Advocating for a More Accurate Tennis Replay System

As a competitive tennis player and active tennis watcher, disputes on the court are always frustrating. Whether it’s score disputes, line call disputes, or double bounce accusations, arguments on the court are never an exciting thing to face. Regarding the first two problems, solutions have been implemented to combat those problems for the professional level. They have an umpire sitting in a chair to keep track of the score and an electronic line call system for accurate and precise in or out calls. However, regarding the third problem of double bounces, despite the advanced technology available, there has not yet been a systematic way to settle the problem of whether or not a player reached the ball before it bounced twice (in tennis, you can only allow the ball to bounce a maximum of one time before hitting it to the other side). This has caused many arguments and fights, even in recent matches. 

On August 16, 2024, Jack Draper, the top player in Great Britain, faced off against Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime in the round of 16 of the Cincinnati Open. Both players fought hard, battling hard back and forth. Eventually, Draper got the upper hand in a tight final set and had an opportunity to close off the match. However, after he served the ball, he hit the next shot in an unconventional way. The ball bounced off his racket frame and flew high in the air, landing weirdly on the other side. As the point ended, Auger-Aliassime was confident that the point was his, as he assumed that the ball hit the ground on Draper’s side of the court after it hit Draper’s racket (which is illegal in tennis). However, the umpire sitting in the chair ruled that Draper had won the match, going off the reason that he could not see clearly, and so could not confidently rule that Draper’s shot was invalid. Baffled, Auger-Aliassime reasoned with the umpire, explaining how it is physically impossible for the ball to bounce like that for a valid shot. Holding his ground, the umpire would not budge from his stance, staying with his original ruling. Eventually, the argument ended with Auger-Aliassime stating that the moment would go viral for how stupid and wrong this was. 

Auger-Aliassime was right in saying that that moment would go incredibly viral across the tennis media. Yet, what really infuriated people was the lack of a replay system to determine if the shot was legal or not. When televised, the footage is replayed to the audience at home watching it, so why not apply it to the players? This replay would also benefit the umpire in making a fair and unbiased decision, as it is also hard for them to determine in the moment exactly what happened.

15 days after that incident, there was another argument concerned with this double bounce problem. On August 31, 2024 at the US Open, one of the four most prestigious tournaments in tennis, Russian player Anna Kalinskaya was sure that her opponent Beatriz Haddad-Maia was unable to reach the ball before the ball bounced twice, thereby making Haddad-Maia’s shot illegal and therefore cause the point to be awarded to Kalinskaya. This time, there was a replay system available for the players to use, so Kalinskaya requested one. However,the umpire still made the wrong call even after watching the footage again. The umpire’s decision baffled the audience and commentators as the ball clearly bounced twice before Haddad-Maia was able to reach it. This incident revealed another flaw in deciding whether or not a ball bounced twice: human error. On the court, all the power to make the decision about a double bounce is left to the umpire who may sometimes be wrong. In contrast, other sports like fencing, soccer, and football have a group of professionals/experts/etc reviewing the replayed footage when deciding contested calls which makes the final decision more accurate. Although there’s not enough space on the tennis court to fit that many people, one solution is to have people behind the scenes working to sort these types of situations out in an orderly manner.

These incidents happened within the span of half a month and could have been resolved if more advanced technology was implemented to combat this problem. Players dedicate themselves relentlessly to this sport and they deserve accurate, fair, and reliable replay systems. It’s 2024 and it’s time to use our advanced technological resources to good use.