accuracy achieved is sufficient to prevent bad calls from impacting the outcome,
but the process of achieving this accuracy does not encumber the game.”
Rebel Good, who has officiated tennis matches for more than 30 years, says,
“Hawk-Eye is a great invention, and it will only get better, but if you use it all the
time it would be sterilizing. I think people are missing the point.”
In fact, new tournaments such as the Next-Gen Finals introduced specially for the
top guns in the under-21 category, are based on a different format. The tournament
in Milan acts as a platform to test out new rules before implementing it in the
official circuit. One such feature is that the tournament is solely dependent on the
Hawk-Eye system for making all calls. The experiment used a more advanced
version of the instant replay software that is used when players challenge calls. The
technology used in Milan, however, was so strong that the system made every call,
on its own, in real time. This poses an inevitable thought. Is technology the future
of tennis? Is this the beginning of the end for line officials?
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