Wimbledon 2004 - Hawk-Eye


BBC Television will be using the award-winning Hawk-Eye technology in its coverage for the second year running.



Used for the first time last year at Wimbledon, and previously in BBC coverage of the Davis Cup and the Stella Artois Championships at Queens, Hawk-Eye uses the latest camera and computer technology to track the ball on the court.



Taking into account the trajectory, skid and compression of the ball, Hawk-Eye produces an accurate real-time computer generated replay which can be viewed and replayed through 360 degrees.



These graphical representations of the ball's path can be used by the commentators to illustrate a whole host of statistics and player characteristics, from the trajectory of a player's serve to the distribution of a player's return.



Primarily, Hawk-Eye will be used to analyse patterns of play, highlighting player performance and match strategy - therefore helping to explain the game and increase viewers' understanding of the intricacies of the sport.



A secondary use for Hawk-Eye can be to offer an alternative view on a contentious line call decision, illustrating whether or not, according to Hawk-Eye, a ball went out of play.



This will not be available to umpires and will only be used if a decision has been contested by either player or occasionally where there has been an over-rule.



Hawk-Eye will be used on centre court and number one court concurrently.


I wonder what Brian Simmer's grandmother would have made of all this when she won Wimbledon

Charlotte Reinagle Cooper (September 22, 1870 – October 10, 1966) was a tennis player born in Ealing, Middlesex, England where, as a young lady, she was a member of the Ealing Lawn Tennis Club. She won her first of five Wimbledon championships singles titles in 1895, wearing an ankle-length dress in accordance with proper Victorian attire. She won again the following year and for the third time in 1898.

Nicknamed "Chattie" she was a tall, slender, and elegant woman in appearance but a deceptively powerful athlete who became the first woman to win an Olympic gold medal. She won the tennis singles at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris, France where women were allowed to participate for the first time. She followed this up with a second gold medal, winning the mixed doubles with partner, Reginald Doherty.

Still unmarried at age 30 she was what in her day was referred to as a "spinster" but on January 12, 1901 she married a tennis compatriot, Alfred Sterry. That year she captured the Wimbledon championship for the fourth time. After time off for family, she returned to active tennis, winning her fifth Wimbledon singles title in 1908 at the age of 37 years 282 days, an age record that still stands. In 1912, at age 41 she was still one of the best players in the game and that year made it to the Wimbledon finals.

Mrs. Cooper Sterry remained active in competitive tennis and continued to play in championship events well into her 50s. Her husband became President of the Lawn Tennis Association and their daughter, Gwen, played on Britain's Wightman Cup tennis team.

In 1966, Charlotte Cooper Sterry died at the age of 96, in Helensburgh, Scotland.

This article was posted on 26-Jun-2007, 08:28 by Hugh Barrow.