Would Technology Take Away The Human Side Of Tennis

An incident in Nature Valley Open in Nottingham, a combined women’s and men’s tennis tournament of WTA International level and ATP Challenger level, saw an outburst of Britain’s Johanna Konta. She shouted at an umpire over a line call while playing in the final of the tournament. She went on to say that the decision was an absolute joke and decisions made by umpire affect lives.  The explosions like these, angry words towards the competitors, and racquet smashing are a part of tennis games. To avoid such incidents, computer technology exists. It robotically decides whether the ball is in, out, or on the line thus removing human error line judges can make. But, will it be fun if decisions are made on computers instead of knowledgeable beings sitting on the court?  This was tried at the NextGen Finals in Milan when the line judges were replaced by Hawk-Eye technology. It meant that for the first time at an ATP event the umpire was the only official on the court and for announcing each computer line he had the support of technology. This decision was final with players not being able to challenge calls that are regular at any gaming event. It was observed that it had sped up play as players heard the call and just got on with it. However, the question still remains that technology advancement like these will hamper the human side of the game.