The Study of the Relation between Rankings and Tournaments Host for Junior Tennis Players

Abstract

Purpose: The correlation analysis is held between boys` tennis rankings and tournaments host in their continents. Method: The data were retrieved from the International Tennis Federation (ITF) website. Two types of data were retrieved: Their nationalities for the top 300 junior athletes, and the times of tournaments held in each continent. Each tournament was classified as Class I, II or III. Product-moment correlation analysis was used to examine the correlation between the numbers of ITF top 300 junior athletes in each continent and the times of tournaments held in each continent. Result: The correlation between the number of top 100 players and Class 1 tournaments held is 0.83. The number of top 101-200 players has higher correlation with Class2 tournaments. However, all rankings has the highest correlation with both the classified 3 tournaments (0.94~0.97), and the frequency of hosting ITF tournaments (0.96~0.99) (p<.05). Conclusion: To improve junior athlete`s ITF ranking to top 300, we should host more junior level tournaments, and elevate the tournament to a higher level.

目的：分析青少年男子網球選手排名分佈與舉辦賽事地區之相關。方法：本研究截取國際網球協會（International Tennis Federation, ITF）網站上排名前300名青少年國籍資料，並截取2013年世界各洲舉辦ITF國際青少年的各級賽事（等級Ⅰ、Ⅱ與Ⅲ）之次數，以積差相關分析各洲排名前300的男子青少年選手與世界各洲舉辦ITF國際青少年賽事次數和賽事等級之相關情形。結果：前100名與等級Ⅰ的相關最高（0.83），排名101-200名的選手與等級Ⅱ的賽事次數相關較高（0.97），而前300名與等級Ⅲ（0.94~0.97）及賽事總次數（0.96~0.99）皆有高相關(p<.05)。結論：為增加青少年排名前進前300名人數，應多舉辦青少年比賽，並提高賽事等級。