It’s hard to picture Stanislas Wawrinka in the mold of tennis firebrands like John McEnroe or Andy Roddick but the Australian Open champion does admit to occasionally picking a row with the chair umpire to “pump him up” while playing.
While some might say this shows a lack of respect for the officialdom, Wawrinka believes their authority has already been undermined by an over reliance on the Hawk-Eye electronic line judging system, which was first introduced at a top-level tennis tournament late in 2005.
Roddick, who retired in 2012, recently called for Hawk-Eye to be scrapped, arguing that controversial arguments between players and umpires helped to boost TV ratings and draw crowds to tennis matches.
Read: Roddick: Scrap Hawk-Eye
“It’s helped a lot for the players to make sure the call is right and you can prove it.” Wawrinka told CNN’s Open Court
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“It’s a little bit more private because you can say or give what you want — picture, different picture,” he said.
So sure enough, when Wawrinka made a successful defense of his Chennai Open title in India, his final warmup before the Australian Open, he was quickly tweeting.
So happy to start the year with a trophy
