Tennis Player Zverev Takes Photo of Ball Mark During Game to Protest Electronic Line Call

Tennis star Alexander Zverev took the extraordinary step of stopping play so he could retrieve his phone from his bag and snap a photo of a ball mark which he believes proves the robotic Hawk-Eye system made a mistake on.

Zverev was playing at the Madrid Open on Sunday and after his opponent Alejandro Davidovich Fokina’s shot was called in by the electronic line-calling (ELS) system, Zverev marched straight over to the umpire to inform him there is a “malfunction” with the machine.

The Verge notes that ELS systems like Sony’s Hawk-Eye have begun replacing human line judges and most of the major tennis tournaments this year will be solely governed by the system.

Hawk-Eye uses cameras strategically placed around the area to predict where the ball will land by analyzing its speed, spin, and skid. Despite the ball being called in, Zverev was convinced the ball was out and felt he had proof in the fresh skid mark made by the ball.

Zverev, who is ranked number two in the world, failed to convince umpire Mohamed Lahyani to take a look at the mark on the clay court and instead went into his bag so that he could grab his phone and take a photo of the mark which he later posted to his social media.

The umpire gave Zverev a warning for unsportsmanlike behavior for taking the photo of the mark. Not that the German player seemed to care all too much. When he shared the photo to Instagram he wrote: “Just gonna leave this one here. This was called in. Interesting call,” alongside two thinking emojis. The photo does show a ball mark not touching the line.

The Athletic reports that Zverev is not the first tennis player to whip out their phone to take a photo of a line call, Aryna Sabalenka did the same during a match in Stuttgart, Germany.

Hawk-Eye only announced last year that its system is ready for clay courts where line judges and umpires have long used the old system of physical ball marks to make calls. The Verge notes that the old human-led system is not foolproof since a ball’s mark can change based on the weather conditions or depending on how much clay there is on court. The ATP Tour put out a video (below) explaining the difficulties of getting these calls correct.

Earlier this month, the NFL announced it is fully embracing Hawk-Eye technology for line-to-gain measurements in NFL games.