I am a huge tennis fan (in particular Wimbledon), and the speed of the balls amaze me.  So, just how much faster were the fastest balls this year in Wimbledon compared to last year?.  A good excuse to flex a bit of Excel muscle and look at percentage difference between the two.

So, I took data from the Wimbledon websites for both 2012 and 2013.  I focused in on the gentlemen’s singles serve speeds.  Let’s take a look at the top five service speeds and see the percentage difference of the top five.

Here’s the data….

So, we now can construct a formula to see the percentage difference between 2013 and 2012 fastest servers of each year.

So, start with the = sign as we a building a formula and take 2012 figure from this years. So for the fastest speed of 143 in 2013 we have an equivalent of 140 in 2012.

=(E3-K3)  this part of the formula is in brackets as we want this part to be calculated first, then divide by 143 or E3 again

=(E3-K3)/E3

 

All we need then need to do is format the result as a percentage.

 

Home Tab >Number>Percent Style

 

 

Here we now have the percentage difference between 2013 and 2012 fastest serves.

 

I would not like to be at the receiving end of a tennis ball at 143mph!!!