Epidemiology and Determinants of Walkovers in Professional Men’s Tennis (1973–2019): A Retrospective Cohort Analysis

Walkovers (W/O) refer to when a player wins a match due to the absence of his/her opponent. This investigation aimed to describe W/O in Association of Tennis Professional (ATP) tournaments between 1973 and 2019, analysing epidemiological patterns and associated factors. We hypothesized that W/O incidence varied according to tournament type, surface, and match characteristics. A retrospective cohort study was conducted. Factors that might influence W/O were studied by epidemiological measures, including both absolute and relative measures of risk incidence proportion (IP) per 1000 played matches and cumulative incidence ratio (CIR) are provided as association measures. The IP was 4.2 (95%CI: 3.9-4.5). Matches played in Masters tournaments showed the highest risk of W/O (OR: 1.31; 95% CI: 1.07–1.59), while those in Grand Slams had significantly lower odds (OR: 0.53; 95% CI: 0.40–0.68). W/O were less likely in preliminary (OR: 0.51; 95% CI: 0.43–0.61) and qualifying rounds (OR: 0.37; 95% CI: 0.27–0.50) compared to finals. The probability of W/O showed a decreasing trend from 1980 to 2000 (OR: 0.75; 95% CI: 0.67–0.84), followed by an increase by 2020 (OR: 2.13; 95% CI: 1.25–3.64). The primary causes of W/O were attributed to injuries (28.7%), illnesses (7.8%), and personal reasons (2.5%), although the majority of reasons remained unknown (61.0%). These findings reveal structural and contextual factors associated with W/O. Understanding these patterns may help identify health-related and organizational challenges in professional tennis, highlighting the need to improve injury and health data collection and guiding preventive strategies and scheduling policies.