| |
BGonline.org Forums
OT Tennis
Posted By: Chris Haviland In Response To: OT Tennis (Stick)
Date: Wednesday, 11 September 2013, at 9:42 p.m.
I do. My guess would be nearly the same, but slightly less accomplished. There are two advantages to playing tennis left handed: 1) Most players are right handed, so the motion and ball spin of a left-handed player is less familiar. 2) On the ad-side, it's easier to get right-handed opponents out of position by spinning balls wide to the backhand. While righties enjoy this advantage on the deuce side, points on the ad-side are generally more important.
Clearly #1 is some kind of advantage. To estimate it, you would need to compare winning % vs. lefties to winning % vs. righties across a population of players. To measure #2, you would need individual point statistics grouped by player handedness and also by court side (ad vs. deuce).
If these were large advantages, I would expect left handedness to be more common among top tennis players than it is in the general population. If you look at just the very top I suppose it is, but that trend should exist at every level. I would also expect to see more (some) world class ambidextrous players.
Even if it turns out they are big advantages, I wouldn't be less impressed by Nadal, especially since he's not a natural lefty. That said, I admire Federer's game even more.
Chris H.
| |
BGonline.org Forums is maintained by Stick with WebBBS 5.12.