French Open: why Roland Garros defends against Hawkeye on clay

Human vs. Machine? Why the French Open fends off Hawkeye despite all the advantages

Linesmen in tennis are a relic of the past for many. They still exist, but Hawkeye is questioning his future, at least in Grand Slam tournaments. The French Open wants to preserve the “human factor”.

It is understandable that Novak Djokovic likes a tennis court without a linesman. If no woman had gotten in the way at the US Open when she carelessly struck a ball in anger during a break, she would not have been disqualified in the knockout stages and now she might have already reached 18 Grand Slam titles. The best tennis player in the world today had two bad luck in New York: in fact, and for the first time in recent history, there were no linesmen on the outdoor courts.

In 2006, the US Open featured Hawkeye as the first major tournament, initially only on the big courts. Meanwhile, players in New York, at the Australian Open and at Wimbledon can verify the decisions of the linesmen on all courts. It’s just a small step then bypassing the linesmen and letting the machine decide.

Corona now made sure this happened at this year’s Cincinnati Masters and US Open to reduce the number of people in the system, except for the two large squares with many television cameras. Because it seemed odd when a point just ended without a linesman yelling, and without the player being able to complain to anyone.

High prices

There are still linesmen in Paris, and especially no Hawkeye. The idea is that the referee can check the footprint of the ball by eye in the sand. There are still wrong decisions, for example on a Dominic Thiem breakball in the quarterfinals against Diego Schwartzman, who was good but landed clearly on the side of the line on television.

It is therefore not surprising that Djokovic says clearly and unequivocally: “With due respect for the tradition and culture of our sport, I see no reason why not all tournaments in the world use a system like the one that we made it from Cincinnati to New York they have used the rescheduled tournament. “

One possible reason is the high cost. Grand Slam tournaments with their huge revenues and fixed facilities can afford it. In other tournaments, such as in Basel or Gstaad, where seats are created for ten days, investing more than 50,000 francs per seat is likely to be less profitable. In addition, Hawkeye is not approved for clay courts, whose limit is not as fixed as for hard courts or grass.

McEnroe’s example

The heads of the French Tennis Federation (FFT) cite a completely different reason why they want to keep the linesmen in the future: “The FFT is not in favor of replacing people with machines,” the association told the AFP news agency. This attitude is also supported by some players. “If we only have machines on the court, we feel even more lonely,” says Garbiñe Muguruza, winner of the 2016 French Open. “I like it better when someone says ‘inside’ or ‘outside'”.

Mats Wilander, a three-time Roland Garros champion in the 1980s, is of the same opinion. In his column for the newspaper “L’Equipe”, the Swede writes: “The essence of sport is emotions.” He rhetorically asks why soccer is the most popular sport in the world: “Fans can argue with passion: Was that offside? Was it the foul in the penalty area? “And he cites the example of John McEnroe,” the most popular tennis player of all time. “

The brash New Yorker became famous for his furious “You can’t be serious!” (“You can’t be serious”) he yelled at a referee at Wimbledon in 1981. A machine could never have provoked such emotions. “If McEnroe had climbed that high anyway,” Wilander asks. “I doubt it.” And that’s why the linesmen, in Paris at least, will undoubtedly provide conversation starters and excitement next year. (pre / sda)