Hawk-Eye at Wimbledon 2007

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?