The game of love belongs to the machine

What next? Laser first-down markers in football? (Probably). Computer readouts with percentage projections like TV poker for baseball managers pondering pitching changes? (Coming soon). Ankle bracelets for all NBA referees (Mandatory).

Tommy Haas and James Blake were at the end of yet another dramatic five-set match in a tournament full of them Monday, when technology took over.

Moment 1: Haas was serving at 6-3, match point, of the decisive tiebreaker. Blake hit a passing shot that was near the baseline and the human put there to make the call signaled that it was in. It was so close that Haas called on the machine, a camera named Hawkeye that tracks shots to within fractions of an inch. Each player gets two challenges to line calls per set, and Haas was using one of his.

Everything stopped. A stadium full of people who had been overdosing on adrenaline from this spectators' roller coaster went quiet. These challenges have become part of the sport but seldom happen on match point of a three-hour thriller.

High above the stadium, somebody in a little booth pushed a button that told Hawkeye to run the film of the shot, and its precise landing spot, for viewing on the big screens on both ends of Arthur Ashe Stadium.

The screen flashed and the camera re-created the ball zooming toward the baseline. It plunked down and left a mark showing that about one-eighth of an inch of the line had been touched.

Ball in. Call confirmed. Match continued.

Moment 2: Now, Haas was at 6-4 of the tiebreaker, his second match point. He served, the ball sped toward the right side of the service box and the linesman called it in. Ace and match point.

But Blake challenged that the ball was in.

It was a moment that had to stir the inner geek in techies worldwide. Somewhere, Bill Gates was getting goose bumps. Two match points in a row, allowed to be put in the hands of a machine for final arbitration, in the U.S. Open! Ellsworth Vines was spinning in his grave.

The button-pusher pushed, the ball came onto the big screen and headed toward the right sideline of the service box. Hawkeye zoomed in, and there was perhaps one-quarter of an inch, touching the line.

Game, set, match. Haas had won. The human had been right again, but they are afterthoughts now. Everybody waited 20 seconds or so for the real call, then believed.