There is always that one guy on the tennis court who will always fights line calls in his favor. Professional tennis players started using electronic line calling back in 2004, yet club players and lower-level players have been stuck fighting among themselves. Now, there’s a new app coming out that could soon put an end to arguments on the tennis court.
Julien Duhautois and Uzir Thapa are co-founders of Line Call, a new app that will detect whether or not a tennis ball has gone out of bounds.
“During a tennis match. you typically have 5-10 points that are somewhat questionable. And you’ve got two types of players—the guy who is too nice and the guy who always tends to want to cheat,” said Duhautois.
The app will work by each player strapping their smartphone to the top of a net post, with each phone facing a different side of the court. The app will then analyze each side of the court and detect when a ball goes out of bounds. When the ball bounces out, the phone’s flashlight will activate for 3 seconds.
“What we plan on doing is allowing the player who has the app to send a free invitation to their partner so they can cover both sides of the court,” said Duhautois. “And then that partner will hopefully sign up for Line Call as well.”
Upon subscribing to the app players will be sent two straps, allowing them to mount phones onto the net post. While a subscription price has not yet been decided, Duhautois says he expects it to cost somewhere around $2.99 per month.
“When you think about it,” said Duhautois,” a tennis player often pays $100 or more a month to play in a club. Then you have tennis racquets that can be as expensive as $250. You have to restring your racquet. You have to buy new tennis balls. So what’s $2.99 a month?”
The app is scheduled to come out by the end of the year. Those interested in subscribing and learning more can do so by joining Line Call’s mailing list.