Molik's Line Ball Help Call

Sydney Morning Herald

Thursday January 27, 2005

Karen Lyon

Alicia Molik has supported the use of electronic equipment to aid umpires on close line calls after she was controversially robbed of an ace during the final minutes of her epic quarter-final loss to Australian Open top seed Lindsay Davenport yesterday.

With the match at 7-7 in the final set, the Australian 10th seed had already saved a break point at 30-40 with an ace to take the game to deuce. A second ace had given Molik game point and when it appeared she had served a third consecutive ace the game should have been over. However, the line judge called a fault and chair umpire Andreas Egli refused to over-rule the decision but replays showed the ball had hit the line.

Instead of finding herself leading the enthralling final set 8-7, Molik was back at deuce. Davenport went on to break the Australian's serve before holding hers and winning the match 6-4, 4-6, 9-7 in a marathon 2 hours 33 minutes.

After the match Molik was adamant she had served an ace and said her frustration at the decision had affected her concentration.

"That particular one I was pretty frustrated about," she said. "I was pretty slow to react to the next ball when I served the next point out. Lindsay got on to the return. I was a bit slow reacting. Maybe I was thinking about the call too much."

Molik was cautious about introducing a Hawkeye-type system to help with close calls but believed it was time to look at such options.

"I think maybe there is a little bit of room for it, maybe in the case of today or like other matches," she said. "It's definitely something worth thinking about."

Davenport said there had been several close calls during the match but was unaware of the controversy about the non-ace. While she had never supported the use of technology, the world No.1 conceded that with its evolution, a system could one day be introduced. "I've always been against electronic line calls. I feel like calls go both ways, but I'm very much a traditionalist and I think it would be obviously very expensive to implement and it would be hard to do it for all courts," Davenport said.

The United States Tennis Association is leading the push for electronic aids for line judging after a controversial quarter-final between Serena Williams and Jennifer Capriati last year was marred by a poor over-rule by the chair umpire against Williams, who, like Molik, lost the match.

But Molik, who knew a chance to reach her first grand slam semi-final had slipped from her grasp, was refusing to blame the line call for the loss to Davenport.

"In each and every tennis match, some go for you, some go against you. That particular call, that serve, I felt like it was in," Molik said.

"There were a few others that I wasn't happy about, but until you see the replay, it's difficult to judge.

"But I feel like I know my game enough, but again [calls] probably went against Lindsay as well. I guess there's a bit of give and take and you just deal with it. One point doesn't decide a tennis match ... There was a lot of other things."

The 10th seed will be disappointed she could convert only one of her 12 break-point opportunities in the final set. Leading 1-0 in the third set, Molik was 40-0 on the Davenport serve but could not clinch the break. The American's serve looked brittle at the time as she threw in a collection of double-faults, but the strength of her groundstrokes saw her fight back in four break points in that game alone.

Although Davenport was broken at 5-3 serving for the match, her experience held her steady and she forced the break in the 15th game, then saved two break points in the final game before holding firm to advance to the semi-finals.

© 2005 Sydney Morning Herald

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