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Are Attractive Female Tennis Players More Successful? An Empirical Analysis

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  • Linn-Brit Bakkenbüll
  • Stephanie Kiefer

Abstract

type="main" xml:lang="fr"> The impact of physical attractiveness and resulting advantages of physical attractive people is a popular research field. Nevertheless, few studies have analysed the relationship between physical attractiveness and sporting performance. To the best of our knowledge this study is the first to investigate the relationship between physical attractiveness of professional (female tennis players and their sporting success in terms of prize money earned and probabilities of winning. Moreover, we can determine further factors which have a significant influence on the prize money earned and the likelihood to win a tennis match. Therefore, we investigate professional female tennis players, which were ranked in the top 100 of the tennis world ranking in one selected week in 2011. OLS regressions demonstrate a significant positive relationship between physical attractiveness and sporting success in terms of prize money for the years 2012 and 2013 as well as for the whole career. Further significant drivers are the BMI and its square, the number of played tournaments and the career duration. Furthermore, the study examines whether the probability of winning an individual tennis match is influenced by physical attractiveness. The logit model used shows that the larger the difference in physical attractiveness, the higher the probability of winning for the more attractive tennis player in individual matches. Moreover, difference in world ranking place and difference in the number of years as a professional tennis player have a significant impact on the winning probability.

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  • Linn-Brit Bakkenbüll & Stephanie Kiefer, 2015. "Are Attractive Female Tennis Players More Successful? An Empirical Analysis," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(4), pages 443-458, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:kyklos:v:68:y:2015:i:4:p:443-458
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/kykl.12090
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    2. Guodong Guo & Brad R. Humphreys & Qiangchang Wang & Yang Zhou, 2023. "Attractive or Aggressive? A Face Recognition and Machine Learning Approach for Estimating Returns to Visual Appearance," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 24(6), pages 737-758, August.
    3. Dietl, Helmut & Özdemir, Anil & Rendall, Andrew, 2020. "The role of facial attractiveness in tennis TV-viewership," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 521-535.
    4. Bakkenbüll, Linn-Brit, 2017. "Physical constitution matters for athletic performance and salary of NBA players," Discussion Papers of the Institute for Organisational Economics 1/2017, University of Münster, Institute for Organisational Economics.
    5. Linn-Brit Bakkenbüll, 2017. "The Impact of Attractiveness on Athletic Performance of Tennis Players," International Journal of Social Science Studies, Redfame publishing, vol. 5(3), pages 12-20, March.
    6. Hamermesh, Daniel S. & Leigh, Andrew K., 2022. "“Beauty too rich for use”: Billionaires’ assets and attractiveness," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    7. Gründler, Klaus & Potrafke, Niklas & Wochner, Timo, 2024. "The beauty premium of politicians in office," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 217(C), pages 298-311.
    8. Bakkenbüll, Linn-Brit, 2016. "Does attractiveness win? On the gender-specific impact of attractiveness on athletic performance in tennis," Discussion Papers of the Institute for Organisational Economics 01/2016, University of Münster, Institute for Organisational Economics.
    9. Helmut Dietl & Anil Özdemir & Andrew Rendall, 2018. "The Role of Physical Attractiveness in Tennis TV-Viewership," Working Papers 376, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW).
    10. Bortnikova, Kseniya & Havranek, Tomas & Irsova, Zuzana, 2024. "Beauty and Professional Success: A Meta-Analysis," EconStor Preprints 289435, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.

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