Analysis of the Impact of Unforced Errors in Tennis

Abstract

This paper considers the impact of unforced errors in sport. Although the proposed methods are applicable to various sports, we demonstrate the approach in the context of professional tennis. The value of the approach is that we can provide estimates of the points lost, games lost, sets lost and matches lost due to unforced errors. The methods are based on a bootstrapping procedure which also yields standard errors for the estimates. The approach is valuable in terms of player evaluation, and can also be used for training purposes where it is possible to assess the quantification of improvement based on fewer unforced errors.