Hawk-Eye Innovations, the sports tech leader in officiating technologies, in partnership with the United States Tennis Association (USTA), recently hosted the world’s first review official training camp designed to facilitate the upskilling of international-grade tennis review officials. 

With the increase in the number of Electronic Line Calling reviews and live events throughout the tennis calendar, the USTA and Tours wanted to ensure the availability of trained and experienced Review Officials who would be comfortable working with Hawk-Eye’s Electronic Line Calling Systems (ELC). This was particularly relevant in the United States given the significant number of courts utilising Hawk-Eye’s Live line calling technology in high-profile professional tournaments all year round.

Following the early adoption and successful rollout of Hawk-Eye’s Automated Line Calling system, ‘Hawk-Eye Live’, across 10 of the 12 major North American events, the two entities have worked closely together this year with the aim of facilitating a learning platform for the USTA to expand its pool of review officials across the US & Canadian events. The trained officials were US-based, but this training was built to ensure recognition across operating systems internationally. Together, Hawk-Eye and the USTA are continually looking to provide more opportunities for officials to have invaluable exposure to globally recognized ELC systems.

The Replay Operator Training Camps

The inaugural event was held last month, where experts in the field from the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) and International Tennis Federation (ITF) joined forces to build and run a new set of “training camp” style instructional sessions alongside Hawk-Eye.

The ATP, WTA and ITF provided the technical knowledge and educational material which was customised for training on the Hawk-Eye Live system and tailored to the needs of the USTA. The ATP and WTA both hold a direct relationship with the Miami Open and were able to secure court time and facilities onsite vital to hosting the camp.

Ben Figueiredo, Director of Tennis, Hawk-Eye Innovations stated: “This is the first training event of its kind within Tennis. Being integral to the technology and services used to officiate, we understand the importance of involving key stakeholders in developing our systems, from the conceptualisation of our products right through to the training and development of officials. This camp was a fantastic opportunity to observe, engage and feedback improvements to help train and develop the skill sets of the review officials of the future. We see this camp being the first of many!”

Sean Cary, Managing Director - Competition Operations, at the USTA stated: “The aim of this camp was to continue to develop the relationship and understanding between Review Officials and the Hawk-Eye technology and team. This camp has been extremely successful in providing our review officials with information as well as the exposure and opportunity to work first-hand with the Hawk-Eye Live technology and produce the best officiating in the world. The immediate feedback from the officials has been hugely positive so we are excited to make these a more regular occurrence throughout the tennis calendar.”

Hawk-Eye, with the support of the USTA, ATP & WTA, will look to host multiple training camps throughout the year alongside national associations that have an existing relationship with Hawk-Eye services. These tailored training programs are a first step in facilitating a new development pathway for officials in the sport.