As noted earlier, the just-concluded Australian Open tennis championship was the first sports event I've seen live on TV in more than six months. My enforced weaning-away from those previous idle hours moaning about the Redskins or wondering about split-times at the Tour de France is no doubt virtuous and self-improving and so on.
But here is what I learned from the one truly startling participant at the Aussie Open: not the elegant Federer nor the gutsy Serena Williams but the computerized instant-replay system for disputed line calls. For anyone who has played tennis in the past or plans to play it again, the results of this system are worth serious, life-changing contemplation.
Here is the three-part logic:
First, the replays show that even tournament line judges are wrong an amazingly large amount of the time. That is, people who have a perfect view of the lines they are supposed to call, who have no built-in bias about the calls they're supposed to make, and who have nothing else to concentrate on other than making the calls, can't see a fast-moving ball clearly enough to tell accurately whether it's in or out. When the system was first introduced on the pro circuit last year, about one third of all challenged calls proved to be wrong. The ratio in the matches I just watched from Melbourne seemed at least that high. So the line judges were wrong that much of the time --and the rest of the time, the professional players, who have spent years judging the flight of balls within inches, were wrong in thinking the call should be overruled.
Second, whether the calls were "right" or "wrong" was often a matter of a few millimeters, a tiny smidgen -- however you define it, a margin so thin that no human eye could possibly detect it accurately in real time.
Third, this means something specific and dramatic for the non- professional player who has to call balls in or out in his side of the court. It means that if the opponent's ball is any place within shouting range of being in, for sure you have to say, "Good shot!" None of this looking closely and using your best judgment. For one thing, you're probably wrong. (You have a much worse view than those error-prone line judges; you have a much greater bias.) For another, even if you're right, your opponent probably thinks that you are wrong. (Pro players who have much better eyes than you think, incorrectly, that too many close calls are going against them.)
I had always thought myself a "high road" line caller -- probably everyone does -- but if I ever again live some place where I can play tennis, it will be a whole new policy. If I can see several inches of space between the line and your ball, I will say "Out!" Otherwise, it's your point. I predict -- ok, maybe I hope -- that the computerized instant replays will have some uplifting effect on the world of non-professional tennis. Maybe it will become embarrassing to think (as, I am embarrassed now to realize, I often did) that you actually can see a close ball well enough to call it "out."
