by John Atchison

Created on: May 11, 2009   Last Updated: May 13, 2009

Instant replay was an inevitable reality in tennis. What tennis fan among us does not remember the "You cannot be Serious" tirade of John McEnroe, or the sight of complaining Jimmy Connors putting his hands apart while yelling, illustrating how far a linesman missed a call by. Regardless of whether it was one of these gentlemen, or just the high stakes that now go along with the sport of tennis and the large amount of prize money involved, the game changed, and many think for the better, March 22, 2006. This was the date that instant replay was first put into use, at the NASDAQ 100 Open in Key Biscayne, Florida.

So what is this system that has been put in place? It is called the Hawk-Eye technology. Just for note, this should not be confused with the old Cyclops technology that was used for sometime at Wimbledon to detect whether a serve was in or not. This is much more effective and definitely more advanced than that older system. This instant replay system is made up of an 8-camera setup, which covers all parts of the court, and can detect line calls anywhere in play.

How does it work from the player's perspective? Well if they feel that a point ending call has been made, and it is in error, they may use a challenge, in hopes of having it overturned. They can as well, protest a call that occurs during a rally as well, but they would have to stop play, which could force them to lose a point if they are not correct in their protest. The player is allowed two challenges per set, and a third if a tiebreaker occurs in that set. However, if a player takes a challenge, and the call is upheld, they will lose one of their challenges for that set. Also, the chair umpire can also initiate a review if he feels that a lines person was not in the correct position to make a correct call on a point. What do the fans take out of it? Well, not only the satisfaction of knowing a call is being made correctly, but also because of the setup of this system, which displays the replays up on the stadium big screens, they see the result at the same time the player is.

Instant replay also has some other factors working in its favor that make it a hit with both players and fans alike. Unlike instant replay in other sports like football, where these interludes seem to go on endlessly, an instant replay review in tennis has been taking on average ten seconds. They are getting the calls right, and not taking all day to do it. What a concept! The other thing it has done is taken some

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