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JOURNAL
OF
SPORTS SCIENCE &
MEDICINE
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Research
article
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RETIRED MATCHES AMONG MALE PROFESSIONAL TENNIS PLAYERS |
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Kristijan Breznik1 
and Vladimir Batagelj2 |
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1International School for Social and Business Studies, Celje, Slovenia; 2Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia |
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© Journal of Sports Science and Medicine (2012) 11, 270 - 278 |
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| ABSTRACT | |||
| The aim of this study was to explore the effect of characteristics
of various games and players on the proportion of retired tennis matches
in the Open Era of tennis. The data included over 420,000 matches played
among 17,553 tennis players in the period from 1968 to the end of 2010.
The influence of the surface type was clearly confirmed, with the proportion
of retired matches being higher on hard and clay courts compared to grass
and carpet surfaces. Similarly, more retired matches were observed in outdoor
venues than in indoor ones. The impact of other variables, tournament types,
rounds at which the game was played and both players' ranks, is more ambiguous.
Our interpretation of the obtained results is presented in the paper. Network
analytic methods were applied to extract players with the most retired matches
in their careers. Eventually, we defined a group of top tennis players and
gave a more precise insight into retired matches in that group. Correspondence
analysis was used to visually display the two-mode network of top players
and the proportion of retired matches by surface type. Key words: Tennis surface, individual sport, network analysis. |
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