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Federer: Hawk-Eye must be scrapped
Last updated at 10:23am on 09.07.07Wimbledon officials are to conduct a thorough review of the use of Hawk-Eye after Roger Federer urged the All England Club to scrap the new technology.
The Swiss world No1 was driven to distraction and was heard to swear as a line-call went against him on his way to his fifth consecutive men's singles title.
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Passion play: Roger Federer shows his emotions against Nadal
Federer, who has now won 11 Grand Slams, was so incensed during his epic five-set victory over Rafael Nadal yesterday that television viewers heard him shout "sh*t" and claim the Hawk-Eye was "killing him" and should be turned off.
All England Club chief executive Ian Ritchie promised Federer today that an investigation into the use of the technology - which relies on a series of cameras to calibrate where a ball lands - would now be instigated, although he insisted that initial tests had shown the system to be working.
Ritchie said: "We will be conducting a review of the system following this year's championships. The International Tennis Federation (the sport's governing body) have already checked Hawk-Eye decisions during this year's championships and verified the results.
"Before it was introduced this year for the first time, we carried exhaustive testing of the system to ensure it would do the job. It passed all those tests."
French Open organisers refused to use the system at Roland Garros this year and Wimbledon does have the option of scrapping it next year.
The players did not like the fact that only two courts (Centre and One) had the system in operation.
Federer fears he is fighting a losing battle and fully expects the system to remain at Wimbledon and it will be used at next month's US Open and again in Australia next year.
Federer said: "What can I say? If I'm going to go against it, people will always say he doesn't agree whatsoever, I don't know how they developed this machine, if they took all possibilities into account, like the way the ball travels, the way it bounces, 3D, the whole thing.
"I told the umpire I was happy Nadal was going to challenge because I knew the ball was out. Then to see that it was in on a 30-All point, which was such a huge point, I was shocked, of course, that it was inside.
"But, you know, it doesn't matter what I think about it anymore. It's in place and that's the way it is. I was just frustrated because I got broken first up and then to be broken this way was very irritating.
"I was like, all of a sudden, anything that is challenged now is certainly going to go against me - you feel like things are just not working out for you. So it took me a few games to kind of forget about it and I was ready for the fifth set, thank God. So in the end, it was okay."
Football is hoping Hawk-Eye, already familiar to cricket fans, will soon help referees rule on when a ball has cross the goal line, with Reading to host trials of the technology at their training ground this season.
Reader views (2)
The Hawk-Eye Camera system brough entertainment to TV in Cricket which was welcomed by viewers, however it was never accurate enough to enable cricket umpires to make decisions in terms of LBW. In tennis as a result of a requirement for technology to assist in Line Call Decisions, the Hawk Eye System was presumably stretched beyond its capabilities.
The camera system can only take images at every 0.25m or so depending on the speed and then the positional accuracy even at those discrete points have uncertainty due to systematic noise and light variations etc. This all contribute to uncertainties overall. The real problems come when the ball strike the surface. With the sidespin as well as curves that some of the players can hit the ball, it is difficult to predict the impact footprint accurately enough for a line call decision.
The only thing that could be used in this case is to provide the actual footprint of the ball and no prediction. Sorry Hawk-eye, not good enough.
- Henri Johnson, Stellenbosch South Africa
There was a point that hawkeye called out on the baseline, and the "Mac-cam" clearly showed the ball bounced on the line! I guess there are two ways to look at this: 1) Sports are entertainment and hawk-eye is a random wildcard that can reverse a call, or 2) hawk-eye has a margin of error so it offers no value over the human margin of error. I for one would like to go with the "mac cam" approach rather than this unknown technology.
- Jon, USA
