Novak Djokovic was knocked out of the 2020 US Open after hitting a linesman in the neck -
Copyright 2020 The Associated Pr
Live hawk-eye to replace linesmen during Australian Open
This isn't the first time video refereeing has replaced the man at a major tournament
The Masters 1000 should be the next to follow suit
A bad climb to the net, a lost first set and an unfortunate gesture of humor.
The elimination of Novak Djokovic at the US Open against Pablo Carrenõ Busta last summer is what's called a three-act drama that could have been avoided had the world number 1 made peace with his nerves.
Or, with a little bad faith, if that poor linesman hadn't been there.
We let you guess the posture adopted by Nole at the turn of a press conference after the 3rd round at Roland Garros: "I would be less likely to do what I did in New York if it weren't for line judge.
"
Yes, Novak.
Absolutely, Novak.
The problem was her.
And first of all, what are these guys still doing from the baseline when science has so much to offer us?
“The technology is so advanced now that I don't see why we should rely on linesmen on the court.
I don't see why tournaments around the world wouldn't use the technique we have at the Cincinnati and New York tournaments.
"
The good excuse for the pandemic
As a reminder, the tournaments cited by Djokovic had marked in 2020 the advent of video refereeing to the detriment of linesmen who officially disappeared for health reasons, pandemic obliges.
The same device was repeated at the London Masters and will be on all the courts of the Australian Open - a country overwhelmed by the coronavirus with 20 new cases as of January 12.
Latest rumor that will appeal to the best player in the world: according to Tennis Majors, all Masters 1000 off clay - Bercy included - will sacrifice the linesmen in favor of hawk-eye live technology, known for its almost infallible decisions and the charm of its robotic “outs”.
Switzerland's Roger Federer, right, questions a line judge during his quarterfinal against Tennys Sandgren of the US at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday, Jan.
28, 2020. (AP Photo / Andy Brownbill) / XMEL264 / 20028213711416 // 2001280701 - Andy Brownbill / AP / SIPA
A decision that seems to satisfy the young generation, firmly established in the wake of Nole.
Not content with taking advantage of it on hard, Dominic Thiem and Stefanos Tsitsipas are firmly calling for the arrival of these systems on clay next year, after a successful test of FoxTenn technology in Rio.
“It worked very well, rejoiced the Austrian at the beginning of the autumn, on the brink of product placement.
I played three games including one in Rio with FoxTenn and there was no problem.
I hope that next year we will use it in every tournament on earth.
"
“We come up against a new generation of players who have only played with hawk-eye, regrets Remy Azemar, several Roland-Garros to his credit, first as linesman then as referee.
They push because they consider that the robot will take a firm position and that human subjectivity is evacuated.
"
Major tournaments, the carrot of amateur referees
An admissible argument on fast surfaces, where the human eye has more and more difficulty in following the breeze blocks balanced by Thiem, less on ocher, believes the FFT, organizer of the Roland-Garros tournament, which considers that "the traces left by the ball on clay are supposed to allow the referees to validate or invalidate themselves the announcements of the linesmen.
"
It is not a question here (that) of yelling out of anti-modernist or moral posture.
The federation has forged a strong bond with its referees over the years and fears negative repercussions on a system based on both skills and people (Azemar speaks of "culture of refereeing") if tomorrow all tournaments people were dropping the linesmen.
Former referee Bruno Rebeuh explains:
“Are taken to RG only the referees who have had an activity within their league.
All year round they are people who are volunteers, who get up on Sunday morning at 7:30 am, who cross their entire department to go and referee a second series championship, a 0 against to -2 in the cold.
People who went there with their own car, who spent gas.
Their wives or husbands yell at them, saying that they spent the day refereeing amateur players.
And it's true that these guys are passionate about refereeing and their carrot is Roland-Garros.
They say to everyone "I love refereeing but what makes me love it is especially to be selected for Roland and to be able to rub shoulders with the greatest players in the world, to be on the Central and maybe one day making chairs, refereeing junior matches, doubles and who knows a match at the Central. All these people do that. If tomorrow we take away this carrot, what about the amateur club refereeing? "
A broken balance
ATP 250s, challengers, and lower tournaments will always need linesmen, but one can easily guess that the prospect of officiating at these tournaments is less exhilarating than going to a Grand Slam, albeit it is. 'would be the only one whose winner is known in advance.
“I don't see guys going to referee all year round and sit in front of the TV to watch matches without a referee at Roland.
I think we have to be very careful about that, ”warns Rebeuh, angry at the short-term vision of video pros.
“The human part is important, people are sensitive to that.
Tsitsipas does not care about the interclub match which will take place tomorrow between Versailles and Bougival.
He remembers it more but maybe when he was young he would have preferred to have matches with referees, rather than without.
Garbiñe Muguruza, double Grand Slam winner at Roland and Wimbledon, does not need to go back to childhood to prefer human warmth to impersonal atmospheres.
"If we only have machines on the court, we will be even more alone, it is better to have someone say 'in' or 'out'.
The worst in this case?
The camp that we will call conservative is not fundamentally against technological progress.
But he deplores the breaking of the balance between two worlds which had so far managed to coexist from the baseline.
“We are not against the machine, we know very well that on fast surfaces it is necessary, nuance Azemar, brandishing the Masters 1000 of Bercy as a standard in good faith.
Having achieved a balance between the linesman and the machine was already magnificent and it is a posture that we intend to maintain.
We don't forget that these new tools can bring very useful data to our sport.
But on the arbitration part, there will always be debate.
“Given the turn of events, we will rather speak of a forced passage.
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