Wimbledon 2007

[Moozik: Cornershop - Brimful of Asha]

Yesterday's final between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal was perhaps the best Wimbledon final I think I've ever seen. Certainly one of the best Tennis matches I think I've seen from any tournament. Rain delays aside, I really enjoyed this year's tournament and 2007 marked somewhat of a change for Wimbledon in general. The addition of Hawkeye line calling and equal pay for the men and women.

I'm not a big fan of Hawkeye or Shotspot or any other name they have for the computerized line calling. In his commentary yesterday, John McEnroe said that Hawkeye is 90% accurate and then made me laugh by saying "of course that means that 10% of the time it isn't accurate". In the Federer/Nadal match there was a ball that was clearly out yet Hawkeye called it in. Roger Federer has probably the best eyes in Tennis and certainly didn't agree with the call. He wasn't amused and I can't say that I blame him. I understand that Hawkeye was introduced because of human error in line calling. I've always felt that tournaments should use TV cameras and have instant replay just as they do in other sports. Yesterday's performance by Hawkeye has not changed that opinion at all.

This year marks the first year that Wimbledon will offer equal prize money for the men and women. In general, I'm certainly a big fan of equal pay for men and women. Well, let me clarify that. I'm a fan of equal pay for equal work. In Tennis though, the amount of work performed by the men and women is not equal. The men have to win three sets out of a possible five. The women have to win two sets out of a possible three. If a match goes to five sets, the men can be on court for up to five hours. Only if the women's game is extended to five sets can it really be considered equal. Then equal pay would be a no brainer really. As it stands right now it's all rather odd. Equal yet not equal.