Like all competitive sports including football, the tennis industry has always believed that those "controversies", "errors" and "misjudgments" themselves should be part of the game; moreover, this has also become a unique label for the clay court, and other
The venues are distinguished by competition.
Therefore, even though Hawk Eye technology has matured and is widely used, Hawk Eye is still not used in all clay court events.
Later, at the 2022 Madrid Masters, in this clay-court event that dares to innovate and challenge, the Hawkeye system was introduced for the first time, allowing players to challenge the authority of the referee——
Same, three chances per set.
The Madrid Masters took the lead in making an innovative attempt, but the results... were unsatisfactory and triggered a lot of criticism. People in the industry generally believed that this was unnecessary.
It's even superfluous.
Controversy has never stopped since the emergence of Hawkeye, but on clay, the opposition has an absolute advantage——
The main reason is that it is very difficult to be a tennis referee. Their power is very limited. There are no red cards or yellow cards, and their deterrent effect on players is limited.
Most of the time, they can only give a warning, or at most a penalty point; of course, judging from the rules of the competition, the referee has the authority to disqualify players, but everyone knows that the use of this authority needs to be very, very careful, not only on the spot
It needs to be supervised by the tournament director and needs to undergo a long and complicated investigation after the game.
Moreover, because tennis is an individual sport, the ATP and WTA do not have high authority. The maximum single fine they can impose on a player is only US$40,000. Although multiple crimes can be punished and calculated cumulatively, compared to the players
If there is a million-dollar tournament prize money, these penalties are nothing more than water.
As for suspensions, unless the situation is very, very serious, they will not make these decisions lightly.
As you can imagine, the support given to referees by the ATP and WTA is also very limited.
Therefore, referees are often pointed in the nose and scolded by players and cannot talk back; at the same time, they also need to follow very strict game regulations——
For example, discussion of the game is not allowed, not in any form.
A typical case is that in the 2019 Wimbledon final, Federer faced Djokovic. The two sides entered into a five-set battle. Federer led "40:15" in his own service game and got two match points. Almost everyone
Everyone thought Federer would reach the top, but Djokovic wrote a miracle and came back to win the championship.
That game is forever painful for Federer fans.
Later, Damian-Steiner, the Argentine referee in this final, said in an interview with the media in his hometown,
"I also thought Roger would win."
As a result, the 44-year-old gold medal referee was directly fired from the ATP and was disqualified from refereeing.
At that time, the official reason given by the ATP was that Stanler disclosed in an interview the discussion of changes to internal rules, including the time limit for wiping sweat with towels, the guidance of the coaching team during the game, and penalties related to net wipes, etc., which violated ATP confidentiality.
protocol.
But as time went on, the so-called discussion of rules disappeared, and people gradually understood that the reasons for Steinler's expulsion were not what the official said.
The industry speculates that the main reason is that referees are not allowed to be interviewed to discuss any game without permission from the ATP. Most importantly, they are not allowed to have personal positions. For example, Steinler showed a tendency to support Federer, which caused
Djokovic's dissatisfaction.
For reference, in 2019, Djokovic was still the chairman of the ATP Players Union and had not yet left the ATP to establish his own organization.
It can be seen from this that tennis referees are really tied up. They can't do this and that, and their income is far from as high as everyone thinks. It is precisely because of this that many tennis referees are part-time and not full-time professionals.
referee.
In other words, tennis referees do lack authority.
If Hawkeye technology is introduced into the clay court, it will further weaken the referee's remaining authority, because those ball marks are clearly visible. Once Hawkeye proves that the referee's decision is wrong, the referee will be slapped in the face.
Can you still control the game?
Later, Kyrgios, Medvedev, Zverev and other players repeatedly attacked the referee verbally and physically, which was a sign of the crisis.
It is precisely because of this that the "early adopter" of the Madrid Masters has been scolded by industry insiders, but it is not known whether they will continue to persist.
His eyes returned to the "ball mark".
Whether you like it or not, or agree with it or not, no one can deny that clay soil is indeed different from other surfaces, and the "ball mark" is just one of them.
The long tug-of-war, intense consumption, arduous confrontation, changeable tactics, tenacity, controversial penalties...
Everything really makes the clay court unique.
In addition, the unpredictability of clay court also makes clay court events upset every year. There is always an unexpected dark horse in the French Open championship battle:
The last time someone defended the women's singles championship was back in 2007, when Belgian Justine Henin completed three consecutive championships. However, after that, no player was able to defend the title for fifteen consecutive years; and, every year
There will be unfamiliar faces in the top eight and four semifinals——
It just popped up at the French Open, and then disappeared in an instant, like fireworks.
The men's singles championship has been completely overturned by the emergence of Nadal, but in fact, even if the Big Four are in charge, the top eight and four of the French Open every year can still see a lot of fresh faces, names that have never been heard of.
They always shine in the clay court season inadvertently.
The charm of competitive sports lies in the excitement of the peak showdown, but also in the unpredictable and unpredictable nature. This is also one of the important sources of the appeal of clay court events.
Every year at the French Open, people are always curious about what dark horses will emerge this year?
Gawain agreed with this.
In Gawain's view, "red soil" is like a profound mathematics question, especially the last big question in the final exam, which is very complicated and difficult.
However, the process of analysis, deduction, deconstruction, and finding answers is so fascinating that people can't help but want to calm down and study it carefully.
The taste of training matches is also reflected.
Sampras was slightly surprised, "...Why do I feel that Gawain seems...a little excited?"
Falling behind by a big margin, facing the King of Clay in a clay court match, being given a good lesson, but the result is so exciting?
Is this normal?
Agassi didn't speak.
There was a hint of approval in Graf's eyes, "He is different from you. You will be irritable as soon as you arrive on the clay and have resistance deep in your heart; but he enjoys it."
Agassi was also full of questions, but he glanced at Graf and swallowed all the confusion without speaking.
Graf did not respond again, but carefully observed Gawain's training——
Although I don't want to admit it, I do feel a sense of accomplishment watching Gao Wen grow step by step and show his attitude of studying hard in the past few days.
The short week spent with Gawain was much more interesting than Graf imagined.