Recently a group of tennis professionals were talking about how they thought female professional athletes were taller than the average population. One of the questions raised in the discussion was, “Can shorter females realistically aspire to play tennis at a highly competitive or professional level?”
As a result, the height of the 128 women participants at Wimbledon 2014 was collected from online websites and the distribution and average heights were calculated.
The women players at Wimbledon 2014 were taller than the general female population. On average (mean, median, mode) the Wimbledon participants were 5’9”. This compares to an average of 5’4″ for the U.S. (CDC).
- 21.1% of the women professionals who played at Wimbledon 2014 were 5’6” or shorter.
- 68.0% of the women professionals who played at Wimbledon 2014 were between 5’7” and 5’11”.
- 10.9% of the women professionals who played at Wimbledon 2014 were 6’0” or taller.
- The shortest player was Kurumi Nara and the tallest players were Maria Sharapova and Naomi Broady.
While it is possible for shorter females to play tennis at a highly competitive level, tall women are more likely to succeed.
