There are some absentees on the courts of the National Bank of Montreal Open this week. In an effort to reduce the number of people on the courts during the pandemic, the majority of leading professional tournaments have replaced linesmen with Hawk-Eye Live.
Balls hit outside the lines and foot faults are called out using technology consisting of a camera system linked to a computer, which analyzes the trajectory of the ball. Only the chair umpire is still on duty.
The “out! “,” Fault! “And” foot fault! Familiar to tennis fans have therefore been generated for several months by an automated voice.
“If Hawk-Eye Live had existed in my day, I would have been 15-20% better. But I would have been more boring ”, has already joked the former American number 1 John McEnroe, who used to make life difficult for referees.
This technology is similar to that of the Hawk-Eye – developed by the company of the same name – used by the majority of professional tournaments for 15 years. This allows players to challenge on three occasions during a set (four in the event of a tiebreaker) a call from the referee and the linesman.
18 cameras
The Hawk-Eye Live, which must make the call in real time and not after a video replay, however requires more cameras. There are 18 on each field, including six which indicate whether the players have committed a foot fault in the service (see other text below).
Photo Martin Chevalier
Devices, like this one, are located at each end at the back of the field.
No more disputes. Athletes can, however, ask to see the trajectory of the ball on the giant screen.
And while the technology isn’t perfect – there’s a margin of error of around 3.6mm – well-known gamers trust it fully.
Because it is known, the error is human. Figures compiled this year at Wimbledon, one of the few tournaments not to have used the technology, show that the referee’s call was wrong in 27% of the decisions that were challenged by players during the tournament.
Only 14 erroneous calls
According to data obtained by the New York Times Last year, only 14 of the 225,000 calls (0.006 2%) made by Hawk-Eye Live in the first week of the US Open last year were incorrect.
“It’s great that there are a lot of people out there who love tennis, but I don’t see why we would need these linesmen if we have this technology,” commented world number 1 Serbian Novak Djokovic. , at the beginning of the year
“Sometimes I would like to have the right to challenge, it’s more natural for me. But at the same time, I’m 100% sure there are no mistakes, ”added Montreal favorite Arina Sabalenka on Friday.
But the Hawk-Eye Live does not only have followers on the circuit. Some, including Canada’s Milos Raonic, believe it will be difficult to train linesmen for minor tournaments. Because the technology is too expensive for smaller events (see other text below).
Expensive, but faster
However, implementing such technology comes at a significant cost. Depending on the settings chosen for the tournament, the cost of Hawk-Eye Live is estimated to be between $ 30,000 and $ 90,000 per court, according to data obtained by ESPN.
“It all depends on the technology, the graphics used, the number of cameras,” Diana Hassan of the Hawk-Eye company explained to the Journal. But it is not always the tournament that pays the full cost: it can also be the television rights holders or governments.
Tournaments must also ensure that line judges are on site, especially in the event of a default.
Tennis Canada was unable to tell us on Friday the amount spent to equip the National Bank of Montreal Open with the system this year.
Expensive too
Except that hiring linesmen is also costly. For a tournament like the one in Montreal, they are about 80, or teams of seven on the field until the quarter-finals and nine for the finals and semi-finals. Some come from abroad. Travel and hotel are paid for by the organizers.
And there is the spectacle aspect. If “video challenges” are now part of tennis, they also tend to slow down the game, at a time when the WTA and ATP are trying to speed it up to keep viewers’ interest.
What to perpetuate the debate, therefore.
On the Hawk-Eye side, it is said to be working closely with the various tournaments so that the technology continues to be used after the pandemic.
- ATP used it for the first time during the tournament “Next Gen”, in 2017, in Milan.
- He was on every court at the last US Open last year, with the exception of the two main ones.
- The Australian Open was the first major tournament to deploy it on all its grounds, in February.
- Between $ 30,000 and $ 90,000 by land, depending on the technology chosen.
- A margin of error of 3,6 mm.
- 18 cameras in the field, connected to a computer, six of which are used to judge foot faults in the service.
Sources: ATP and ESPN
