Former World No.1 John McEnroe has spoken positively about movements towards electronic line calling. The 59 year-old who was famous for challenging the calls of lines judges and chair umpires throughout his career, felt the move could have helped him in his career.
McEnroe, who was playing at the Delray Beach Champions Tour event as part of Team USA, said: “I feel like I would have been a 15 to 20 percent better player, but I would have been more boring.”
McEnroe also proved reflective, admitting that had the change come during his career, things may have ended differently for him: “Maybe I wouldn’t have had opportunities that I’ve had with [television] commentary and doing some things in my life. I built up this, well, they’re going to screw me type of attitude, that I can’t trust them – for right or wrong,” McEnroe said. “Had I had that [opportunity to challenge], I believe I would have been secure in knowing that I would have been getting an opportunity to get another look at what could be a tournament-winning call, or losing, in certain cases.”
The event, which saw Team USA take on Team International saw only the chair umpire as an on-court official, with Hawkeye’s line calling system taking care of other matters.
Team USA, was defeated by a Team International that consisted of Fernando Gonzalez, Greg Rusedski, Jesse Levine, and Guillermo Canas. Jean-Michael Gambill, Mardy Fish, and Jay Berger completed the Team USA line-up.
This event was not the first use of the Hawkeye line calling technology. The ATP Next Gen Finals in Milan also used the system, with players including Denis Shapovalov and Daniil Medvedev commenting positively about the use of electronic line calling.
The ATP event in Delray Beach gets underway on Monday, with defending champion Jack Sock and Juan Martin del Potro headlining the draw.
