Hawk-Eye Live Debuts
Hawk-Eye Live made an electrifying debut at the US Open. The electronic line-calling method was used on all but Arthur Ashe and Louis Armstrong Stadiums. On the outside courts, lines-people were not needed. There was a chair umpire, but “The Hawk” made the calls and it was the final word. (Imagine trying to argue with a decision announced by a “Tennis Siri”.)
From early indications, the players seemed to be very pleased with the new “tech” approach. Daniil Medvedev of Russia would have been extremely happy if “The Hawk” was used on Ashe. During his semifinal match against Dominic Thiem of Austria he was down a break point while serving at 2-3. He hit a serve that he thought was out, but it was returned. He distractedly played the return, dumped the shot into the net then attempted to challenge the call but chair umpire Damien Dumusois told him his request had come too late.
Upset, he crossed to Thiem’s side of the court to point out the spot where he thought the ball had bounced, which resulted in a code of conduct violation and the loss of the game. Medvedev reacted as only he can. He chirped sarcastically at Wayne McKewen, the Grand Prix supervisor watching the match, while looking toward Dumusois, with his hand over his heart, “Sorry, I was so bad to cross the net. Sorry. My apologies. My sincere apologies to the U.S. Open for crossing the net. Oh, my God.” (On television, the replay showed that, indeed, the serve had been a fault.)
It costs more than $25,000 to install Hawk-Eye Live on a court. But, it speeds up play. More important, instead of needing hundreds of lines people that must be housed, fed and paid for their service, having less than one-hundred lines people this year was a financial benefit.
During the first week of the tournament, James Japhet, the managing director of Hawk-Eye North America, said, that at the time, 225,000 calls that had been made and there were only 14 errors, which “isn’t too bad.”
So, why wasn’t Hawk-Eye Live on all the courts? As Randy Newman sang in is “Land of Dreams” album in 1988, “It’s Money That Matters”. Tournament Director, Stacey Allaster admitted that sponsorship agreements were one of the reasons for maintaining the status quo keeping lines people on Ashe and Armstrong… (It seems that Ralph Lauren was at a loss to figure out what shirt size Hawk-Eye Live would wear.)
It is certainly safe to say that Laura Clark and Novak Djokovic would have been very pleased if Hawk-Eye Live would have been in operation during the Pablo Carreno Busta match.
