Wimbledon grass patterns

This might surprise you, but the grass at the Wimbledon tennis tournament is not the same as the grass in people’s backyards. It has to stay short so that tennis balls maintain speed and bounce and strong enough to hold up to professional tennis play. For Reuters, Travis Hartman and Ally J. Levine illustrate the differences between court surfaces and how grass impacts play.

I’m into the tennis textures used throughout the piece.

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Serena Williams beat every Grand Slam champion

Serena Wiliams’ tennis career is impressive for its success and longevity, which are easily seen here. The Athletic compiled a list of the Grand Slam champions that Williams beat between 1991 and 2019, which happens to be everyone.

Sometimes the simplest presentation is best. In this example, the angle they looked at the data makes the graphic.

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Science of the tennis toss

To serve the ball in tennis, a player first tosses the ball in the air. The New York Times explained the details behind the simple action, from mechanics, positioning, to point of contact. They got fancy with it.

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Losses and comebacks of Serena Williams

We tend to celebrate the wins in sports and often forget about or don’t see the climb that athletes take to get to the top. Artur Galocha and Adrian Blanco, for The Washington Post, look back at Serena Williams’ winning career, focusing on who or what she had to compete against from age 15 to 40.

They start with a wideout view that shows Williams’ full career. Then they zoom in to notable career milestones where past competitors fade in and out of the picture. Years and age run along the same axis, and annotation points to key wins.

The timeline view is simple and static, but it is well-made.

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Serena Williams’ career rankings

Serena Williams announced her retirement from professional tennis. As is required for any milestone by a great athlete, a step chart from The New York Times shows her world ranking over time.

I like the focus on the higher rankings, which is fitting for the occasion, and dotted lines that indicate the smaller chunks of time Williams ranked below 20.

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Questioning Novak Djokovic’s Covid tests, based on data

Tennis player Novak Djokovic is not vaccinated against the coronavirus, and as a result, was not allowed to compete in the Australian Open. Data collated by the BBC suggests that Djokovic lied about his Covid-19 test results in an attempt to get around rules:

The confirmation codes in all cases slotted into the same chronological timeline as our initial batch sent by BBC colleagues and showed that the earlier the test result date, the lower the confirmation code.

The only outlier of all the confirmation codes we’ve plotted was Mr Djokovic’s positive test on 16 December.

See also Zerforschung’s questioning from earlier this month.

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Roger Federer career in rankings and wins

Professional tennis player Roger Federer won his 20th Grand Slam title recently. He’s in year 20 of his career, and over time, he rose, he dominated, he declined, and he came back. Schweizer Radio and Fernsehen visualized Federer’s achievements over the years and compared him to other tennis stars in the process.

It reminds me of the Serena Williams piece by The Los Angeles Times a while back. This one is more refined though. I especially like the updating time series line that stays with you as you scroll. It shows where you are contextually, and provides progression for different parts of Federer’s career.

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Serena Williams, greatest of all time

Serena Williams GOAT

Serena Williams, who plays tonight in the U.S. Open semifinal, might be the greatest tennis player of all time. Kyle Kim for the Los Angeles Times provides a numbers rundown to make the case.

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Maps to understand tennis

Maps for tennis

Damien Saunder, a cartographer at ESRI, likes to use mapping methods to evaluate tennis player patterns and tendencies.

When I look at tennis, I see it moving on a grid. I see space and x/y coordinates [position] and I see z values [height], and I see trajectories of the balls, and space opening up. I started GameSetMap to try and educate people of the value of mapping where people are on the court, storing the data in a GIS, and visualizing it.

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Be a tennis line judge: Interactive tests your skills

Tennis line judge

The job of a tennis line judge can be though when you have to judge the difference of a few millimeters as a ball speeds by. Sure, it's easy to complain about bad calls at home, where we get to see replays in slow motion, but it's more challenging in real life. The Wall Street Journal provides a bit of the experience with an interactive game. Watch video clips from a line judge's point of view, and try to make the right call.

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