At the 2019 Next Generation ATP Finals, pro tennis players will be allowed to wear tracking technology for the first time during competition. The tournament is being held Nov. 5-9 in Milan, Italy.
The annual Next Gen Finals are entering their third year, and feature the best men’s players aged 21 or younger. In a press release, the ATP Tour did not specify which devices would be implemented, only saying they will consist of a GPS receiver and inertial sensors to measure velocity, acceleration and rotation, and a heart rate monitor to track an athlete’s internal workload. A range of different types of wearable tech is already being used to track player performance across international tennis, as Joe Lemire recently explored.
Data from the devices will be used to create maps of a player’s on-court movements and actions. That information will only be accessible to the individual player and coaches he chooses to share accessibility with. According to the ATP, players and coaches at the tournament will be provided with post-match and post-practice reports, and they will also be able to synchronise data with video from matches for context.
The ATP Tour has previously used the Next Gen Finals to demo new technology. In 2017, Hawk-Eye debuted its new automated line call system there.
