Analysis of the best of five games of 11 points scoring system in singles badminton matches

Abstract

A model based on the probability of the server winning the rally was employed to evaluate the influence of the newly proposed scoring system, the best of five games of 11 points scoring system, being experimented by the Badminton World Federation on singles badminton matches. The model, based on the assumption of statistical independence on each point’s outcome, was used to generate predictions ranging from the game- and match-winning probabilities to game- and match-length statistics for matches under both the new and the current scoring system, the best of three games of 21 points. Validity of these results was checked against tournament data, four sets each for the two scoring systems, as well as previously published results, with satisfactory agreement in most cases. The results show that duration of singles matches would be reduced noticeably under the new scoring system without affecting the match outcome of the current scoring system.