Chapter 1195: Feeling Happy
Like all competitive sports including football, the tennis industry has always believed that "controversy", "errors" and "misjudgments" should be part of the game; moreover, this has become a unique label for the clay court, distinguishing it from games on other venues.
Therefore, even though Hawk-Eye technology is mature and widely used, all clay court tournaments still do not use Hawk-Eye.
Later, the 2022 Madrid Masters, a clay-court tournament that dares to innovate and challenge, introduced the Hawk-Eye system for the first time, allowing players to challenge the authority of the referee.
Same, three chances per set.
The Madrid Masters was the first to attempt innovation, but the results were... unsatisfactory, sparking a barrage of criticism, and industry insiders generally believed that this was unnecessary.
It's even superfluous.
Since the emergence of Hawkeye, controversy has never stopped, but on clay, the opposition voices have an absolute advantage -
The main reason is that being a tennis referee is very difficult. Their powers are very limited. There are no red cards or yellow cards, so their deterrent effect on players is limited.
Most of the time, they can only give warnings or at most penalty points; of course, according to 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 cautious. Not only does the referee need to be supervised by the tournament director on site, but he or she also 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 much authority. The maximum single fine they can impose on a player is only $40,000. Although multiple crimes can be punished together and calculated cumulatively, these punishments are just a drop in the bucket compared to the players' millions of dollars in tournament prize money.
As for suspensions, they don’t make these decisions lightly unless the situation is very, very serious.
As you can imagine, the support given to referees by ATP and WTA is also very limited.
Therefore, referees are often scolded by players and cannot talk back. At the same time, they also need to follow very strict game rules:
For example, no discussion of the competition is allowed, not in any form.
A typical case is the 2019 Wimbledon final, when Federer faced Djokovic. The two sides entered a five-set battle. Federer led 40:15 in his own serve game and got two match points. Almost everyone thought that Federer would win the championship, but Djokovic created a miracle and reversed the situation to win the championship.
That game will be an eternal pain for Federer fans.
Later, the Argentine referee of the final, Damian-Steiner, 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 expelled from the ATP and disqualified from refereeing.
At that time, the official reason given by the ATP was that Steiner revealed in an interview the discussion of internal rule changes, including the time limit for wiping sweat with a towel, the guidance of the coaching team during the game, and penalties related to net wipes, etc., which violated the ATP's confidentiality agreement.
But as time went on, the so-called rule discussions mentioned above came to no avail, and people gradually realized that the reasons why Steiner was expelled 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 the permission of the ATP. Most importantly, they are not allowed to have personal positions. For example, Steiner 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.
From this we can see that tennis referees are indeed restricted in their duties. They cannot do this or that, and their income is far less than everyone imagines. It is precisely because of this that many tennis referees are part-time and not full-time professional referees.
In other words, tennis referees do lack authority.
If Hawk-Eye technology is introduced on clay courts, it will further weaken the referee's remaining authority, because the ball marks are clearly visible. Once Hawk-Eye proves that the referee's decision is wrong, can the referee still continue to control the game after being slapped in the face?
Later, players such as Kyrgios, Medvedev, Zverev and others repeatedly verbally and even physically attacked the referee, which was a sign of the crisis.
It is precisely because of this that the Madrid Masters’ “first attempt” was criticized by industry insiders, but it is unknown whether they will continue to insist.
The focus returns to the "ball mark".
Whether you like it or not, whether you agree or not, no one can deny that clay is indeed different from other surfaces, and the "ball mark" is just one of them.
A long tug of war, intense consumption, arduous confrontation, changing tactics, tenacious will, controversial penalties...
All of this really makes the clay court unique.
In addition, the unpredictability of clay also makes clay tournaments full of upsets every year. The French Open championship battle always has unexpected dark horses:
The last time someone successfully defended the women's singles title was in 2007, when Belgian Justine Henin won three consecutive titles. However, no player has been able to defend the title for fifteen consecutive years since then. Moreover, unfamiliar faces appear in the quarterfinals and semifinals every year.
It just popped up at the French Open and then disappeared in a flash, like a firework.
The men's singles championship was completely overturned by the sudden emergence of Nadal, but in fact, even with the Big Four in charge, a large number of new faces can still be seen in the quarterfinals and semi-finals of the French Open every year. Names that have never been heard of always shine inadvertently in the clay court season.
The charm of competitive sports lies in the excitement of peak confrontations, but also in its unpredictability, which is one of the important sources of the appeal of clay court events.
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Every year at the French Open, people are always curious about what dark horse will emerge this year. Gao Wen agrees with this.
In Gao Wen's view, "red soil" is like a difficult math problem, especially like the last big question in a final exam, which is very complicated and difficult.
However, the process of analyzing, deducing, deconstructing, and finding answers is so fascinating that one can't help but want to calm down and study it carefully.
The taste of the training match was also revealed.
Sampras was a little surprised. "Why do I feel like Gawain seems... a little excited?"
Falling behind by a large margin, facing the king of clay on a clay court, and being taught a lesson, yet still so excited? Is this normal? Agassi did not speak.
Graf's eyes showed a hint of approval, "He is different from you. You get irritated when you get on clay and develop resistance deep down in your heart; but he enjoys it."
Sampras didn't understand. "Enjoy it? Why? Clay?"
Agassi was also full of questions, but after looking at Graf, he swallowed all his confusion and said nothing.
Graf did not speak again in response, but instead observed Gawain's training carefully.
Although I don't want to admit it, over the past few days, watching Gao Wen grow step by step and showing his attitude of dedication to research, I do have a sense of accomplishment.
The short week she spent with Gawain was much more interesting than Graf had imagined.
(End of this chapter)