Several refereeing errors, some with serious consequences, affected last week’s ATP Masters 1,000 tennis tournament in Monte Carlo and strengthened interest in technological refereeing, which will be generalized from 2025 in the ATP circuit and, although not perfect, has the merit of being accepted by the players as a whole, reports AFP.
Russian player Daniil Medvedev, frustrated with the refereeing, summed up his opinion: „Referees no longer know how to do their job,” he said after his defeat in the round of 16 against his compatriot Karen Khachanov.
At the end of the match, one of his opponent's balls clearly jumped out of bounds, but the referees did not signal the error, and Medvedev continued the rally he lost before showing the incriminated mark and erupting in anger.
The next day, it was Jannik Sinner's turn to lose the semifinal against the future tournament winner, Stefanos Tsitsipas, when the Greek made a double fault synonymous with a double break for the Italian in the third set, if it had been signaled. The mark could have been hidden from the line judge's eyes by a small clump of clay.
But to avoid human errors and the well-known protests of the players, ATP has resorted since 2017 (the first tests took place this year at the ATP Next Gen tournament) to technological refereeing, and all players seem to accept digital decisions without comments, even if they are not infallible.
Often, the electronic system has been used additionally by the line referees, and players have been able to resort to it in case of disagreement with human refereeing. On hard courts, this Hawkeye system has been generalized, especially after the Covid pandemic.
On clay, a more mobile surface, digital systems have been random, except for Foxtenn, which uses real cameras and not digital reconstruction, but it costs more.
ATP explained, through its president Andrea Gaudenzi, that tennis "deserves the most precise form of refereeing" and decided in February 2023 that line referees will disappear from all circuit tournaments (Grand Slam tournaments are independent, but only the organizers of the French Open refuse this) in favor of technological refereeing starting in 2025.