A Hawk-Eye puzzler

SINGAPORE — Hawk-Eye, the world-famous tracking system, was supposed to eradicate poor umpiring decisions at badminton’s top international events after a debut at the India Open in New Delhi early this month. But players competing at the ongoing OUE Singapore Open have been left puzzled after the technology — which has been in use on tennis’ ATP and WTA Tours since 2005 — was only deployed on one of the four courts for the tournament at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

As a result, only players who are scheduled to play on Court 1 are eligible to challenge line-calls during their matches, with those on other courts unable to utilise the Hawk-Eye advantage. This is the second time that Hawk-Eye has been deployed at the Badminton World Federation (BWF) Superseries tour.

Reigning world champion Ratchanok Intanon questioned if cost was an issue for not implementing it on all four courts, as she told TODAY: “Maybe it (Hawk-Eye) is too expensive ... Sometimes, the line judges make errors due to the exciting atmosphere or noise in the stadium. Hawk-Eye is good to have because at least you can challenge calls and be more accurate.”

Heated line-call disputes have marred the sport’s reputation in the past, with one noted incident occurring at the Busan Asian Games in 2002. Host nation South Korea won the men’s team gold medal in a controversial final against Indonesia which saw a two-hour walkout by the team after superstar Taufik Hidayat stormed off the court due to a disputed line call.

S Selvaamresh, BWF’s tournament series Senior Manager explained yesterday that the BWF was still reviewing and gathering feedback on the system. The cost of setting up Hawk-Eye on all four courts was also one of the reasons for limiting it to only one court.

“Across all the Superseries, only Court 1 will be allowed to challenge calls. The feedback we have is that some players have the benefit of (challenging) calls, and some don’t. We understand everyone wants to challenge (calls). We are studying it first and getting feedback for a review.” LOW LIN FHOONG