On-court video reviews to be expanded at Next Gen Finals
A new form of video review will be tested in the upcoming ATP Next Gen Finals, adding to the mushrooming list of innovations under trial in this once conservative sport.
Tennis has been using Hawk-Eye reviews to adjudicate on line calls since 2006, but this latest experiment is aimed at a broader category of decisions: double-bounces, net touches, or shots played before the ball has crossed the net, which are all against the rules but often escape the notice of on-court officials.
In any situation of this kind, players will be able to call for a review, with no limitation on the number of such requests during a match.
At this point, a video review operator – supplied by Hawk-Eye, using their technology – will pick out the relevant footage and beam it to the chair umpire’s tablet. The same images will appear on the big screen to inform the audience.
This could be called tennis’s answer to VAR, football’s controversial experiment, except that the video review official will be performing a largely clerical role. The set-up is more similar to rugby’s television match official than cricket’s third umpire, in that the final decision is taken by the person already officiating the match, rather than handed down to them from on high.
“We see technology becoming more integrated into sport all the time, and tennis shouldn’t be any different,” said ATP president Chris Kermode. “We see this as a way of supporting the officials, as well as enhancing the fan experience.”
It does seem that the open-minded attitude on show at the Next Gen Finals, which start on Nov 6, has helped trigger a wave of reforms over the past year. The US Open has now brought in shot-clocks and shortened warm-ups in main-draw matches, while Wimbledon has announced that tie-breaks will be introduced at 12-12 in the final set at next summer’s event.
Another potential rule-change – coaching during matches – was discussed by tennis’s multifarious stakeholders this week at a meeting in Singapore. The United States Tennis Association is keen to allow coaching, arguing that it happens on the quiet, and that Serena Williams’s flare-up during the women’s final in New York was the result of an unenforceable rule.
Authorities at Wimbledon, however, believe that one of tennis’s core values is the players’ responsibility to work things out for themselves. The Daily Telegraph understands that more consultation is to be carried out with players, tournaments and media before any unified solution is decided upon.
Meanwhile, reigning Australian Open champion Caroline Wozniacki has revealed that she has been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. “I didn’t want to talk about it during the year because I don’t want to give anyone the edge or thinking that I’m not feeling well,” Wozniacki told reporters. “You learn how to just cope after matches. Some days you wake up and you can’t get out of bed but other days you’re fine.
“Some people go into remission,” added Wozniacki, who said she had begun to feel fatigue after Wimbledon, and was then forced to retire from her next match in Cincinnati. “And some people, it just stops, the disease, and it’s not going to get worse. The medicine now is so amazing so I’m not worried.”
Finally, Kyle Edmund’s hopes of backing up last week’s maiden ATP title with another trophy were dashed by Fernando Verdasco, who won a tight three-setter in Vienna.
