Thaindian News

Chennai, Nov 25 (IANS) Four years after it was first officially used in tournament play, hawk-eye will make its debut at the $450,000 Aircel Chennai Open tennis that will kick-start the 2011 ATP Tour here Jan 3.

Announcing this here Thursday at a media briefing, Karti P Chidambaram, vice-president, All India Tennis Association (AITA) and the chairman of the tournament organising committee said: “In keeping with our efforts to keep the tournament fresh by way of innovations, we will be introducing the hawk-eye system with three referrals per set for each player.

“The hawk-eye will be in use only on the centre court since it is the only televised court in the tournament.”

The hawk-eye system is employed to judge disputed line calls and it was first used in an official tournament at the 2006 US Open.

Meanwhile, it was confirmed that the 250-points tournament will remain in Chennai until 2014 when the ATP is likely to introduce a revised calendar following calls by World’s leading players to shorten the tour while providing sufficient interval between seasons for rest and recuperation.

“We have signed a contract for two more years following the 2011 edition. So, this should put to rest any speculation about the future of the tournament,” said Ravi Krishnan of the IMG who own the property.

Chidambaram said: “We thought that in view of the shortened calendar for 2014, we will wait until then and also, we have plans to upgrade the tournament to a 500-points event.”

Presently, the Chennai Open is a ATP World Tour 250 event (offering 250 points to the winner) and it is perceived that a move to World Tour 500 would attract a stronger field.