Gender Differences in Response to Setbacks: Evidence from Professional Tennis

A large experimental literature has arisen that shows significant differences in how men and women respond to economic contests. Non-experimental studies, however, frequently contradict the experimental findings. We use data from the ATP and WTA professional tennis tours (in which all contests are best-of-three matches) to test one prediction of the experimental literature: that women react more negatively to setbacks than men do. Ordered probits show that women who lose the first set are no more likely to lose the match in either straight sets or three sets than men are. Similarly, binomial probits show that women who win the first set but lose the second are no more likely to lose the third than men are. However, we do find that women who do lose in straight sets generally lose by larger margins than men do.