LOVE 40: ELECTRONIC LINE CALLING SHOULD BE SAME FOR ATP AND WTA TOURS

By Matt Hill

Last week In Stuttgart at the Porsche Grand Prix WTA 500 event, there was a call that went against Aryna Sabalenka in the championship match against Jelena Ostapenko where the world No. 1 grabbed a cell phone out of the stands and took a picture.

The first thing I noticed linesmen and lineswomen were still making calls. I found this to be just uncalled for in 2025. In the end, Sabalenka did not win the point and was given an unsportsmanlike penalty.

However, this could be prevented if the WTA would adopt the ATP rule of having electronic line calling available across the board. We have the technology, why are we not using it.

This is the first year that the ATP has mandated electronic line calling on all surfaces, including clay. However, at most WTA standalone events on clay, they are still using humans. There is no use in using people for this when we have the technology.

At this week’s Madrid Open and next week’s Italian Open, electronic line calling is being used by the ATP and WTA. Basically, if the WTA event is tied into the ATP event, electronic line calling is being used. If it is a standalone event, the WTA is not using the technology on clay.

Fortunately, there are not many standalone clay events with Stuttgart probably being most notable. I still think it was ridiculous they were not using the technology that could be used if they wanted to. It is time to change this.

The Sabalenka incident would never have happened. We just need to use the technology. There is no excuse here. This really needs to be changed.

SHOULD IGA SWIATEK MOVE ON FROM HER SPORTS PSYCHOLOGIST

There is no doubt in the early portion of her career, Iga Swiatek having a sports psychologist helped her get to No. 1 and win four Roland Garros titles.

Nowadays, it seems Swiatek is very out of sorts during matches, and it has begged me to ask the question, should Iga part ways with her sports psychologist?

Only Swiatek knows the answer, but it has been obvious to me that Swiatek is not the same mentally as she was last year at this time. Now, before people think I am criticizing mental health, I see a therapist myself. I think for the most part, they are very helpful and very solid.

However, witnessing Swiatek always screaming not at the coach but to the sports psychologist, is very concerning and something that I think needs to be addressed.

I believe one reason Swiatek was head and shoulders about everybody else for about 2 ½ years was her mental toughness. She was unshakable almost. I believe the loss to Zheng Quinwen on her adopted home turf at Roland Garros was the beginning of the downfall for Swiatek.

Since the Olympics, she just hasn’t been the same and she has not won a tournament in almost a year. If she does not do well in Madrid, Rome and Paris, her ranking has a very good chance at dropping out of the top 10, which is unfathomable for a world-wide superstar and future Hall of Fame inductee.

I think a switch may be good for her. I think the problems are more mental than her game. It honestly may be Iga, but I think if she does not do well at Roland Garros, she is going to have to consider a shake-up.

TENNIS LEGEND ANDRE AGASSI TO PLAY IN US OPEN OF PICKLEBALL; TO JOIN TURNER SPORTS FOR ROLAND GARROS COVERAGE

We basically have two articles a year where we use filler stories and those are the open weekends at Madrid and Rome where there is no championship being crowned and we always seem to find a way to do an Andre Agassi piece.

Agassi has been in the news a lot lately, most notably for pickleball and tennis TV coverage. In pickleball, he is going to play in the upcoming US Open in Naples, Florida with world No. 1 Anna Leigh Waters in doubles.

Agassi made it very clear in his book “Open” that he hated tennis. Though, I think he has come to appreciate it now almost 20 years after retirement. On the flip side, he has really embraced pickleball, playing several times in the Pickleball slam shown on ESPN.

Back to tennis, it was announced recently that Agassi would joining Turner Sports or what is now known as TNT Sports for coverage of Roland Garros as a studio analyst.

Other than a brief stint in coaching, including a disastrous result with Novak Djokovic, Agassi has been almost quiet in tennis circles for almost 20 years but seems to have found his niche with broadcasting. He was stellar on the Netflix Slam in 2024 and now will be covering one of our biggest events.

Other than Jim Courier, who works for several outlets including Tennis Channel, the American brigade of Michael Chang, Pete Sampras, Agassi and Courier, have shied away from broadcasting. It is great to see Agassi joining the team at TNT.

We will have more on TNT taking over the broadcast reigns during our Roland Garros Preview in May.