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“We were laughing when John McEnroe was yelling at the line judge” Roland Garros supremo dismisses Hawk-Eye controversy


Guy Forget has brushed aside the issues caused when the umpire called a ball out on match point in the Roland Garros women’s semi final but Hawk-Eye showed the ball as in

Forget, a former world no.4 and now the French Open Tournament Director, made it clear that on clay often the mark on the court left by the ball is different to the mark that Hawk-Eye shows, hence the discrepancies. Hawk-Eye has not yet passed official accuracy tests for clay courts which explains why it’s not being used by players or umpires at this year’s tournament.

Forget said, “It’s a complicated story because I’ve talked to the referee, I’ve talked to the umpires, and apparently there’s a difference between Hawk-Eye and the actual mark on the court. It’s a long debate we’ve had before – the image Hawk-Eye shows and the mark that actually shows on the court can actually be different. If the ball touches the line and on Hawk-Eye it looks out should we show it on TV while the system is not 100% accurate?

“Of course you cannot talk to a machine, but you can talk to a chair umpire, and I think that’s the whole debate we have today – on hard courts no issue, on grass no issue – clay, if you have a 220kmh serve and the mark is long but the impact is in fact a lot smaller, so that’s how this whole process started.

“We liked it and we were laughing when John McEnroe was yelling at the line judge and that’s part of the show as well – lose that, and are we losing something important in the game?”


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Tim Farthing, Tennishead Editorial Director & Owner, has been a huge tennis fan his whole life. He's a tennis journalist and entrepreneur as well as playing tennis to a national standard. He also helps manage his local club and volunteers for his local tennis organisation. He's a specialist in content about the administration of professional tennis and tennis coaching for all levels.