US Open's new red-light system enhances service fault and out calls

When Jake Garner first saw tennis’ newest technological innovation at the Australian Open in January, he immediately was sold.

There were plenty of instances in which Garner, the United States Tennis Association’s managing director of competition operations and U.S. Open tournament referee, was in an office in Australia watching a match on TV without sound. But he still received a “visual cue” to know exactly what was happening on the court.

That cue? Flashing red lights, which appear on the net posts on all fault and out-of-bounds calls.

The red lights are being used at the U.S. Open for the first time — though only at Arthur Ashe Stadium and Louis Armstrong Stadium — and in a Grand Slam for only the second time.

“It’s kind of been an evolution that we felt within, not only the competition department, but even just from some other stakeholders,” Garner told Newsday on Thursday. “That with the use of the audio calls, we found that, especially on some big points where the crowd really starts to get into it during the point, that last call comes and you couldn’t hear it all the time. And depending on where in the stadium you were, you couldn’t hear it.

“We’ve started with, and I think it was like for the last two years, maybe even three, there’s been some areas on the court — on the scoreboards, on the LED boards, there’s two boards that are right in front of the chair umpire — where we’ve given just the word ‘out,’ no color behind it. We kind of went subtle. We wanted to see how it looked, how it worked, how the interaction with getting the calls from the ELC [electronic line calling] provider worked with a different vendor. So we’ve kind of been easing into it. We thought, oh, maybe we can make those red.

“We talked before about doing something with net posts, net lights, something like that. And then, in honesty, seeing it in action at the Australian Open, I was there. I was sold that that was the right way to go.”

The United Cup was the first tournament to institute the LED-integrated net posts in January in Australia. After watching one of those matches on mute, Coco Gauff agreed with Garner’s sentiment.

“Christian [Harrison] and I were watching [Taylor Fritz’s] match with no volume, so it was kind of nice to see when it was out when we couldn’t hear,” she said on Jan. 5.

So how does it work in Flushing?

Hawk-Eye, which MLB also uses for its automated ball-strike challenge system and the checked-swing challenge system it is testing in the minor leagues, is the U.S. Open’s technology provider for ELC — which determines whether a ball is in or out — and video review. The red-light process starts with Hawk-Eye.

“Every time they determine that a ball is out, they’re basically sending a trigger downstream that triggers a bunch of different things that we already had in place,” Garner said. “The audio calls. The chair umpires have always had lights on their chair, an LED-light panel that actually for them shows when a ball is in within a certain range, and then any ball that’s out. So ‘in’ will flash green for them, just as confirmation.

“You get a really close call, and you’re not sure if you can hear the call. In these cases, they’re able to look at the light and say, ‘OK, yes, the system called it, it’s in.’ Or they may see the red light, and they can stop play. Maybe the player just didn’t hear it.

“So it’s basically just carrying on with the same trigger into a different piece of equipment, and there’s a control board that sits under the chair, wires running to the lights. They’re sending that same trigger.”

Garner said “nothing really changes” for the chair umpires with the red lights. The system still makes in-or-out calls, and players still can request replays on close calls.

“That’s one of the reasons why going this route was something that we were interested in because we didn’t — it’s not necessarily a competition change,” he said. “It’s an enhancement to the experience, both in stadium and on TV.”

He noted that it could be possible to implement the red lights on the side courts, though it could get to a point when they could be “running around chasing our tails for maybe not as significant of an enhancement.” On the side courts, sound isn’t as much of an issue and fans can hear virtually every in or out call.

Garner works at two other majors per year as a Grand Slam supervisor. At this year’s U.S. Open, he has a team of eight supervisors working with him, creating a beneficial environment for feedback. He added that it’s “hugely important” for the USTA to embrace the new technological possibilities.

“I’m confident in saying,” Garner said, “that the U.S. Open’s been on the forefront of the use of technology across all of the Grand Slams.”

By Ben Dickson

benjamin.dickson@newsday.com@bendickson__

Ben Dickson is Newsday Sports' general assignment reporter. He joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.