Mats Wilander has been one of the last voices against the incorporation of the innovative technological advances in the world of tennis Among which are the presence of electronic sensors to determine if a ball has entered or not instead of the presence of linesmen on the court, as has happened in the Australian Open this year and that the US Open also has planned to install
In statements to the Reuters agency Wilander was in favor of recovering the ‘challenge’ system, which allowed tennis players to ask for the hawk’s eye if they had doubts about a ball. “I love that there are linesmen and I like the hawk-eye system where you have three chances. I think that adds something to the tennis that we had lost. Sometimes we have spectacular exchanges between the best in the world. In the match between Zverev and Berrettini in Madrid they played great points but possibly more than 50% of the points did not exceed two strokes “.
Wilander believes that the ‘hawk eye’ gave him more intrigue to the game and made him think better if he should ask for the ball or not. “I think with the challenger it was something of an intrigue in which the player had to choose and think. ‘Is it such an important point as to ask for the hawk’s eye?” It made the player think more. Now there is no longer this and I think it takes away some of the emotion that is on the track “
The Swede also said that arbitration controversies are also part of sport and fears that tennis will end up becoming an eSport. “I think the worst refereeing is done in football because of the passion of people, the human factor and human error, which gives the fans a lot of intrigue. In football there is a lot of intrigue because the referees are not perfect, life is not perfect and the public is not perfect. I think we are turning tennis into eSports. We are not an electronic sport, we are a sport in which you move and in which we have human contact. “