The addition of VAR review has come in handy on several occasions at the ATP Cup. Many in tennis have pined for video review of disputed calls that were not previously covered by the Hawk-Eye challenge system, such as double bounces and net touches.Countless times over the years tennis fans have watched players engage in the futile art of arguing calls that they know will never be changed, but with VAR, some (not all, no system of video review is perfect) of those controversial calls will be resolved with clarity.
One such occasion occurred during Serbia’s 2-1 victory over France on Tuesday in Melbourne and it went against Novak Djokovic.
The video clearly shows that Djokovic made contact with the ball on the other side of the net, a no-no and an automatic loss of the point. With slo-mo and review it was easy to see what had occurred, and while Djokovic has every right to be frustrated by the fact that he basically had the point won and lost it on a technicality, even he knew that the call was correct. Though he was upset when it occurred, Djokovic later admitted that he was upset about the call because it reminded him of another, altogether more epic point that occurred in the Roland Garros semifinals in 2013 (see below).
It was a slightly different situation that happened in Paris, as Djokovic touched the net after making contact on a volley, and it was ruled that he touched the net before his winner had bounced twice. The call changed the course of the game and, whether true or not, many still believe that it was the turning point in the fifth set of that epic encounter with Nadal.
“He was right,” Djokovic said of the ruling on Tuesday in Brisbane. “I mean, I probably did go over to their side a little bit with my racket. But it was just, I mean, I got frustrated because that's, I don't know ... it was such an important point and, like, to win the point that way, I already lost a very important point in my career against Nadal in similar way like that in semis of French Open. So I had a little bit of a deja vu there and got frustrated because of that.”
It might have been nice had Djokovic had the ability to challenge that critical decision with Nadal way back in 2013. Even if he did lose the point he would have had the clarity in his mind that the ruling was correct.
And that is why tennis needs to incorporate VAR at some point in all of its events. It enables a close and just inspection of controversial calls and lets players proceed without the belief that they have been ripped off. Of course, no system is perfect, but VAR would be a heck of a lot better than the guessing game that tennis currently employs.