John Isner has described the use of Hawk-Eye in tennis as ‘awesome’ despite openly blasting the system during his second round match at Wimbledon.
Taking on Ruben Bemelmans on Wednesday, the American went livid when a shot from his opponent was ruled out before a challenge called it in. A furious Isner argued with the umpire that the system ‘was not working.’ Isner went on to drop the fourth set before continuing his rant. Eventually resulting in him receiving a code violation for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Resuming his match today after it was postponed due to rain, Isner went on to defeat the Belgian 6-1, 6-4, 6-7(6), 6-7(3), 7-5. Reflecting on his outburst afterwards, the 33-year-old admits that he might have ‘overreacted’ concerning one of the calls.
“Sports Center was on in the locker room this morning, and they were showing the one that happened in the fourth set tiebreaker. You I may have overreacted there.” He admits.
“I do think that ball was out. But I’m 100% certain in the first game of the fourth set, break point for me, he hit a ball that was this far long (indicating) and he kind of gave it one of those, I’ll challenge it, and it said it was on the line. It was not.”
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Isner, who is making his 41st appearance in a grand slam main draw, went on to praise the hawk-eye system. Where players have three challenges per set or more it if goes to a tiebreak or 6-6 in the decider. It has been used at Wimbledon every year since 2007.
“Hawk-Eye is awesome for our sport.” Stated Isner. “I just have a very big beef with it in that one instance at the first game of the fourth set, break point for me. I should
have been up 1-0 serving, which is a good position to be in, considering how I was serving.”
This year is the eighth anniversary of the American’s marathon win against Nicolas Mahut. The two battled against each other for more than eight hours over the course of three days. Isner eventually won the match 70-68 in the decider. A record he is still proud to be part of.
“I remember the World Cup was going on, as it is now, and it was stealing headlines from the World Cup. It was such a crazy match that the whole world was captivated by it. I’m not exaggerating.” He recounted.
“The whole world was captivated by that match. After it finished it will go down in history forever, and I was a part of it.”
Bidding to book a place in the fourth round at The All England Club for the first time, Isner will next take on Moldova’s Radu Albot.
