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To Err is Human, to Call the Ball Accurately is Technologically Available!
by Adam Whitfield

With all the bubbling controversy about accurate line calling, or the lack thereof, the bottom line must be that any tennis match is better, fairer, and a truer indication of the competition if the line calls are accurate.

We have seen match after match where inaccurate line calls and incorrect or non-existent over rules from the umpire's chair have influenced certainly the flow and quite possibly the outcome of a match, some of those matches championships. The players have had enough! The fans have had enough! It's not that the lines people and umpires are doing a bad job. It is just impossible to be 100% accurate with human vision as the instrument of measurement.

Lighting conditions, positioning, ball speed and other factors can result in an incorrect call. In the SCTA's umpire training class, where, after graduating, you'll be calling lines long before you'll be sitting in a chair, a videotape test is given and the trainees are asked to judge 100 line calls from the perspective of the linesman. This humble observer who prides himself on excellent vision got only 90% correct, and only a few others did any better. This was done in a classroom with no pressure or variables.

The point is that we now have the technology not only to chart the ball's travel but to have it available instantly to the umpire who can adjudicate any questionable call. Some suggest a challenge system as exists in the National Football League, but in football, challenges involve several variables in the replay; possession, sequence, position etc.

Tennis has only one variable to be determined. Did the ball stay in the court?! Technology should simplify, not complicate.

The lines people would not disappear so quickly. Let the video confirmation be a back-up system until it is augmented with audio confirmation such as Cyclops, the serve monitoring system, Then, the lines crew can go the way of the net judge and 8 tracks. Technology has changed racquets, surfaces, balls, clothing, just about every aspect of tennis. It's time it took the human fallibility out of line calling.