Research has shown that short points (points of 0–4 shots) are crucial in determining the outcome of elite men’s and women’s grass court tennis matches. However, research has not explored the importance of short points in more detail to inform practice design. This study aimed to establish the prevalence and importance of individual rally lengths within short points (i.e. points of 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4 shots) in terms of winning elite grass court tennis matches. Using the recently-validated PWOL (Percentage of matches in which the Winner Outscored the Loser) method, point-level data from 211 men’s and 209 women’s Wimbledon singles matches between 2015 and 2017 were analysed, with short points stratified into individual rally lengths. Results revealed that 1 shot (aces and missed serve-returns) was the most common rally length, with 0 shots (double faults) the least common. Points won of 1 shot, 2 shots and 4 shots were associated with winning matches and can therefore be considered important, but points won of 0 shots and 3 shots were not associated with match outcome. These results highlight the importance of serving and returning strategies at Wimbledon, and indicate that serves and serve-returns should be afforded focus during grass court training. However, the findings appear to contravene anecdotal assertions that ‘serve plus one’ strategies (points won of 3 shots) are crucial in elite tennis, as they did not differentiate winning and losing players; so coaches should consider the associated practice designs and amount of time afforded to such strategies.

研究表明，短点（0-4分）对于决定男女草地网球精英比赛的结果至关重要。但是，研究还没有更详细地探讨短点对指导实践设计的重要性。这项研究的目的是在赢得精英草地网球比赛方面确定短距离（即0、1、2、3和4杆得分）内个人拉力赛长度的普遍性和重要性。使用最近验证的PWOL（获胜者在输家中胜出的比赛百分比）方法，分析了2015年至2017年之间211场男子和209场女子温网单打比赛的得分水平数据，并将短点分为单独的拉力赛长度。结果显示1枪（王牌和发球失误）是最常见的回合长度，最不常见的是0发（双误）。1球，2球和4球的获胜点与获胜比赛相关，因此可以认为很重要，但0球和3球的获胜点与比赛结果无关。这些结果凸显了温布尔登的发球和退球策略的重要性，并表明在草场训练期间应着重发球和发球。但是，这一发现似乎违反了传闻中的“发球加一”策略（三分获胜））在精英网球中至关重要，因为它们无法区分获胜者和输者；因此，教练应考虑相关的练习设计以及为此类策略提供的时间。