Big Serves and Big Data

Readers of my blog know that I'm a technology buff. After all, it's big part of how I keep the lights on. Lesser known, though, is that I fancy myself a respectable tennis player and a pretty big fan of the sport. Each September, I spend a decent amount of time watching the US Open.

Well, at this year's Open, IBM unveiled an exciting new SlamTracker feature. The Keys to the Match tool:

provides insight into what each player needs to do in order to have a higher likelihood of winning. We analyzed 39 million data points covering Grand Slam matches over the past seven years to provide analytic assessments of players and what they need to do to succeed.

Based on head-to-head games in the past, the system filters and ranks the top three keys to the match for each player. Examples might be the need for an individual player to return a certain percentage of second serves in order to win or whether longer points favor one opponent over the other. Take a look at the keys before the match, then follow a player’s performance against them as the sets progress. You’ll see in real time that they keys are a great predictor of success.