Daria Kasatkina and Sorana Cirstea are playing in the third round of the Miami tournament when, halfway through the first set, something happens that neither of them understands. With 4-2 down on the scoreboard and an advantage with his serve, Cirstea throws a serve that bounces off by several centimeters. The Romanian turns to ask for another ball and take a second serve, but the chair umpire awards a ace. Game for Cirstea. Nobody understands anything. The tennis players look at each other in disbelief. How is it possible?
Hawkeye live fail in Miami 🤦♂️ Daria Kasatkina was understandably confused and frustrated as it came at such an important juncture of the match.
Maybe Ostapenko was right when she said we need line judges back! pic.twitter.com/CDDcgcRWNh
— WTARussians (@WTArussians) March 25, 2024
Two days later, on the same stage, Victoria Azarenka and Yulia Putintseva are facing each other in the quarterfinals when, with the score 2-1, The chair umpire announces that the match is suspended. It doesn’t rain and it’s sunny. Nobody understands anything. The tennis players look at each other in disbelief. How is it possible?
The answer is the same for both cases: The technology in charge of controlling the lines has failed. In the case of Kasatkina-Cirstea, it was a major mistake: the hawk’s eye has called a ball that was clearly bad good. But in Azarenka-Putintseva the blush is much greater: the technology was not available due to a power outage and the match had to be suspended for 53 minutes. We are talking about a match on the center court of one of the best tournaments in the world.
The end of lines judges in tennis
The most curious thing about the matter is thatThis nonsense can only happen on the most important stages of tennis, because in minor tournaments it is impossible. And that is explained because tennis has decided to break away from the elite with one of its most important figures: the line judges. For several seasons now, many top events have dispensed with lines – especially after the pandemic – and have relied on the technology known as Electronic Line Calling Live (ELC), which calls the balls automatically.
Used for the first time at the 2017 ATP Next Gen Finals, The ELC will be the norm on the ATP circuit starting in the 2025 season. “Tradition is fundamental to tennis and linesmen have played an important role over the years. That said, “We have a responsibility to innovate with new technologies and our sport deserves the most precise form of refereeing.”, said the president of the ATP, Andrea Gaudenzi, in April 2023, when he announced that there will no longer be lines in the future. However, Miami’s mistakes have shown the cracks of tennis without linesmen: when technology fails, there is no Plan B.
Since the hawk’s eye began to be used in tennis in 2006 – precisely in Miami – referees have been losing spaces and responsibilities. The hawkeye initially arrived with controversy, but later It became a central part of tennis: for the players themselves and for the fans, who enjoyed the excitement of recreating the points on the video scoreboards. That is now history: current technology calls the shots and there is no room for replication.
“What happened in Miami would not have happened with linesmen in the stadium,” Joan Dou tells Relevo, one of the oldest lines judges on the circuit. Member of the Royal Tennis Club of Barcelona, Joan Dou has been refereeing and watching lines at the Conde de Godó since 1967. “This year will be the last. It will be my 57th Godó between chair umpire and line judge and there will be no more for me“.
Dou and his team still have some rope left, but far from the professional circuit. “For now the Challengers and minor tournaments will continue to have line judges. And we will continue there as long as we are cheaper than technology,” adds Dou. “In ATP tournaments they will want us to accompany the tennis players to the bathroom (when they are in the middle of a match a referee must accompany them) and to open the ball cans“.
This historic linesman assures that he has been waiting for this moment for a long time. “I remember ten years ago, thatI was in Cornellá testing the FoxTenn technology with people from the ATP and WTA when Fognini passed by and looked at me laughing. ‘You are going to lose your job’“recalls Joan Dou.
2024-03-31 08:04:07
#open #jars #Relief
