By Randy Walker
@TennisPublisher
Andre Agassi has played a lot of tennis matches in his career, but he will not play in one anything like the one he will play at the Huntsman Center at the University of Utah on Tuesday night in Salt Lake City.
In the opening night of the 12-city PowerShares Series champions tennis circuit for 2015 on Tuesday, Agassi, along with Jim Courier, Mark Philippoussis and James Blake, will compete in the first-ever pro tennis event with line-calling made exclusively via electronics with the Hawk-Eye line-calling system.
“I expect it to be really interesting. Weird, I guess, would be one way to put it,” Agassi said of the upcoming, ground-breaking tennis event to local reporters in Salt Lake City. “I can absolutely tell you that when you’re playing with linesmen, you feel like you see every ball. You have this safety net of knowing that most likely they’re not going to miss a call. Then when you take those linesmen away, and you have to actually make every call. I can only imagine that suddenly the ball doesn’t look so obvious anymore. That’s the part I’m really curious about.”
The PowerShares Series, the North American tennis tour for champion tennis players over the age of 30, will now only employ a chair umpire for matches during its four-player nightly events and will have all line-calling responsibilities decided by the Hawk-Eye Officiating System. Players will be allowed unlimited challenges during the course of a match.
“Will I see the ball every bit as well as I feel like I do when there’s linesmen out there?” Agassi said. “The heats on me to make the actual call. It was never easy for me in practice. When I practice with sets of guys, I always was giving calls and given calls. I didn’t want to error in the side of something being in that I called out because that’s not realistic. I’d rather error on the side of giving a lot of points away so that I can overcome that challenge. I wonder if my instincts are going to be to just continue play even though something is out.”
Agassi will first get to try out this new style of line-calling and play against one of main rivals during this career Jim Courier in one of the semifinal matches Tuesday. James Blake and Mark Philippoussis will compete in the other semifinal. Each PowerShares Series tournament is a one-night event that features two one-set semifinal matches, followed by a one-set championship match.
Tickets and unique VIP fan experience packages on the PowerShares Series are now on sale. Tickets start at $30 and all ticket and VIP information is available at www.PowerSharesSeries.com.
Hawk-Eye is one of the leading vision processing companies in sports. First used as a broadcast tool to analyze decisions in Cricket, Hawk-Eye has since revolutionized sports broadcasting, officiating and coaching across a variety of sports including tennis, snooker and Gaelic Hurling. The Hawk-Eye technology was first used in professional tennis at the modern-day Miami Open in 2005 and first used at a Grand Slam tournament at the 2005 U.S. Open. The technology is now an integral part of the ATP, WTA and ITF tennis tours, featured at over 60 events in the sport, including all four Grand Slam tournaments. Players have access to three incorrect challengers per set, plus an additional one in the event of a tie-breaker. The system is able to display the outcome of any bounce within five seconds of the ball landing, with the result being displayed to the players, chair umpire, fans and television viewer simultaneously. For more information on Hawk-Eye, go to http://www.hawkeyeinnovations.co.uk
The full 2015 PowerShares Series schedule with event match-ups are as follows:
Tuesday, March 24: Salt Lake City, Utah (Huntsman Center) “Champions Shootout”
James Blake vs. Mark Philippoussis, Andre Agassi vs. Jim Courier
Wednesday, March 25: Los Angeles, Calif., (Galen Center at USC) “SoCal Honda Dealers Helpful Cup”
Pete Sampras vs. Jim Courier, Andy Roddick vs. James Blake
Wednesday, April 1: Lincoln, Neb., (Pinnacle Bank Arena at Univ. of Nebraska) “Champions Cup Presented by Woods Park Tennis”
Andy Roddick vs. Jim Courier, James Blake vs. John McEnroe
Thursday, April 2: Chicago, Ill. (Sears Centre) “PowerShares QQQ Challenge”
John McEnroe vs. Jim Courier, Andy Roddick vs. James Blake
Thursday, April 16: Austin, Texas (Cedar Park Center) “Champions Shootout”
John McEnroe vs. Jim Courier, Andy Roddick vs. James Blake
Friday, April 17: Little Rock, Ark. (Jack Stephens Center at the UALR) “Champions Cup”
Andy Roddick vs. Jim Courier, John McEnroe vs. Mark Philippoussis
Saturday, April 18: Dallas, Texas (Moody Coliseum at SMU) “Champions Showdown”
John McEnroe vs. Jim Courier, Andy Roddick vs. Mark Philippoussis
Wednesday, April 22: Boston, Mass. (Agganis Arena at Boston University) “Champions Cup”
John McEnroe vs. Jim Courier, Andy Roddick vs. James Blake
Thursday, April 23: Richmond, Va., (Siegel Center at VCU) “Champions Challenge”
Jim Courier vs. Andy Roddick, John McEnroe vs. James Blake
Wednesday, April 29: Minneapolis, Minn. (Target Center) “Champions Shootout”
John McEnroe vs. James Blake, Andy Roddick vs. Michael Chang
Thursday, April 30: Cincinnati, Ohio (Cintas Center at Xavier) “Champions Showdown”
Andy Roddick vs. James Blake, John McEnroe vs. Michael Chang
Saturday, May 2: Vancouver, Canada (Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre at UBC) “Champions Showdown”
Michael Chang vs. Mark Philippoussis, Pete Sampras vs. John McEnroe
In 2014, McEnroe won the points title for the first time in the nine-year history of Champions Series tennis by winning events in Kansas City, Indianapolis, Nashville and Charlotte. McEnroe was followed in the points standings by Blake in second place and Roddick in third place.
