Bianca Andreescu wasn't happy about some of the line calls in her first-round match at the 2023 Bad Homburg Open.
The human factor has always played a role in professional tennis, but that will soon change, and the young Canadian will certainly be one of the players that will welcome the change. Often, there is a discussion about involvement of the umpires and their right or possibly wrong calls.
This phenomenon is seen especially during the clay-court part of the season, as the hawk eye is not used at those tournaments. However, there are also some tournaments that don't have a hawk eye, or players may sometimes use all three allocated challenges during a set.
Soon, live electronic line calling should come to the ATP Tour as all tournaments should incorporate it, starting in 2025. On the other hand, the WTA didn't make a similar announcement, but it is expected that they may.
In the first round of the 2023 Bad Homburg Open, 2019 US Open champion, Bianca Andreescu took on Sonay Kartal from the United Kingdom, and the match was a real battle as both players had their chances.
After winning the opening set 6-2, the Canadian lost the second set 3-6, and it was crucial for her to start well in the third set to keep her hopes high. Andreescu broke early and led 4-1, but soon her opponent started turning the things around.
In the seventh game of the deciding set, Kartal was able to break back, but it wasn't without the frustration of her opponent. After one of the rallies, Andreescu thought that the ball was in, while it was called out by the line umpire, and she voiced her displeasure.
"There have been so many calls that were so bad."
Eventually, that didn't matter as Andreescu was able to win the match 6-2, 3-6, 7-5 to set up a second-round match against Rebeka Masarova, but the incident once again reminded everyone that the electronic line calling should be incorporated as soon as possible.
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