation’s large Hawk-Eye dataset of 3D ball trajectory and 2D player positioning data to accomplish four key objectives:

1.     Validate the importance of short points in tennis

Our current findings are based on Grass and Clay courts only. Here, you will validate the importance of short points on all surface types and match formats in tennis. To do so, you will replicate the analysis techniques used by Fitzpatrick et al. and apply them to a larger/ more diverse tennis dataset provided by the International Tennis Federation.

2.     Create a data-driven taxonomy of shot types

Shots are the building blocks of points. Shot types, therefore, will form the basis of your analysis. A data-driven approach to clustering shots allows us to move away from traditional univariate analyses, e.g., the effect of speed, first/second serve, and allows us to explore all facets simultaneously.

3.     Create a feature of metrics that describes the player’s environment at each shot

To help determine the causal structure of short points in tennis, we need to understand whether different point structures emerge under different environmental constraints. To do so, you will need to augment each shot in our dataset with a feature that describes the athlete environment at each time point. This feature could include traditional metrics, e.g., first/ second serve, time in match, and point differential, as well as more complex covariates such as player styles, point importance, and past point memory.

4.     Model the causal structure of short points in tennis

Using the outputs of Objective 2 and 3, you will model the causal structure of short points in tennis and their relationship with point outcome. Potential avenues of investigation here include: (1) whether certain features strongly affect point structure. For example, the serve type may heavily influence the point length; and (2) identifying reoccurring ‘DNA strings’, i.e. shot types that commonly follow shot types, and how/ if these relate to the features of the athlete environment.

Interested in applying?

We are offering a Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) scholarship to determine the causal structure of short points in tennis and the relationship with point outcome. The GTA scheme aims to develop highly skilled postgraduate researchers who are well prepared to enter a career in academia or research. The GTA scheme is an opportunity for you to receive a 3.5-year full-time PhD scholarship at Sheffield Hallam University. While supporting the PhD research, you will carry out up to 180 hours of teaching or teaching-related activity per academic year, with the intention of providing opportunities to develop a rounded academic portfolio.

For further details on the research project, the scholarship, and details of how to apply please follow this LINK or contact the director of studies – Dr Andy Hext. For further reading, please have a look at our recent open-access publications:

• Fitzpatrick, A., Stone, J., Choppin, S., & Kelley, J. (2023). Analysing Hawk-Eye ball-tracking data to explore successful serving and returning strategies at Wimbledon. International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport. http://doi.org/10.1080/24748668.2023.2291238
• Anderson, E., Stone, J., Dunn, M., & Heller, B. (2021). Coach Approaches to Practice Design in Performance Tennis. International Journal of Sports Science and Coaching. http://doi.org/10.1177/17479541211027294
• Fitzpatrick, A., Stone, J., Choppin, S., & Kelley, J. (2021). Investigating the most important aspect of grass court tennis: short points. International Journal of Sports Science and Coaching. http://doi.org/10.1177/1747954121999593
• Fitzpatrick, A., Stone, J., Choppin, S., & Kelley, J. (2019). Important performance characteristics in elite clay and grass court tennis match-play. International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport. http://doi.org/10.1080/24748668.2019.1685804
• Fitzpatrick, A., Stone, J., Choppin, S., & Kelley, J. (2019). A simple new method for identifying performance characteristics associated with success in elite tennis. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, 14 (1), 43-50. https://doi.org/10.1177/1747954118809089

To apply for the GTA scholarship, you must complete and submit an application form here along with a detailed 1,500-word research proposal addressing the project title. The closing date for applications is Wednesday 15th May 2024 at 12:00 GMT.