If you’ve been watching the U.S. Open tennis tournament on television this week, you probably noticed a few unique things.
Number one, tennis is an awesome sport, and much of the credit should go to the players, coaches and trainers who pour everything they have to be the best.
Whether you’re a fan of Roger Federer and Serena Williams or prefer the old-school stars of yesteryear, tennis aficionados know how amazing they are.
The different playing surfaces throughout the tennis season — grass, clay and hardcourt — also offer some spice to the proceedings.
But aside from that, there is one thing that tennis does better than any other professional sport on the planet: instant replay.
The so-called Hawk Eye technology — and the player challenges that go along with it — was first adopted at the U.S. Open in 2006 and it’s the most indisputable video instant replay system, period.
If a player challenges that a ball landed in-bounds or out-of-bounds, the replay is available within seconds and is accurate within 3.6 millimetres.
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Instant replays in hockey, football, baseball, basketball and soccer may ultimately uphold or correct a ruling on the ice, field, diamond or court, but the length of time it takes to reach a verdict is more often than not mind-boggling.
The sad thing is none of their replay systems will ever be as efficient as the one tennis employs because there’s more grey area in those sports.
Offside replays in hockey and soccer can be disputed until the cows come home. The same can be said for bang-bang plays at first base or last-second jump shots, and football is plagued by so many variables when it comes to catches, surviving contact and staying in-bounds.
Advantage: tennis.