Big Data Tennis: How is this possible??

The first time I heard about Big Data Tennis (BDT), Matthew for short, he predicted that Serena Williams could beat nine out of the Top 10 seeds at the Indian Wells tournament.. No no no, not on the women's side, but on the men's side... How crazy is that prediction??? After he made that video, I just had to investigate. After reaching out to Matt on Instagram, we sat down and had a full on discussion about how his numbers come to light. And after awhile, it does make sense (for the most part).

I am not a big numbers/statistical kind of person but Matt had some very good points. One of the factors that stood out was including the surface type that players play on. Unlike Universal Tennis Rating (UTR), where it takes just past results into account in its algorithm, Big Data Tennis focuses on what kind of surface each player is playing on and how it comes into play during their match-up.

During this interview, we discuss: the Masses vs. Science, the many layered onion, and creating the first time machine when it comes to tennis data!