Chris Rattue: Good call in tennis - but who were the masked men?

Most technological breakthroughs in sport prove to be winners, even if it takes a bit of time to convince everyone.

Tennis has apparently come up with a smash hit, however, a computerised line-call checking system that makes its grand slam debut at the US Open this week.

Tennis was wise to wait until John McEnroe retired before introducing the system, which uses a network of cameras and computers around the court.

This video aid provides graphic evidence of whether a ball was in or out within seconds of a player making one of what, at the moment, are a limited number of allowable challenges.

We all know what McEnroe did to the umpires and linespeople in his heyday so there's no telling what sort of damage he would have wrought upon inanimate objects programmed to rule against him.

When you have a temper that reaches boiling point in a nanosecond, logic goes out the window at about the same time as the truckloads of conspiracy theories come in through the front door.

"Take your $@*& lens off you virus-infested jerk." Smash.

Technology wouldn't have calmed McEnroe. No way. A 10-tonne gorilla waving a straitjacket wouldn't have settled the man down.

It would have added legitimacy to his challenges and claims of match official incompetence however, although not to his behaviour.

So it's no surprise to find that Super Mac or Super Brat, depending on your view, is in technology's court on this one, as are many other fine players of the past.

In fact, McEnroe wants it to go even further.

At the moment a player gets two challenges per set, and loses the second one if the first one turns out to be wrong.

McEnroe - a highly regarded match commentator - wants more replays used, and even points deducted if challenges are wrong.

In the leadup to the US Open, players challenging calls have been right about 40 per cent of the time, which vindicates the new system, while also revealing that disappointed players are wrong a lot of the time. The line-call cameras will add a fascinating element to the US Open, that most wonderful of sports events, which provides a place for balmy New York nights in living rooms around the world.

Under the current challenge restrictions, there will be an element of poker involved - when do you hold and when do you fold? Picking the right moment to launch a challenge might even make or break a big match.

This was never McEnroe's type of game. He may have poked the game in the eye, but he could never hold a poker face.

Super Brat, on his maddest days, would have quite happily - or unhappily - launched the video replay into action from the get-go.

He's a bit more considered now, and has made a good call. The system will need refining, and it's highly likely that players will be given greater challenging rights over time.

SPEAKING OF SPORT AND TECHNOLOGY ...

Give us the inside oil, All Blacks.

Which of your blokes were on the performance-enhancing individual plane humidifiers and who had to fly to South Africa using the old technology - namely a wet cloth draped over the face?

For those of you who missed the news, 18 of the All Black squad were equipped with anti-jet lag face masks on the 14-hour flight to South Africa, another cutting-edge development in the never-ending quest to rule the rugby world.

The mask's inventor, a man of vast airline experience, reckoned that the only previous anti-jet lag device was a good ol' wet face cloth across the mush.

I had fully expected the team list for the Pretoria test to contain an asterisk next to the players who had been issued with the new-age contraptions, which look like a cricket protector joined to a test tube.

Armed with this information, we would have had a much better chance of truly comparing the players' performances.

For instance, it may well have been tiredness that led Ali Williams to throw a punch with "wet cloth" written all over it. With the benefit of face-mask-assisted travel, he might have got a much better jab in.

When it became clear that we were being left in the dark, I slow-motioned the test to look for the tell-tale signs - elastic-band marks across the ears, nappy rash on the face. Still no clues.

There are so many unanswered questions about this.

Who knows how the players managed to chat to each other during the flight? It's a heck of a long way to keep passing notes.

But the really concerning aspect to the story was that the masks "created a few hassles during meal times".

This suggests, once again, that the All Blacks are too pre-programmed, that they don't think quickly under pressure, even when it's lovely moist pressure.

There were no further details about the eating disorders, but it has to be assumed the problems occurred in two areas.

First, it's hard to get the attendants to understand whether you want the steak or the chook when the only noise you can make sounds like a drunk trapped in a trash can.

Waving your arms vigorously inevitably leads to the chook, even if you are a maniac for meat, medium-rare. And second, it's difficult to squeeze your dinner into the mouth through a tube, especially when that dinner includes the ceramic-type objects which pass, although not that easily, for airline bread rolls.

Come to think of it, the All Blacks who resorted to the old technology would have had an even tougher time, because eating is just about impossible through a wet face cloth.

And so, to the good news. Help is at hand. It's not this column's custom to give advice to the All Blacks.

But what the heck.

Here goes.

When it's dinner time on the plane in future, take the face masks off - although those with the wet cloths may get away with lifting a corner.