Player Heights 1994-2005

[Hops]

re: discussion in Safin thread

http://www.tennis28.com/charts/Player_Heights.GIF

graph gives average height for Top 5/Top 10 .. Top 100 for Aug 1994 - present. Caveat: all data taken from ATP site, which you may or may not choose to believe, but for averages across eras I think data is relevant.

Top 100 has not changed much. Range between 183.5 - 185 (6' - 6'1")

Top 50 has dropped about a cm. Note for most of the period Top 50 > top 100, which means 1-50 were taller than 51-100

Top 25 has dropped significantly, current players are shorter than they've been for entire period. Can we blame this all on Goran and Rosset? And note that Top 25 (and top 10) player is now shorter than average top 100 player.

Top 10/Top 5 tend to jump around a lot more, simply because one data point can skew entire average to a greater degree. That said current top 10 is definitely shorter than late 1990s (brief 2005 spikes due to J Johansson)

 

[Hops]

adding one more thought, decline in past five years for top players has coincided with decline of carpet as major surface. Could be coincidence, or not.

 

[legolas]

hmmm, good reading i guess

 

[Z-Man]

Interesting--a few things come to mind that might be part of the explanation.

Racquet / string technology and technique have upped the pace of serves, but they have also improved returns. I'd like to see a chart of service breaks at grand slams over the years. Perhaps the improved return game has neutralized the advantage of a big serve. Or maybe it's the other way around--the new racquets allow shorter players to get more on the serve. Again, I'd like to see data on service breaks.

Have the balls gotten heavier over time?

I hear surfaces are getting slower, especially grass. This would favor the clay-courters and baseliners. And aren't there more baseliners out there these days anyway? The style of play has changed, and movement has become more important than reach at the net. I wonder what a chart of top doubles players would look like...

As tennis has declined in the US, there might be fewer hard court tournaments. I'd like to see a graph on that, but it seems like there are tons of European and South American tourmanents on clay. There are only a few grass tournaments. And tennis seems to be booming in Spain and Argentina--two countries that are turning out lots of medium-build dirt ballers.

Lastly, you've got the Coria-Rochus effect.

 

[doriancito]

lets see if i catch this.....old tennis players from 1994 were taller...and are getting shorter as we go through time (time does not go through, we go through it, gringo beckert)

 

[35ft6]

Interesting. Thanks for the link. I guess I was wrong about the top 150 players being on average taller now than in 1995 (maybe the extra 50 players would make a difference, maybe not, oh well...).