Effects of Time, Endurance, and Scoring Variables on Tennis Results

Abstract

Comparisons were made between match results using the traditional method of scoring tennis matches and match results using the Van Alen Simplified Scoring System (VASSS). Fourteen players from the Florida State University tennis team and 14 students from an intermediate tennis class at the Florida State University participated in the study. Each group of subjects, advanced and intermediate, played two separate round robin tournaments, one using traditional scoring and the other using VASSS. There was no significant difference between the mean match times of the two scoring systems. The variability of match times in the traditional method, however, was significantly greater than the variability of match times in the VASSS method at both ability levels. The same relationship held true for the mean number of points played per match except for a significant difference between the mean number of points played per match at the advanced level. Internal consistency within each tournament was above 90% in both traditional and VASSS advanced matches and above 85% in traditional and VASSS intermediate matches. Traditional and VASSS ranked results showed significant rho correlations of .90 at the advanced level and .91 at the intermediate level. No significant relationship was found between cardiovascular fitness utilizing Harvard Step Test rankings and tournament won-lost rankings.