<drop_initial>When Roger Federer whipped that forehand crosscourt on championship point against his greatest rival Rafael Nadal in the 2017 Australian Open final, he could not celebrate immediately because Nadal had appealed for a Hawk-Eye review. Hawk-Eye is the computer vision system that visually tracks the trajectory of the ball and displays a profile of its most likely path. It is so ubiquitous in tennis today that an average fan cannot remember a time without it.
In fact, the final three points of that momentous final all had Hawk-Eye interventions. There was as much technology as tennis. The storied rivalry between Federer and Nadal had had its share of cliff-hanger matches, and now the entire world was waiting for Hawk-Eye to declare the champion. Machines loaded with simulation software would decide the winner and the humans would have to wait. The famous words of the television commentator Robert Koenig at that juncture were, “Fate now in the hands of the Hawk-Eye.”
Hawk-Eye called the ball in, and then Federer had a delayed celebration. If John McEnroe had been Federer’s opponent that day, he might have yelled, “You cannot be serious” at the machine. Laws of sports fandom work on a different plane and it wouldn’t be a surprise to find Nadal supporters doubting that decision even to this day. But the bottom line was that technology was trusted to arrive at a better conclusion than humans and there had to be an acceptance of the same, even if grudgingly.
PHOTO: Infosys Website
The evolution
The use of technology in tennis has evolved over time. Firms like IBM have been associated with prestigious events like Wimbledon and the US Open for over three decades. By the 1990s, with the advent of improved racquet technology, tennis became a ‘power sport’ with the likes of Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi leading the way.
When the average speed of the first serve was over 100 mph, the job of a line umpire was not easy. Routine squabbles between players and referees meant something had to be done by the tennis federations and that led to the initial forays of technological support into the sport.
In recent times, it took a non-fiction book titled “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game” by Michael Lewis in 2003, along with the adapted version as a Hollywood movie, to show how statistical data can play a significant role in the success of a sports team (the Oakland Athletics team in the 2002 season of the Major League Baseball)….
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