U.S. Open Player Spin (Page 1)

The two primary characteristics of the shots hit in professional tennis are that they are hit with great velocity and heavy spin. Because of the radar guns on the serve, at least something was known quantitatively about the velocity of the ball. Before the beginning of our project, virtually nothing was known about the amount of spin hit by the top players.

Our study of ball speed showed that the radar guns told only the first part of the story about ball speed in pro tennis. We found that the ball slows down dramatically on the serve from the initial velocity recorded by the radar gun, both before and after the bounce, and did the same on the other shots as well. But at least with the radar gun, tennis players and fans have had some sense of the speed in the game, and a way to compare players to each other, at least on the serve.