Hawk-eye technology will be used to officiate matches in a world first at next month’s Hopman Cup mixed teams tennis tournament, organisers said in Perth on Monday.
It will be the world’s first elite level tennis tournament to formally utilise the revolutionary tennis technology, they said.
The Hopman Cup, getting under way in Perth on December 30, is an official International Tennis Federation (ITF) event with the matches officially recorded on player head-to-head records.
The ITF has agreed that Hawk-Eye officiating can be used in the tournament with the system allowing players to challenge point-ending line calls similar to that in clay court tournaments.
”This result reflects the hard work put in by both Hawk-Eye and our committee over the past year,” ITF technical manager Stuart Miller said in a Tennis Australia statement.
The technology, which uses cameras to track the ball’s trajectory and sends information to a virtual reality computer, has been tested at Grand Slam championships and ATP Tennis Masters Series and was also tested at the last Hopman Cup.
”Calling lines is a tough job — everyone wants it to be left to the ability of the players to decide the outcome of a match and now Hawk-Eye can help make that happen,” said Paul Hawkins, founder of the Hawk-Eye system.
Tournament director Paul McNamee said: ”The Hopman Cup has always been an innovative tournament. It was the first elite level event to introduce electronic line calling 12 years ago and now is the first to introduce this latest technological advance.”
Large video screens at the end of the court will display the result direct to the spectators in the stadium, Tennis Australia said.
The Hawk-Eye system has been in use for three years, but only as a guide to television viewers and as an analytical tool for commentators.
The Hopman Cup is the lead-off tournament to the Australian Open, starting in Melbourne on January 16. – AFP
