French Open retains its human touch
For Novak Djokovic, this is a relatively easy call: He, like many players, thinks the French Open is making a mistake by eschewing the electronic line-calling used at most big tennis tournaments, instead choosing to remain "old school" by letting line judges decide whether serves, or other shots, land in or out.
Plenty of sports, from soccer and baseball to the NFL, are replacing, or at least helping, officials with some form of high-tech assistance, like replays or sensors.
Tennis, too, is following that trend — except at Roland Garros, where the French Open is currently underway and runs until June 8.
Even the longest-running and most tradition-bound of the majors, Wimbledon is bucking its stuffy reputation and abandoning line judges in favor of an automatic system this year.
The WTA and ATP added machine-generated rulings this season for tour events on red clay, the surface at the French Open.
However, Grand Slam hosts can do what they want, and the French tennis federation is intent on keeping the human element.
Djokovic, the 24-time major champion who won his first-round match in Paris on Tuesday, understands why folks might prefer to keep things the way they were for more than a century in his sport.
