there are many derivative uses of sports statistics, but i think the value of stats ultimately stems from (1) an athlete's desire to compete and excel and (2) a

there are many derivative uses of sports statistics, but i think the value of stats ultimately stems from (1) an athlete's desire to compete and excel and (2) an expression of the athlete's identity. so what stats you take should be useful in one of those two contexts, e.g., how many aces, faults, breaks, etc. do you have? does that mean you have a power game or a finesse game? the first order of tennis stats comes from the open vision system described in the article: where the players and the ball are on winning shots. higher order stats come from understanding strategy and tactics (e.g., how each shot placement affects the outcome of each point, each game, each set, etc.) (i'm working on a system to capture real-time stats for amateur sports)