It’s turned into a mighty strange Australian Open. Before the Grand Slam event began, many players were herded into quarantine and forced to practise their drop-shots against their hotel-room walls. Next up, crowds were barred from Rod Laver Arena when Melbourne entered a hard five-day lockdown. Yet perhaps the most enduring change from this tournament is that human line judges are set to become a long-term casualty of COVID in a shift that might ultimately result in “Rolex!” being shouted instead of traditional “out!” calls. The line judges at the Aussie Open were ditched because of the new social-distancing restrictions on the number of people allowed on site. This promoted the introduction of HawkEye Live – technology that made instant calls on balls that were long or wide. Whenever a ball is hammered out, a 12-camera set-up inside each court sparks a “fault” or “out” call that is played over the sound system. But just as you can change the accent on your smartphone, the HawkEye digital system offers endless scope for customisation. Instead of the “out” and “fault” calls being voiced by robots, Open organisers understandably wanted Australian accents. As a result, tournament officials contacted agencies in every Australian…
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