SAP announces SAP Tennis Analytics for media

Lewis runs through major features for SAP Tennis Analytics for media.

SAP and the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) have announced a new online portal that provides data and insights to media in real time during WTA tournaments. The company is already providing real-time insights to WTA fans, players and coaches, making media a logical extension of the target audience.

SAP Tennis Analytics for media will be available exclusively for WTA-credentialed media at the start of the 2018 WTA tour, and is being trialled by media in Singapore at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global Developments, the culmination of the WTA season.

SAP Tennis Analytics for media helps enhance stories before, during and after matches and serves as a comprehensive database housing key and informative WTA stats gathered over the course of 20 years. The software applies SAP Leonardo machine learning capabilities and SAP Predictive Analytics software to provide deeper analysis and insights based on historical and live data. 

Media can customise the software based on individual needs. The technology is available across devices, including mobile phones and tablets, so the media can access the portal no matter where they are located as well as when they are on the go. They can access instant side-by-side player, tournament and career comparisons during live matches. 

"The role of data in tennis continues to grow in importance across the entire tennis community, and particularly among tennis journalists who play an integral role in storytelling throughout the season," said Micky Lawler, President, WTA. "The opportunity now to have access to SAP's blueprint of real-time insights can take the art of tennis journalism to new heights. Our fabulous partnership with SAP continues to deliver innovations that improve the sport for our fans and all of our stakeholders around the world."

To ensure that SAP Tennis Analytics for media is a valuable resource optimised for reporters' unique needs, SAP has been securing feedback from key tennis media and the tennis community for the last few years. Eighteen-time Grand Slam champion and tennis broadcaster Chris Evert has been collaborating with SAP on the development of SAP Tennis Analytics for media. 

"As a broadcaster, having access to SAP Tennis Analytics for media is really valuable," said Evert. "I am more informed, concise and my commentary is more insightful. The data is great because it reinforces what I see during the course of a match and that allows me to deliver a better experience for the viewer."

Said Jenni Lewis, head of tennis technology, SAP: "The real-time nature of insights provided by SAP Tennis Analytics for media has the ability to help media create richer content and change the way our audiences utilise data before, during and after tournament play." 

Lewis highlighted for instance that the portal shows Karolina Pliskova had 443 aces in the 2017 season prior to the games played on 24 October, lower than the number of aces she made in previous seasons. However, the data also shows Pliskova is still winning overall because she also had a higher number of unreturned serves. "She's still winning (games) but winning them a different way," Lewis said.

In an unreturned serve, the opponent was able to touch the ball but unable to get it into the player's court. An ace is a serve that the opponent was unable to touch let alone try to return. Both types of moves win points for the player. 

Lewis also introduced an "alerts" feature that notifies media of any outliers in benchmarked player data, accompanied by meaningful insights. "You are alerted to the fact that something is different from what it normally is," she said.

"This is pitched at the blogger, or someone who doesn't write about tennis every week. With alerts we are able to tell the journalist what we are looking for, what's the story that I could tell about this, as it changes."

Lewis said that environmental factors that tennis players may not be interested in, such as how their play may be affected by altitude, time of day, or the weather, may still be of interest to media and can be added to the database. She also noted that tennis is just the start for SAP - the software can be used to track other content for media as well. 

"We will never replace journalists," she said. "We want to be the assistants to journalists, to (help them) tell a better story out there."

The WTA is the global leader in women's professional sport, with more than 2,500 players representing nearly 100 nations and competing for a record US$139 million in prize money. The 2017 WTA competitive season includes 55 events and four Grand Slams in 32 countries. It concludes with the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore, presented by SC Global October 22-29, and the WTA Elite Trophy in Zhuhai, China, October 31-November 5. Now in the fifth year of their partnership, SAP and the WTA continue to collaborate on providing innovative technologies for the tennis community that help advance and grow the sport around the world.

Explore:

Read the TechTrade Asia blog post about the SAP and WTA journey on SAP Tennis Analytics for coaches and what the response was like to SAP Tennis Analytics in 2015

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