You have bought a long-desired tennis shoe on a treasure, and in the next few days your App homepage will appear link pictures of tennis rackets, knee pads, sports watches and other products. Not only is it a treasure's App, you will see the latest tennis news after opening a certain App, and it is easier to brush short videos of tennis when brushing vibrato.
All your actions on the Web, the links you click on, the time you spend on a page, and the comments you participate in will be recorded, and this data will be handed over to the background for calculation and analysis. As a result, your age, consumption habits, hobbies, and potential shopping desires will be accurately portrayed, and the scene at the beginning of this article will occur next.
That's the scary thing about big data — it knows you better than you do, understands your preferences, and prepares you for what you're going to buy even before you realize what you're going to buy. Just like some people join the WeChat shopping group and buy a lot of goods that are not too needed.
In fact, big data technology is not only used for daily consumption and advertising, but also professional tennis players have begun to use it to improve training results, accurately identify opponents' weaknesses and develop effective tactics.
After the 2020 Australian Open lottery came out, the 14th seed Kenning was not familiar to the public, and the 21-year-old had never reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam, just an ordinary girl on the tour.
Before reaching the semi-finals, two of Kenning's five opponents were qualifiers, without encountering any seeded players, and her path to advancement did not attract public attention. In the semi-finals, Kenning met the top seed, Australian native Barty, which was the most important game of Kenning's career. Before the start of the game, few people were still optimistic that Kenning would be able to beat Barty.
However, Kenning knew she could defeat this formidable opponent because she had a secret weapon.
As soon as the semi-final matchup was signed, the U.S. Tennis Association's data analysis team immediately began to work, collecting and collating Barty's match data and video footage, and after in-depth calculation and analysis, tailored the tactics against Barty for Kenning.
"Kenning's main problem is the forehand, she is more likely to make mistakes when facing pressure, so we recommend that she not easily change the straight line when the conditions are not available. For Barty, her recent backhand performance has not been satisfactory, so we recommend that Kenning try to hit Barty's backhand position as much as possible and shoot early to compress Barty's return time. If this were done, Kenning would disrupt Barty's plans and shake her confidence. David Ramos, director of player development at the U.S. Tennis Association, said.
This strategy proved to work very well.
In the first half of the first set, Kenning had about 1/3 of the balls hit Barty in a straight line with his forehand towards Barty's backhand position, which greatly suppressed Barty's offensive firepower. You can see Barty looking at her coach questioningly, thinking, 'What the hell is going on now?' Ramos added.
Kenning won 7-6 (6)/7-5 and defeated Muguruzza in the final two days later to win his first Grand Slam title. Among them, the four-member technical team of the American Tennis Association is indispensable.
It's not just Kenning, the four-man team provided data analysis and technical support to each American player at that year's Grand Slam, but when the two American players played against each other, they no longer provided that service to the players.
At this year's Australian Open, there are 51 single players in the United States participating in the qualifiers and main matches, due to Australia's strict entry measures, the four-person team can not follow the players to Melbourne to provide support, they in the United States to organize data collation and processing analysis, to provide remote support for players in Australia.
The U.S. Tennis Association not only uses big data analytics for players' tactical guidance, they used the technology as early as 2009 in the daily training of players. Researchers have developed wearable devices for recording heart rate and swing speed, and players' performance during training is recorded in digital form, which is then handed over to professionals for evaluation and analysis, according to which training plans are formulated and adjusted.
"Tennis has long been seen as an art, but we're trying to incorporate modern technology into it. We not only record and analyze objective data, but also have specialized personnel involved in the psychological construction of players, and we closely combine these two aspects so that the effect will be better. Ramos said.
Not only that, but the U.S. Tennis Association also extended this work to the Australian Open. Before the coronavirus outbreak, the U.S. Tennis Association sent two people to Melbourne Park early after Christmas to prepare for the upcoming Australian Open, which would provide them with data and matches videos and an office.
In return, the U.S. Tennis Association also provides technical support to Tennis Australia during the U.S. Open, and the two major tennis organizations often exchange data to discuss and exchange big data analysis methods and experiences.
Careful fans will find that this year's Australian Open will give new statistics after the end of each set, reflecting the physical consumption of players, such as the number of high-intensity physical conversions, sprint runs, etc. The image below depicts the physical exertion statistics of Nadal's first set against Khachanov last night.
Not only the American and Australian Tennis Associations, but also some athletes will also develop tactics based on the results of big data analysis.
Earlier this month, Sports Illustrated published an article reporting on how Djokovic is using big data to serve himself.
Before the U.S. Open, Djokovic usually lived in Manhattan, but on the estate of his old friend Gordon Uehling, a tennis coach obsessed with big data analytics. The estate has three tennis courts and is said to be built to exactly the same standards as The Wimbledon Centre Court, The French Open Philippe Chatier and the US Open Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Here, Djokovic can not only adapt to the court in advance, but also consult the large number of tennis data collected by Ulin, which describes the players' technical strengths and shortcomings, so that he can understand each opponent in advance.
For top players like Djokovic, big data analytics is the icing on the cake; for Kenning, who reached the Australian Open semi-finals and finals for the first time in 2020, big data analytics is more like a blessing in disguise.
Know yourself and know the other, win every battle. Big data knows you better than you, and it also makes you understand your opponents better. In the future, big data will change the lives of each of us and will also profoundly affect the transformation of tennis. (Source: Tennis House Author: Yun Cirrus Yunshu)
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