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John McEnroe reacting in anger after adisputed 'out' decision
So McEnroe had a point after all.Scientists study 4,000 tennispoints and find 80% of umpire'out' calls are 'in'By DAVID DERBYSHIRE FOR MAILONLINE UPDATED: 04:57 EST, 28 October 2008
John McEnroe may have had goodreason to turn on the tantrums.
Scientists have shown that tennis umpirestend to succumb to an optical illusion thatmakes balls appear to be out when theyare just inside the line.
The discovery, based on analysis of morethan 4,000 Wimbledon tennis points,comes nearly three decades afterMcEnroe's infuriated outbursts at umpires'apparent sight problems made him ahousehold name.
The authors say the illusion is so powerfulthat every shot in tennis games should bereviewed by instant replay.
Players and spectators have long beenpuzzled by the ability of umpires to makethe strangest calls, particularly in the daysbefore electronic linesmen.
In 1981, McEnroe sealed his reputation asthe Superbrat of tennis with a vitriolicoutburst against an umpire.
'You cannot be serious!' he yelled. 'Thatball was on the line! The chalk flew up! Itwas clearly in! How can you possibly callthat out?'
A team of researchers at the University ofCalifornia have shown the unfortunateumpire may have been the victim of asimple trick of the eye.
Dr David Whitney, who led the study, said the human brain struggles to keep track ofmoving objects or objects that appear to move because we are moving our heads oreyes.
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'The visual system is sluggish. It takes 100 or more milliseconds for us to become awareof an image that strikes our retina,' he said.
'So by the time we perceive an object like the coffee cup in one location, it will havealready changed location as we move toward it. Our perception lags behind reality.'
To get around this delay, the brain tries to compensate and mentally repositions theobject where it thinks it should be. The trouble is, it often overcompensates.
Studies have shown that when people follow an object moving in a straight line, theirbrains usually think the object is slightly further along its path than it is.
'You cannot be serious!': The 1980 war of words between McEnroe and refereeFred Hoyles
Dr Whitney said umpires, players and spectators would experience the same illusion atWimbledon. If a ball is moving through the air towards the chalk lines from left to right, itwill appear to spectators at any one time to be slightly further right than it really is.
'And if it bounces close to the line inside the court, many people watching will wrongly'see' it touching the grass outside the court.
That means umpires will make far more mistakes when calling a ball 'out' than callingone 'in', he said.
To test the theory, his team looked at 4,000 randomly selected tennis points from the2007 championship.
Out of the 83 incorrect calls, they found that 70 or 84 per cent were wrong 'out'calls.
This supports the view that visual processing rather than poor judgment was to blame.
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