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May 13, 2021Liked by Matthew Willis

The lack of VAR in tennis is baffling considering how well (IMO) it worked in the ATP Cup last year.

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Yeah I think they need to be careful to not use it often (and think it should only be requested by the umpire rather than player) otherwise it would slow down the match too much, but on things as rare as misidentified ball marks and double bounces it seems like a no brainer

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Agree, though I liked how it was used to decide if the player had been affected by Out calls, took 30 seconds and saved a bunch of player whining.

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Oh yeah for sure, I was really just talking about non-line calling incidents for video review, as I'm assuming Foxtenn is going to be rolled out to most clay events soon enough (and players have unlimited challenges via Foxtenn)

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May 13, 2021Liked by Matthew Willis

I hope so, it'd be a net positive for the Game (Pun intended) as long as it doesn't evolve to live calling (Which I personally hate though I know I may be in the minority there)

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Hi Matt,

I agree with your takes, best thing for everybody is to just trust newest systems + introducing var. Nevertheless, for me the Garin serve highlights a "bug" in the rules on clay, as the lines are higher than the actual clay level (the ball just skids through the line, deformation does not seem continuous, hope my thought is clear enough).

On the grass the situation is similar as it seems the ball touches the grass blades of the line and the ground only when it is out.

This should be explicitly remarked in the rules then, is it clarified?

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Good analysis. I always liked that on clay the players were allowed to have a sort of agreement between each other and the umpire about what happened. It made for a better sportsmanship angle. They often seemed to share the wins - one this time, one next time, and if it was agreed the umpire was wrong they even hit the ball intentionally out to even up the score as an honour thing. I don't believe many umpires are malicious or want a particular player to lose - I believe they wish to do their job correctly. The let cord fiascos at the recent AO and last year's ATP Cup showed just how bad over-sensitive electronic calls can be for both players. The worst culprits for screwing the umpires are not the players but the commentators. My opinion.

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Thanks Lucie. Hawk-eye is contracted to be used at every big tournament so its setup on most courts even when it's not being used for line calling. It's used for large parts of the ATP and WTA stats and player/ball tracking. So it's used for both that and line calling on non clay events, and just statistics and data at clay events. But broadcasters still get hawk-eye replays for some reason (they probably shouldn't)

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