#tbt: Sorana Cirstea wins six challenges in Stanford circus against Dominika Cibulkova

Hawkeye challenges have become a beloved fail-safe in tense matches, but if the officiating by chair and line umpires are on point, players rarely succeed in overturning a call.

(For reference, see almost seven minutes of Eva Asderaki-Moore winning the 2015 US Open over both Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer.)

By contrast, Sorana Cirstea learned just how handy Hawkeye can be in her 2012 Bank of the West Classic quarterfinal against Dominika Cibulkova. While she didn’t win the first set against the powerful Slovak, she posted an unprecedented—and perhaps unmatched—six correct challenges in a single set.

"Toward the end of the set I was challenging everything because I didn’t trust anyone anymore,” Cirstea said after the 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-0 victory. "I thought someone was playing a joke on me to see how I would react. It was like Candid Camera because there were too many mistakes. I started to laugh because it was just hilarious.

“If we didn’t have a challenge system I would be packing my bags for San Diego."

Preserved in YouTube amber, viewers can see Cirstea get increasingly irritated as line calls and umpire overrules continue going her way after review. The fifth call is most infamous, as it involves a comedy of errors from both Cibulkova and umpire Sande French, who calls a Cirstea forehand long after Cibulkova stops play.

“She said out before you said out,” Cirstea implores, ultimately getting rare relief from the supervisor.

So, what happened on that sunny afternoon in Stanford? Cirstea claimed she was zero for five on Hawkeye challenges in her previous match against Zheng Saisai, and the remaining match against Cibulkova went on without further incident.

Could the better sets of eyes have already been on their way to the London Olympics? Stanford’s early spot in the schedule was due to the 2012 Summer Games occurring at the end of July—when the US Open Series traditionally began.

Cirstea would ultimately face a challenge not even Hawkeye could solve in the semifinals, and she took a 6-1, 6-2 defeat to eventual champion Serena Williams. Ironically, it was Williams’ own egregious line-call robbery at the 2004 US Open that led to Hawkeye’s introduction to pro tennis in the first place.

As Hawkeye Live threatens to render officials completely redundant, it is a testament to the widespread professionalism of chair and line umpires that this match stands out as an utter aberration in the nearly two decades since technology first intervened.