When, at the French Open tournament, players like World No. 3 Dominic Thiem, No. 6 Stefanos Tsitsipas, and No. 11 Denis Shapovalov have been asking for the use of Hawk-Eye technology, World No. 1 Novak Djokovic has gone further, calling for line-umpires to be removed altogether, to be replaced by the technology available to determine calls on courts to eliminate human error.
In light of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Hawk-Eye Live system was first used at the senior tour level just a week before the US Open, at the relocated Cincinnati ATP 1000 Masters event in New York, solely for the purpose of reducing the number of people on court. The technology is, however, quite expensive. According to The New York Times, it costs over $25,000 per court to install the Hawk-Eye Live system.
Hawk-Eye is a complex computer based technology, which involves a camera system which traces the ball’s trajectory during the games like tennis and cricket, football, volleyball, ice-hockey, etc.
Being a tennis umpire is a proper profession and requires years of training. There are four levels to becoming a top-notch umpire at the Grand Slam level. At the Grand Slams, line-umpires are usually a mixture of bronze, silver, and white badge holders—highly qualified officials.
If line-umpires are removed from all Grand Slam events, it may deter individuals from wanting to become umpires as officiating at the majors is the final goal for them as well.
All tour-level tournaments, apart from clay-court events, use the technology. During a rally, if there is a call made by an umpire that the player feels is incorrect, he or she can call for a review which determines if the ball was in or out.
But the technology is not fool-proof or flowless. According to the ITF guidelines, the technology can have an error margin no greater than five millimetres.
Courtesy: Reuters, Oct 4, 2020; The Indian Express