"Let's do away with umpires!"

[Kieran]

Thus spake Johnny Mac.

Now, I like McEnroe, his enthusiasm is great (regardless if it's often only enthusiasm to hear himself think out loud) and I reckon he's enjoyable as a commentator, but often these old pros have wacky weird and wunnerful ideas - and this is one of them:

“You want a little edge,” McEnroe said. “If you had no umpires but you had a challenge system and the players called their own lines, all of a sudden things would get a whole lot edgier. Obviously it would have to be on every court. That goes without saying.

“You could challenge calls. If you thought the other guy was blatantly cheating you could challenge it. Then the fans would boo him and people would get way more into it. People would say: ‘See this guy? This guy is such a cheater.’

Now, the obvious flaw is in the opening sentence: "You want a little edge."

This is akin to old timers moaning that there's no more characters in the game. No, Johnny, we don't "want a little edge", we want tennis to stay pretty much as great as it is...

 

[Murat Baslamisli]

Johnny , Johnny...you got to stop giving interviews after the fifth beer.nono

 

[Kieran]

Exactly. This is as left-field a suggestion as Alan Partridge plugging Monkey Tennis as a possible TV show... :Lolz:

 

[Riotbeard]

Thus spake Johnny Mac.

Now, I like McEnroe, his enthusiasm is great (regardless if it's often only enthusiasm to hear himself think out loud) and I reckon he's enjoyable as a commentator, but often these old pros have wacky weird and wunnerful ideas - and this is one of them:

“You want a little edge,” McEnroe said. “If you had no umpires but you had a challenge system and the players called their own lines, all of a sudden things would get a whole lot edgier. Obviously it would have to be on every court. That goes without saying.

“You could challenge calls. If you thought the other guy was blatantly cheating you could challenge it. Then the fans would boo him and people would get way more into it. People would say: ‘See this guy? This guy is such a cheater.’

Now, the obvious flaw is in the opening sentence: "You want a little edge."

This is akin to old timers moaning that there's no more characters in the game. No, Johnny, we don't "want a little edge", we want tennis to stay pretty much as great as it is...

Don't want it to happen but love it in an alternate reality. It could be a lot of fun to watch, but would pretty fundamentally alter the game.

 

[tented]

Don't want it to happen but love it in an alternate reality. It could be a lot of fun to watch, but would pretty fundamentally alter the game.

You don't even need an alternate reality. Just go to an elementary school and watch them play tennis. OK, they don't have the actual challenge system, but would it ultimately be that different?

 

[Kieran]

Yeah, and the notion that it would make players more honest is absurd. Most players are fairly honest anyway. But imagine the chaos in the players boxes, with coaches yelling out stuff, players chatting to their coach, and who'd run a clock between serves, who would tell the fans to be quiet, who'd call the fricking score.

Johnny Mac hasn't thought this one through for even a nano-second. :nono

Enjoy the Championships, tennis fiends, hope to see you all in two weeks - with the right result this time! :clap

 

[Riotbeard]

Don't want it to happen but love it in an alternate reality. It could be a lot of fun to watch, but would pretty fundamentally alter the game.

You don't even need an alternate reality. Just go to an elementary school and watch them play tennis. OK, they don't have the actual challenge system, but would it ultimately be that different?

I do, but not because of dishonesty, so much time would be wasted questioning someone call, not on the basis of lying, but how good can you see every line from every vantage point. So many calls would be bad, then factoring going to watch it on tv, and seeing all the one's you didn't challenge. Within a few weeks, every player would be screaming all the time. At least that's how I see it.

 

[tented]

Don't want it to happen but love it in an alternate reality. It could be a lot of fun to watch, but would pretty fundamentally alter the game.

You don't even need an alternate reality. Just go to an elementary school and watch them play tennis. OK, they don't have the actual challenge system, but would it ultimately be that different?

I do, but not because of dishonesty, so much time would be wasted questioning someone call, not on the basis of lying, but how good can you see every line from every vantage point. So many calls would be bad, then factoring going to watch it on tv, and seeing all the one's you didn't challenge. Within a few weeks, every player would be screaming all the time. At least that's how I see it.

We're on the same page, Riotbeard. By "would it ultimately be that different" I meant would it ultimately be that different from arguing kids.

 

[TsarMatt]

 

[TennisFanatic7]

I do like McEnroe but he loves to say things like this for attention and it gets on my nerves a bit. He said a while back that they should allow Lets to stand as legitimate serves so you could netcord an ace. No thanks.

 

[Riotbeard]

I do like McEnroe but he loves to say things like this for attention and it gets on my nerves a bit. He said a while back that they should allow Lets to stand as legitimate serves so you could netcord an ace. No thanks.

To be fair, I don't think he is just saying the let cord things to cause a stir. That's the rule for American college tennis. I think they should call let, but there is a much more legit case than the no umps issue.

 

[tented]

I do like McEnroe but he loves to say things like this for attention and it gets on my nerves a bit. He said a while back that they should allow Lets to stand as legitimate serves so you could netcord an ace. No thanks.

To be fair, I don't think he is just saying the let cord things to cause a stir. That's the rule for American college tennis. I think they should call let, but there is a much more legit case than the no umps issue.

You're right about McEnroe on this issue. Martina and Jimmy Connors have also said they should quit calling lets, since it would speed up play. (However, I don't remember any of them mentioning aces as the reason.)

 

[Iona16]

The press conference of Gulbis today. Umpires or vampires?

Q. I don't know if you heard John McEnroe's comments. He would like to get rid of umpires and have players call their own shots. Have you any thoughts of that?
GULBIS: Get rid of vampires?
Q. Have players call their own shots.
GULBIS: I completely agree.
Q. You would agree?
GULBIS: (Nodding head.)
Q. How would it work? Why?
GULBIS: Why? That's his idea. He should explain how it should work.
Q. Why do you agree?
GULBIS: I am for freedom of choice and I am for, let's say, what's on my mind. I want to be able to say it. I don't like when people go for popular decisions and popular answers and everybody is trying to be the nice guy. Not everybody is, you know. So why I need to, sorry to say, get s--- for saying my own opinion. I want to be entitled to it. It's as simple as that. Let's say umpires, not umpires, that's a funny comparison, but there is a lot of people surrounding tennis players who are helping with advice, how to, say, even speak with the press, to behave or that, you know. It breaks down a little bit the personality. So I'm totally for personality. That's it.
Q. You think the majority of players would be able to work in that kind of system, in all honesty say, Okay, it was in or out?
GULBIS: You mean umpires?
Q. Yes.
GULBIS: My God. Umpires? I thought something else. I thought vampires in the way the people who are surrounding and sucking the energy out of players. That's what I meant. Umpires, no. Without umpires, it wouldn't work. So please delete it. No, umpires. Cannot work without umpires. I thought it was vampires. You know what I mean?
Q. Yes, I understand. So you are disagreeing with McEnroe?
GULBIS: Without umpires, it wouldn't work, no.
Q. What did you say about vampires?
GULBIS: I thought he made an expression. Okay, I thought, let's say, in a way that people are surrounded a lot with the people who are their help. Let's say you have now a team of six people. Some of the players, they have press guy, they have physio, they have coach, they have massage therapist, fitness. All these guys, especially let's say, I don't know what the press guy's job is, but they give advices to players.
Q. The media, are they the vampires?
GULBIS: Always trying to get a quote. I'm not going to give you a quote. Next question.

 

[Front242]

Vampires ! ROFL

 

[Moxie]

^What a character!

I doubt anyone but McEnroe would dream up doing without umpires. The elimination of lets is, and tented says, something that others have spoken about. Just play the ball if it lands in the service box. But the players of their generation played lets, right? Would that be good, or bad? Would it lead to softer/more cautious first serves? Could be odd and interesting, since a let cord can lend an odd trajectory, no? I wonder if anyone is studying how much it would actually shorten matches if all lets were eliminated.

 

[kskate2]

The press conference of Gulbis today. Umpires or vampires?

Q. I don't know if you heard John McEnroe's comments. He would like to get rid of umpires and have players call their own shots. Have you any thoughts of that?
GULBIS: Get rid of vampires?
Q. Have players call their own shots.
GULBIS: I completely agree.
Q. You would agree?
GULBIS: (Nodding head.)
Q. How would it work? Why?
GULBIS: Why? That's his idea. He should explain how it should work.
Q. Why do you agree?
GULBIS: I am for freedom of choice and I am for, let's say, what's on my mind. I want to be able to say it. I don't like when people go for popular decisions and popular answers and everybody is trying to be the nice guy. Not everybody is, you know. So why I need to, sorry to say, get s--- for saying my own opinion. I want to be entitled to it. It's as simple as that. Let's say umpires, not umpires, that's a funny comparison, but there is a lot of people surrounding tennis players who are helping with advice, how to, say, even speak with the press, to behave or that, you know. It breaks down a little bit the personality. So I'm totally for personality. That's it.
Q. You think the majority of players would be able to work in that kind of system, in all honesty say, Okay, it was in or out?
GULBIS: You mean umpires?
Q. Yes.
GULBIS: My God. Umpires? I thought something else. I thought vampires in the way the people who are surrounding and sucking the energy out of players. That's what I meant. Umpires, no. Without umpires, it wouldn't work. So please delete it. No, umpires. Cannot work without umpires. I thought it was vampires. You know what I mean?
Q. Yes, I understand. So you are disagreeing with McEnroe?
GULBIS: Without umpires, it wouldn't work, no.
Q. What did you say about vampires?
GULBIS: I thought he made an expression. Okay, I thought, let's say, in a way that people are surrounded a lot with the people who are their help. Let's say you have now a team of six people. Some of the players, they have press guy, they have physio, they have coach, they have massage therapist, fitness. All these guys, especially let's say, I don't know what the press guy's job is, but they give advices to players.
Q. The media, are they the vampires?
GULBIS: Always trying to get a quote. I'm not going to give you a quote. Next question.

I saw the whole thing on ESPN. It was hilarious. Here's a snippet.
[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7DK-Tm-8VQ[/video]

 

[brokenshoelace]

This is absolutely retarded, by the way. Yeah, let's have tennis players focus on playing well, keeping their eyes on the ball at all times, never losing concentration, dealing with the physicality/intensity of tennis at the elite level, playing world class opponents with immeasurable stakes on the line...AND officiate their own matches. Yup, I'm sure that should in no way make their job twice as difficult.

 

[Murat Baslamisli]

This is absolutely retarded, by the way. Yeah, let's have tennis players focus on playing well, keep their eye on the ball at all time, never lose concentration, deal with the physicality/intensity of tennis at the elite level, play world class opponents with immeasurable stakes on the line...AND officiate their own matches. Yup, I'm sure that should in no way make their job twice as difficult.

...and that is exactly why I have always been against the Hawk-Eye thing the way it is being implemented today. A player has a million things to worry about before checking to see if a ball caught the line or not. It is not his job to begin with.