Losing sight of the ball

The recent introduction of Hawk-Eye technology to tennis Grand Slam tournaments demonstrates the short-sightedness of the game's governing officials. Hawk-Eye predicts the trajectory of the tennis ball after recording its position periodically during flight. While the technology was intended to assist in resolving border-line calls (if challenged by the players), its "last-word" interpretation and has been decidedly shoddy.

The recent Wimbledon final, a fierce battle between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, illustrated the frailties of Hawk-Eye together with the clearly
unscientific rules on interpreting the results. To me, the ball is out if it hits the ground outside the painted line. However, the chair umpire repeatedly declared the ball in when the edge of the ball (as determined by Hawk-Eye) was only a whisker within the outer edge of the line! Even when 99.99% or more of the ball was well outside the line. Consequently, the point of impact was outside, yet the shot was called "in".

This is quite ridiculous. In each of these instances, the linesman made the right call. Even at real-time speeds, without the aid of cameras and replays, the on-court staff were immediately able to identify the ball as out. And they were absolutely right. Each time, the chair umpire over-ruled, once even agreeing that he would have called "out" after seeing the Hawk-Eye prediction! Yet, he had to go with the "rule" and overturn the linesman.

Worse, the rule ignores Hawk-Eye's margin of error. The company claims that the technology is accurate to within about 3.5 mm. If this is taken into account, then a ball that is shown to be just out can actually have touched the line by a few hair-widths! Similarly, the "out" calls at Wimbledon could have been well out instead of barely being "in". The verdict, for me, is clear: the focus should be the center of the ball (or a small region about the center). The current rule makes no sense, and Federer was justifiably miffed as call after call went cruelly against him.

Granted, Hawk-Eye provides insights that were not available before. But the officials need a big lesson in rational thinking.