Bad Officiating | Righting The Wrong in Sports Officiating » Tennis

Serena Williams Blows up, Disqualified over footfault call & outburst

refpolice — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 18:48:44 +0000

In a crucial moment late in the second set of a womens semi final match, Serena Williams was called for footfault giving Kim Clijisters a match point. In the subsequent berating of the linesman for calling a foot fault at such an important point in the match, Williams was dinged a point for unsportsmanlike conduct, thus costing here the match. She went berserk, challenged official and generally disgraced the tournament. While the original call was untimely and breaks the unwritten rule of tennis which says ‘don’t call a foot fault unless it is obvious, and never call it at a crucial time in a big match’, the outburst was worse, and the WTA should discipline her severely.

Wimbledon: Tennis Can’t Rely On Challenge Technology Anymore

refpolice — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:02:16 +0000

I think anyone watching today’s men’s semi-finals matches at Wimbledon would agree that the high-tech line calling machine was out of whack. Twice Roger Federer suggested the machine was wrong, and Andy Roddick did so several times, even though the result of the challenge went in his favor. John McEnroe agreed that the machine was providing inaccurate video images, and we all know that he knows a thing or two about line calls. Mac was matter of fact when he said “Generally when you see chalk fly the ball was in.” But the replay were so so far off you have to wonder. Federer even went as as to suggest it was the wrong point being displayed. I like the whole challenge rule, but when the machine isn’t working correctly, the umpire need to step-up and take charge with overrules. Otherwise it looks as though the linesman and players are the ones that are wrong.

Hawk-Eye at Wimbledon 2007

refpolice — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 00:04:33 +0000

We have to take our hats off to the folks in charge at Wimbledon who decided to employ the Hawk-Eye instant replay challenge option on Centre Court and Court 1 for players who want to dispute calls at this year’s Wimbledon Championship. I was suprised that it was not in use at last month’s French Open in Paris, and was equally miffed to see that Cyclops appeared to need recalibration since it repeatedly showed obviously wrong computer generated replays just about every time it was shown to the television viewer. Good thing balls leave a mark in the red clay of Roland Garros. I was also constantly amused when the match referee would jump out of the umpire chair and scurry down to point out a mark on the court as if it might fade away if they didn’t get there in time. So enter in the era of Hawk-Eye and usher out Cyclops? Why is Hawk-Eye technically superior and what will the impact on match times be if every player in every match utilized the 3 allowed challenges per set and another in the event of a tie-break? Finally, what players use the challenges and what don’t?