In just a few days, the Austrarian Open begins in Melbourne, the first of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments of the year. The covid-19 pandemic, that we are facing, certainly doesn’t facilitate the organization of this type of sports event-limits, tests borders restrictions, ensuring the safety of participants and employees, is a real challenge for the organizers. There are also dilemmas and controversies, like in case of Serbian tennis player, multiple winner Novak Djokovic, whose participation in the competition is under a great question mark, and new facts come to light.
We all see and experience the negative effects of coronavirus pandemic, however, it is worth noting that thanks to difficult experiences and situation, we can also learn creativity, perseverance and dealing with challenges, which definitely has a positive effect on human development. I think that it is also a good opportunity for technology that people more willingly and more often use to protect themselves and their loved ones. Such an example can be the advanced technology of Hawk Eye Live which tracks the path of the tennis ball in a real time. This system was used for the first time in the history of the Grand Slam in all competitions of last year’s Australian Open, completely replacing the line judges and it was also decided to use this technology in this year’s tournament.
Hawk Eye is s a well-known technology, that has been used since 2001 in various sports such as football, hockey, volleyball or tennis. This visual system is able to recreate the almost exact flight of the ball and where it falls, helping judges who make mistakes much more often than a machine. Depending on the sport, Hawk Eye cameras are placed at different angles and heights,they use graphical images and time data and process them to determine the position of the ball for each frame. What’s more, the technology has an appropriate data regarding the rules of the game, which allows to verify whether they have been violated.
Surprisingly, so far (before the Covid-19 pandemic) the hawk-eye technology was used only in disputes, when one of the players didn’t agree with the referee’s decision. Everything indicates that replacing line judges by the system is much more effective and fairer for players, and Hawk-Eye Live has a chance to become the future of tennis. In my opinion, without pandemic, we would have to wait a few more years for the implementation of this innovation. It is important to stay positive and be aware that what is happening in the world can ignite us to look for new technological solutions, as well as help us overcome the fear of the unknown.
Sources:
Hawk-eye system – jak to działa? | Techmove
It’s high time! I can’t believe we went so many years without it, but I’m glad it finally happened. Now, no one can argue and every situation is clear, however, I’ll miss judges because their presence added to the atmosphere on the court.
I agree with the previous comment, I can’t believe it took so much time, to finally use it every time, not only when there are cavils. I mean, unfortunately when it comes to thing like this, technology like Hawk-Eye, will always be more precise and I think it’s just unfair for the players, when the judge makes a mistake (which of course is understandable, the human eye is not able to catch everything). I think it’s great move for the sake of fair play. Great news, thank you for the interesting article!
it’s funny how some people are against it even though it literally only assures that the scorings are right and fair. i feel like it also makes the win more satisfying and eliminates the feeling of unfairness in case of a loss