

Tennis players should challenge more calls - cwan
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/21/opinion/21kedrosky.html

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hristov
Sigh, let us think about this: could it be that players just don't see any
more challenge-able balls? I mean if someone already averages about 30% per
challenge for their existing challenges, it is unlikely that any additional
challenges will be worthy at all.

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JacobAldridge
This article would have been better argued had it provided stats on close
calls which SHOULD have been challenged, by players with challenges remaining,
but were not (for whatever reason).

In the absence of that information, and given more than 2 in 3 challenges are
overruled, it's forced to boil down to the conclusion that players should
"challenge recreationally" to disprupt an opponent.

Poor maths. Worse sportsmanship.

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thisisnotmyname
It's too bad the article doesn't include more numbers on accuracy - it would
be interesting to see if there's a big difference between the ruling of the
on-court judges and the camera system.

It'd also be interesting to know how often close calls happen on important
points, and how often those are challenged. My guess would be that challenges
are almost always used when the point matters, and the low challenge rate is
because most controversial calls happen in routine situations like 40-love.

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healthyhippo
The psychological impact of being wrong is big enough to do it very often.
Everyone going "oooooh... AHH" when they show the slow-motion ball cam, and
most of the time its out.

Then everyone looks at you like you're the asshole. All of a sudden you're
vilified, and home court advantage can shift over. There's little to be gained
unless it was truly very close and the call went against you.

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InclinedPlane
This is a silly and unrealistic article. Making more challenges is not a zero
cost proposition. It interrupts the flow of play, it can affect the morale of
the player, it can be a distraction to think about challenges all the time,
etc.

Or, to take a page from Paul Graham, which is better for a player: keeping the
idea of challenging calls at every opportunity as "the one thing" in their
mind constantly or concentrating on playing the best game possible?

