After seeing how it went today, people thought it would slow things down but it actually helped speed up the game. The time it took was under 10 seconds. |
As far as the players getting signals from coaches, it's going to be very difficult to stop anybody in the crowd from an emotional response to a call if they disagree with it, whether it's a coach or other spectators. A prime example was in Perth. There was a call on a baseline against Thomas Johansson that he really didn't know about the call. There was a quite expensive box of fans on that line that were encouraging him to challenge. He did so at their request and was quite wrong. It made for a good laugh around the audience, and he had a good laugh about it. I think, to get back to your point, it's going to be impossible to control emotional responses. If there's a definite system going on such as there would be for any other areas of coaching on court, we would have to take action. |
I think that was a concern early on. But I think one of the things that we found after we actually used this system in Perth is that the speed of the technology to get the call, there really is no chance for the gamesmanship. In Perth, we were averaging around five seconds from challenge to display. What we found in observing and also players recognize this, I was actually in some conversations I had with Taylor Dent, he noticed that this technology actually speeded up play rather than slowed play down. There was less reason or no reason to argue with the chair umpire. The players, once they saw the call, just went back and played. The two incorrect challenge limit kind of is a built-in safety net in case anybody tries to abuse the system. I think the concerns now for a player using it for gamesmanship is minimal. |
In Perth, we were averaging around five seconds from challenge to display. Some conversations I had with Taylor Dent, he noticed that this technology actually speeded up play rather than slowed play down. There was less reason or no reason to argue with the chair umpire.; The players, once they saw the call, just went back and played. The two incorrect challenge limit kind of is a built in safety net in case anybody tries to abuse the system. I think the concerns now for a player using it for gamesmanship is minimal. |
It's gotten off to a great start and we have to continue the same way the rest of the tournament. Everything went really smooth. |
The reaction has been excellent. |
There's going to be two video boards on the center court that will be visible by the players, the chair umpire and all the spectators. Once a challenge is made, then the review official that's with the technicians, once he determines that the correct impact has been identified, gives the order to release the video to the boards. Then everybody will see the result at the same time. The entire process will take less than 10 seconds. |
We could not be more pleased with how the video review system worked in its first use, but I also feel this first tournament showed a lot about the professionalism and skill of our line judges. We look forward to evaluating the entire process, and we will work in the coming months to improve the challenge system in order to make the experience even better for players, spectators and the television viewers. |