Players who wish to face or face a line judge at the Australian Open after a contentious or closing decision will have a hard time doing so this year. There will be none.
In a Grand Slam for the first time, there will be no line judges on any of the tournament courts in an effort to reduce the number of employees on site during the COVID-19 pandemic. Only players, chair umpires and ball players will be on the court.
Tennis Australia announced on Wednesday the introduction of live electronic calls, saying that motion-activated and pre-recorded voices will be used for the terms “out”, “foot failure” and “failure” in matches during the tournament. February 8th to 21st.
Live electronic calls are made using remote tracking cameras across the court, automatically sending audio calls in real time.
“The Australian Open will be the first Grand Slam tournament to feature live electronic calls on all courts, including the main stadiums,” said Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley.
The new system should mean fewer challenges for line calls by players and less time spent reviewing replays on stadium screens.
“The system will automatically show ‘closed calls’ on the big screen in final shots,” the tournament said in a separate emailed statement to the Associated Press. “By default, this will be 150 millimeters (just under six inches) or less for a rally shot or 50 mm (two inches) or less for a service.
“If a player is requesting that he would like to see a one-time finish that was not automatically animated, the game may be interrupted if the chairman considers the request to be reasonable, and the chairman must announce the replay. should continue until the image is displayed on the big screen. “
Last year, at the United States Open, Novak Djokovic was disqualified during his fourth round for accidentally hitting a spare ball at a line judge. During this tournament, electronic line calls were used on outdoor courts, but line judges were still used on the main exhibition grounds.
Djokovic later asked tennis to switch permanently to electronic connections, although he said it was not related to his expulsion in New York.
“I received a lot of criticism because I said we should take into account the exclusion of line referees,” said Djokovic last year. “This is an opinion that I have had for several years, it has nothing to do with my disqualification at the United States Open.
“I am not a person who loves technology and I cannot live without it, in some ways the technocratic society has gone too far, in my opinion, but if in tennis we can be more efficient and precise, why not?”
This week in Melbourne Park, the same system is being used for six tuning tournaments. Next week, at the Australian Open, they will be an extra touch.
The pre-recorded voices will be those of Australia’s frontline workers in response to the country’s pandemic, firefighters, surf lifesavers and other emergency services personnel.
“A ‘Behind the Line’ tribute will feature the community’s heroes who will be introduced as the official call-call voice in each match,” said Tennis Australia.