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Man or Machine - On the Issue of Instant Replay
by Ella Miller

Tennis has survived human line-calling for a century. It has even thrived at times because of players like John McEnroe and line-calling controversies. But, as technology gets better and faster, the conversation about calls being made by instant replay continues.

When discussing this issue, it's important for the ATP and WTA (and other entities that weigh in on this) to realize that ultimately the tennis tour is supported by ticket buyers and TV tennis watchers. Sometimes the only drama in a match comes from bad lines calls, overrules, dirty looks at linespeople and umpires, and "audible obsenities." Do we really want to take an overly civilized sport and make it even more civilized with calm requests for replay & review? Do we really want play to stop for it?

One of the very cool things about professional tennis is that it is so similar to the tennis we play ourselves. Calls are wrong, play goes on. It is rare that one bad call will change the outcome of a match.

Chances are this will be discussed to death before it is tentatively put in place for one or two matches in a test tournament -- just like the ill-fated "on-court coaching" experiment. It will probably slow down play terribly and the players will feel like it affects their momentum, and it will be done away with. That's my guess... we'll see.