ATP: No linesmen in the hard court 1000s?
The signs point to complete confidence in the technology: According to a report from a tennis portal, the ATP plans to use electronic line monitoring, the Hawk-Eye Live, exclusively for the ATP Masters 1000 tournaments in 2021.
by tennisnet.com
last edit: Jan 14, 2021, 02:25 pm
At the two ATP Tour 250 tournaments in Cologne's Lanxess Arena, Alexander Zverev reported a few doubts here and there as to whether the Hawk-Eye Live was really properly calibrated - otherwise you can use the electronic line monitoring, which requires the use of linesmen obsolete, as quite unanimously felt by the tennis professionals as good. Including from Zverev, who, like most other players, first got to know the system at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament that was moved from Cincinnati to New York City. The ATP recently used it at the final tournament of the season in London's O2 Arena, and Hawk-Eye Live will also be used at the Australian Open.
Hawk-Eye Live was also used at the US Open - but not in the Louis Armstrong Stadium and also not in the Arthur Ashe Stadium (which ultimately led to Novak Djokovic's undoing).
And as the portal tennismajors.com reports, this should also be the case for all Masters 1000 tournaments in 2021 - if they are played on hard courts. As things stand now, that would be Miami, Montreal, Cincinnati, Shanghai and Paris-Bercy. Should the Indian Wells tournament, which was canceled for March, be rescheduled later in the season, then the digital solution would also be used there.
Anderson welcomes the development
It looks different on ashes (apart from the fact that the ATP Tour calendar is only formulated up to the tournament in Miami): An electronic system was successfully tested at the ATP Tour 500 event in Rio de Janeiro in 2020 until but now it can be assumed that in Monte Carlo, Madrid and Rome the use of line judges will be relied on.
Kevin Anderson , member of the ATP Players Council, cannot yet provide any information about whether the decision within the ATP in favor of Hawk-Eye Live has passed through all committees. The 2018 Wimbledon finalist also knows that sooner or later there will be a change. "It certainly looks as if we are moving in this direction," said Anderson. "The system works really, really well. I think it eliminates the uncertainty completely. This type of automation is happening around the world, in many different industries. It seems to make sense to me, especially in times like these."