Sony Ericssson WTA Tour Introduces Power Index Statistic
Posted by Aaress Lawless on Aug 7, 2007 | Print |
The next time you want to know who is the most powerful woman on the WTA Tour, you’ll have to look no further than the Tour’s official website.
For years, one of the only ways to estimate a player’s power was to track serve and return speed. Now, the Tour’s partnership with Hawk-Eye (instant replay system) has enabled a new statistic to be tracked, the power index.
The new statistic will present a totaled analysis of a player’s fastest shots during a match including: first and second serves, groundstroke (forehand or backhand), first and second-serve returns and smash/volley. The final Power Index “score” is an average of all six individual statistics.
“We’re excited about the introduction of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Power Index and think it’s another great way to recognize the extraordinary talent, athleticism and sheer power of our top players,” said Tour President Stacy Allaster in a press release.
“Other leading professional sports have introduced new methods to measure and compare the performance of their players to provide another level of insight for fans. The power index affords that same opportunity for women’s tennis.”
The power index statistics will be updated at the Tour website after every tournament.
Although power players are the norm on the Tour right now, many top players are not classified as the “Big Babes “of tennis.
Take a look at Justine Henin, the current world number one. Yes, the Belgian hits with a fair amount of power, but her game revolves more around variety and accuracy, than ace speed and service returns. Amelie Mauresmo, who won two Grand Slams in 2006, may not even factor into the list.
The power index will attest to the “sheer power” of the players, but in the long run, don’t look at this as the measure of skill or success.
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