Influence of scaling on match play characteristics in youth tennis: A systematic review

Scaled tennis is the downsized version of adult tennis and aims to allow youth players to play a type of tennis that resembles adult tennis. However, since the different scaling conditions (red, orange, lime and green tennis court) were chosen pragmatically it is unclear whether the match play characteristics of scaled tennis resemble those of adult tennis. It is also unclear whether the match play characteristics are comparable between the different scaling conditions (allowing a smooth transition through the scaled courts). Therefore, this systematic review aims to compare match play characteristics in scaled tennis to adult tennis, and to compare match play characteristics across the different scaling conditions. The PubMed, Web of Science and SPORTDiscus (EBSCO) databases were searched until November 2021. The match play characteristics included first serve percentage, percentage of first serve points won, percentage of second serve points won, percentage of total serve points won, number of aces, number of double faults, winners’ percentage, unforced errors percentage, percentage of break points won, rally duration and inter contact time. The systematic search identified 887 records and six studies were included. All included match play characteristics, apart from the percentage of second serve points won and a number of double faults, showed significant differences between scaled tennis and adult tennis. Similarly, all included match play characteristics, except for a number of double faults, showed significant differences between the different scaling conditions. Based on these results, future research is needed to optimise the different scaling conditions in terms of match play characteristics.