ABSTRACT
To win a singles event at a Grand Slam tennis tournament, a player must win seven singles matches within two weeks. Because tennis is a score-dependent rather than timedependent sport, some matches may be longer than others resulting in fatigue and performance decrements. Long tennis matches played in hot environmental conditions can result in cramps and even heat stroke (Therminarias et al., 1995). Tennis can also cause elbow injuries (Renström, 1995) and other injuries that may result in reduced performance or even player withdrawal from tournaments. In Grand Slam tournaments, men’s singles matches are the best of five sets whereas ladies’ singles matches are the best of three. However, rallies are longer in ladies’ singles than in men’s singles (O’Donoghue and Ingram, 2001). Players in Grand Slam tournaments who win matches relatively quickly may have an advantage over opponents in subsequent rounds who have required more time on court during their early round matches. The purpose of the current investigation was to compare the performance of the higher and lower ranked player within Grand Slam singles matches where they had played different numbers of sets in the previous two rounds of the tournament.
