Novak Djokovic does not need to worry about accidentally hitting a US Open line judge with a tennis ball between points this year because there are not to be any line judges — chair umpires are to be the only on-court officials at the Grand Slam tournament’s matches.
The US Tennis Association (USTA) and the sport’s two leading professional tours, the ATP and WTA, on Monday announced that Hawk-Eye Live electronic line-calling would be used for all competition courts at the US Open this year and at seven of the nine US Open Series events preceding it.
A year ago, the USTA relied on the automatic system and dispensed with line judges at the US Open, except for matches at Flushing Meadows’ two main courts: the Arthur Ashe and the Louis Armstrong stadiums.
Photo: AP
During a fourth-round match at Ashe against Pablo Carreno Busta in September last year, Djokovic was defaulted from the US Open for inadvertently hitting a line judge in the throat with a ball after dropping a game.
It was a shocking and abrupt stop to Djokovic’s 29-match winning streak and his bid to add to his Grand Slam title collection.
After losing a game to trail 6-5 in the first set, Djokovic angrily swatted a ball behind him with his racket — and it went directly at the line judge.
Tournament referee Soeren Friemel ruled that the match — and Djokovic’s participation in last year’s US Open — would end there.
The Australian Open, which Djokovic won in February for his 18th major championship, did not have any line judges on any courts.
Not surprisingly, Djokovic said that he approved.
“I actually am in favor of technology. I think it’s proven to be very accurate in this particular instance,” he said at Melbourne Park when asked about ending the use of line judges. “I don’t see a reason why we need the line umpires, to be honest, if we have technology like this.”
The US Open Series tournaments that are to rely entirely on electronic line-calling this year are the events in Atlanta, Georgia; Washington; Toronto; Montreal; Cincinnati, Ohio; Cleveland, Ohio; and Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Robinson Cano spent 17 seasons playing in the MLB in front of all kinds of baseball fans, but he said there is something special about his stint with the Mexican Baseball League’s Diablos Rojos. He is not alone. The league last week opened its 100th season, aiming to keep an impressive growth in attendance that began after the national team’s surprise run at the 2023 World Baseball Classic, and is already surpassing some first-division soccer clubs. After finishing third in the 2023 tournament, many casual fans, some of them soccer enthusiasts disappointed after Mexico were eliminated in the first round in the 2022
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
Arne Slot has denied that Darwin Nunez was dropped from Liverpool’s win against West Ham because of a training-ground row with a member of his coaching staff. The Liverpool head coach on Sunday last week said that Nunez was absent from the 2-1 victory at Anfield, having felt unwell during training the day before, although the striker sat behind the substitutes throughout the game. Speculation has been rife that the Uruguay international, whom Slot criticized for his work rate against Wolves and Aston Villa in February, was left out for disciplinary reasons. Asked on Friday to clarify the situation, Slot said: “He
CUNNINGHAM CONNECTS: In the Eastern Conference, the Pistons snapped their record 15-game playoff losing streak by beating the Knicks to level their series at 1-1 Kawhi Leonard on Monday scored 39 points on 15-of-19 shooting as the Los Angeles Clippers evened their first-round NBA Playoffs series against the Nuggets with a 105-102 win in Denver. “It feels like he didn’t miss a shot,” James Harden said. “His shot-making ability is elite.” Good thing, too, because his teammates were a combined 26 of 66 for a 39 percent clip. “I made shots tonight,” Leonard said. “I just keep playing, try to stay in the zone no matter if I’m making or missing shots.” The fifth-seeded Clippers needed every bit of his brilliance to snatch the homecourt advantage in the series
RSS