First, I gathered some data I .a. I spent a good chunk of time just surfing the web for his match stats – wins, losses, aces, double faults, the whole shebang. It was a bit of a mess, honestly, finding everything in one place was impossible. I jumped between different sports sites and even some obscure forums.
Collecting Match Data
I ended up with a pretty big spreadsheet. It was kind of overwhelming at first. I had columns for opponent ranking, tournament type, surface, and of course, all of Milos's stats for each match. I even added a column for the date of the match, thinking that might be useful later.
Cleaning The Information
- opponent ranking
- tournament type
- surface
- wins
- losses
- aces
- double faults
Then came the "fun" part – cleaning the data. Man, there were so many inconsistencies! Some sites used abbreviations, others spelled out names. Some had missing data. I spent hours just making sure everything was uniform and usable. It felt like detective work, filling in the blanks and correcting errors.
Once the data was somewhat presentable, I started looking for patterns. I made some simple charts and graphs, just to visualize things. I wasn't looking for anything super complicated, just basic trends. Like, does he perform better on hard courts versus clay? Does his ace count go up against lower-ranked players?
The "Prediction" Part
Honestly, I didn't use any fancy machine learning or algorithms. I figured I'd keep it simple. I mostly looked at recent performance. If he'd been on a winning streak, I'd be more optimistic about his next match. If he'd been struggling with injuries or losing to lower-ranked players, I'd adjust my expectations accordingly.
My "predictions" were more like educated guesses, really. I'd write down my thoughts before each match, like, "Milos has been serving well lately, and he's playing on his favorite surface, so I think he'll win in straight sets." Or, "He's facing a tough opponent, and he's had a few shaky matches recently, so I'm predicting a loss."
It was all pretty subjective, to be honest. There's so much that goes into a tennis match – form, fitness, mental strength, even the weather! My little spreadsheet couldn't capture all of that. But it was still a fun exercise. It made me pay closer attention to the matches and appreciate the nuances of the game.
In the end did not do well, but it was amazing experience for me.
