Going for the ace

AS I write this column, Venus Williams - one of the all-time greats of women's tennis - has just bagged her second singles match at the 2017 WTA Finals Singapore. The former world No 1, whose fans have been among the loudest at the Singapore Indoor Stadium this week - will play Caroline Wozniacki in the semi-finals today. The winner will compete in the finals tomorrow.

I get excited every time the WTA Tour rolls around in Singapore. This annual professional tennis tour for women, governed by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), has certainly come a long way since it started in 1973. Technology, for one thing (and which this column celebrates), has dramatically changed the way the sport has been played, watched and even reported.

And how so? In a word: data. From tennis to auto-racing, information is increasingly said to offer athletes and coaches a competitive edge on the field. Jenni Lewis, head of tennis technology at software company and WTA sponsor SAP, says: "Data offers powerful insights that allow for faster, smarter real-time decisions that can mean the difference between winning and losing."