Why Djokovic's Misfortune Advocates For Use Of Electronic Line Calling On Clay
ATP
The electronic line calling should be in every ATP match and Novak Djokovic's misfortune only advocates for it.
The 22-time major winner was very unlucky during his third-round match at the 2023 Monte-Carlo Masters. He took on young Italian Lorenzo Musetti who was able to outplay Djokovic in three sets and advance to the quarterfinals of the tournament played at the Monte-Carlo Country Club.
However, it wasn't the Italian's performance that made headlines after the match. Not even Djokovic's injury, which became apparent soon after the clash, was so controversial as a very bad call made by both the line umpire and the chair umpire Aurelie Tourte who was in charge of the match.
At the beginning of the eighth game of the second set, Musetti hit a forehand that initially appeared to be a winner, but Djokovic wasn't sure about it. He went to check the mark on the red clay and he was sure that the ball was out. However, the umpire didn't agree with him, and as the TV footage later revealed, she made a massive mistake as the ball was out by quite a lot.
So, the clay-court season is back, and with it also dirty socks, long matches, and incredible rallies. However, that's not the end of the list. Also, the line umpires are back and so are the calls made by the chair umpires and checking of the marks on the clay court.
But if we have a technology that allows us to show the footage of where the ball landed immediately to the viewers, why don't we use it also to help players? Of course, umpires are doing a great job but like every human being, they are not always 100% right.
Therefore, mistakes can occur and one certainly occurred in the most recent match of Novak Djokovic, which maybe even cost him a victory. In the majority of the hard court tournaments, we now have an electronic line calling and the start of the clay-court season clearly indicates that it should be implemented also on the red dirt.
This became apparent only during the first ATP Masters 1000 tournament of the year and if we want to have more fair competition in the future, electronic line calling should become a necessity for every tournament on the ATP Tour as soon as possible.
