Game Theory in Professional Tennis
Source: https://nyuad.nyu.edu/en/news/latest-news/world-and-societies/2017/june/experts-test-game-theory-on-world-s-top-tennis-players.html
As a longtime tennis player and fan of the sport, my interest was piqued when tennis was brought up during our lectures on games and mixed strategy. I had never considered this link before, and wanted to find out more. I discovered the article “Experts Test Game Theory on World’s Top Tennis Players,” in which NYU professor of economics John Wooders discussed his paper on whether professional tennis players behave in accordance with Nash equilibrium when they serve. The data they analyzed revealed that players indeed adhered to the theory of Nash equilibrium, higher-ranked players even more closely, and male players more closely than females. Wooders also concluded that players “switch direction of serve too often to be random… we think that people are trying to be random but they’re just not very good at it”.
Wooders’ work aligns with the concepts we have learned in class about Nash equilibrium and mixed strategy. The best strategy in tennis serves is to serve randomly and unpredictably, with as little influence from previous serves as possible. This is because if a player were to serve too many times in one location, their opponent could quickly identify their strategy and be prepared to return the ball. This also means that there is no dominant strategy in tennis. As discussed in the article, this makes tennis a very difficult game to play. However, the best players successfully leverage game theory—although perhaps not in such a “scholarly way,” as Wooders puts it—by randomizing their serves and studying tapes to get the upper hand on their opponents.