Hawk-Eye debuts at Chennai Open
By IANSTuesday, January 4, 2011
CHENNAI - Linespersons at the Aircel ATP Chennai Open have come out on top following the introductory implementation of the Hawk-Eye electronic review system, a referral for line call challenges by players.
In all, 15 challenges were made against line calls in the four matches spread over 11 sets that were played on the Centre Court of the SDAT Stadium on the opening day Monday, official statistics show.
The linespersons were proved right on nine occasions, but incorrect six times.
The most number of challenges were in the first round doubles match between Indias Mahesh Bhupathi-Leander Paes and Frank Dancevic (Canada)-Stanislas Wawrinka (Switzerland) with a total of eight challenges, three of which were correct.
The Indians, who won in three sets, had a 1-2 win-loss record as against their opponents 2-3 for a match total of 3-5.
The next highest was in another doubles match involving Indians Somdev Devvarman-Sanam Singh and Robin Haase (Netherlands)-David Martin (US) that had three challenges, two of which were correct.
Second seed and defending champion Marin Cilic of Croatia, while going down in straight sets to Japans Kei Nishikori, lost both his challenges while the winner did not seek any referral.
Serbian sixth seed Janko Tipsarevic made one successful challenge during his straight set win against Argentine Eduardo Schwank, who lost his only challenge.
By all accounts, the Hawk-Eye functioned efficiently without causing any delays in the proceedings while getting the crowd involved when the displays were projected on the courtside giant screen.
The Hawk-Eye system was first deployed in an international tennis tournament in 2006 during the Hopman Cup in Perth and subsequently made its ATP Tour debut at the 2006 Nasdaq-100 Open before being introduced in the US Open the same year.
Each player is allowed three incorrect challenges per set, with an additional challenge if the set reaches tie-break. This rule came into effect in March 2008 when the Hawk-Eye rules were standardised.
