Roland Garros is unique, and so are its rules. The Parisian Grand Slam and its traditional clay live from its differences with the rest of the major tournaments, and the absence of video refereeing is one of them. The fortnight of the Porte d'Auteuil is the only one of the four Grand Slams not to offer the hawk-eye to the players and the referee. This computer system detects if the ball is good or not at the request of the players, who have three challenges per set, is even available in all other ATP tournaments outside the clay. But why not at Roland-Garros?
This is the story of a tradition to be respected. The clay is the only surface in tennis to leave a real mark on the impact of the ball on the ground. The central (or chair) referee is therefore able to check, as soon as one of the two players has a doubt at the announcement of a foul by one of the linesmen, the exact place where the ball fell.
Read alsoRoland-Garros: can the cries of players in full point be sanctioned?
But these traces are regularly debated. Indeed, when the ball flirts with the line, difficult to see even very closely with the naked eye, if the trace is in contact with the line or not. It is often believed that if there is continuity between the line and the ball, it is considered good. If ever small pellets of clay, even minimal, are present between the ball and the line, the latter is fault.
"As long as human arbitration holds the barracks... »
Decisions made by referees can often be challenged by players. In 2020, a refereeing decision on a trace during the meeting between Denis Shapovalov and Roberto Carballes Baena had given rise to a long controversy on the subject, with several players claiming the hawk-eye in the Paris Grand Slam, so much so that the French Tennis Federation was forced to react.
"The FFT is not in favour of replacing referees with machines. The traces left by the ball on the clay are supposed to allow the referees to validate or invalidate the announcements of the linesmen themselves. With the video, the result can be different between the machine and the track on the clay, "said the Federation, insisting on the fact that there was only "very little intervention of the chair umpire". On 800 matches played, a trace is checked every 1.5 sets on average according to the FFT.
Zverev is already debating with the referee! 😤🇩🇪
On a break opportunity, the ball comes to bite the line but the German sees it foul and lets Alison Hughes know. 😬
▶The match live: https://t.co/5xZKmuw67k
🎾Follow Roland-Garros: https://t.co/2r5Z1AivZz pic.twitter.com/zLwJUnY5Ka
— francetvsport (@francetvsport) June 8, 2021
But this tradition could come to an end in the coming years. From 2025, technology refereeing will replace linesmen on all ATP tournaments except Grand Slams. Roland-Garros could therefore keep its exception, but until when?
"We are a Grand Slam tournament, so we are still independent. We are in 2023, there is nothing that affects us immediately. We are the decision-maker of what we want to put in place. We will see how things develop, but we must not hurry. As long as human arbitration holds the barracks, we are a little less concerned directly, "replied on franceinfo the referee of Roland-Garros Remy Azémar.
