Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Win at All Costs or Lose Gracefully in High-Stakes Competition? Gender Differences in Professional Tennis

Anbarci, N.; Lee, J.; Ulker, A.

Win at All Costs or Lose Gracefully in High-Stakes Competition? Gender Differences in Professional Tennis Thumbnail


Authors

J. Lee

A. Ulker



Abstract

This article examines line-call challenges by male and female professional tennis players in major tournaments around the world. In terms of utilization rates, we find that the genders behave similarly. Nevertheless, we do detect some intriguing gender differences in these challenges. First, male players’ challenges are more likely to be provoked by those of their opponents. More importantly, at tiebreaks, females are more likely to reverse an umpire’s unfavorable call, while males make relatively more unsuccessful challenges. Furthermore, we find that men are a lot more likely to make “embarrassing” line-call challenges at tiebreaks and offenses (i.e., when the shot lands at the opponent’s side of the tennis court) than women. These significant gender differences suggest that women particularly diverge from men at crucial junctures of the match such as tiebreaks. Differences in factors such as risk aversion, overconfidence, pride, shame, and strategic signalling behavior might help us to explain these gender-difference findings in line call challenges.

Citation

Anbarci, N., Lee, J., & Ulker, A. (2014). Win at All Costs or Lose Gracefully in High-Stakes Competition? Gender Differences in Professional Tennis. Journal of Sports Economics, 17(4), 323-353. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527002514531788

Journal Article Type Article
Online Publication Date May 13, 2014
Publication Date May 13, 2014
Deposit Date Aug 16, 2018
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Journal of Sports Economics
Print ISSN 1527-0025
Electronic ISSN 1552-7794
Publisher SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 17
Issue 4
Pages 323-353
DOI https://doi.org/10.1177/1527002514531788
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1323052

Files

Accepted Journal Article (412 Kb)
PDF

Copyright Statement
Anbarci, N., Lee, J. & Ulker, A. (2016). Win at All Costs or Lose Gracefully in High-Stakes Competition? Gender Differences in Professional Tennis. Journal of Sports Economics 17(4): 323-353. Copyright © 2014 The Author(s). Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications.




You might also like



Downloadable Citations