A Study of Tennis Tournaments by Means of an Agent-Based Model Calibrated with a Genetic Algorithm

Abstract

In this work, we study the sport of tennis, with the aim of understanding competitions and the associated quantities that determine their outcome. We construct an agent-based model that is able to produce data analogous to real data taken from Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tournaments. This model depends on three parameters: the talent weight, the talent distribution width, and the chance distribution width. Unlike other similar works, we do not fix the values of these parameters and we calibrate the model results with the help of a genetic algorithm, thus exploring all possible combinations of parameters in the parameter space that are able to reproduce real system data. We show that the model fits the real data well only for limited regions of the parameter space. Limiting the region of interest in the parameter space allows us to perform further calibrations of the model that give us more information about the competition under study. Finally, we are able to provide useful information about tennis competitions, obtaining quantitative information about all of the important parameters and quantities related to these competitions with very limited a priori constraints. Through our approach, differing from those of other works, we confirm the importance of chance in the studied competitions, which has a weight of around 80% in determining the outcome of tennis competitions.