For the first time in 148 years, Wimbledon has no line judges. Some say that ‘takes away the humanity’ from the tournament.

Line judges have long been an iconic and instantly-recognizable facet of Wimbledon, decked out in Ralph Lauren uniforms and often considered the sporting world’s best-dressed officials. But as of this year, that tradition has come to an end. Organizers announced in October that an electronic calling system would be introduced at future tournaments, doing away with human line judges.

Line Judges have called the lines at Wimbledon for the last 148 years. The decision, according to them marks a sad chapter in the tournaments 148-year-old history. They have voiced that, “At the end of the day, a tennis match is sport, and sport is about people. Technology necessarily doesn’t makes everything better. It is not going to improve the quality of the line calling because line calling was always excellent. Moreover, It takes away that bit for the players where they need to deal with adversity. If they don’t like a call, they can’t argue with the technology. … It’s about the player who does the best in adversity. The humanity from tennis is been taken away, and a lot of what it is: human beings striving against each other and competition”.

Line judges, were regarded as a part of the furniture of the court, at Wimbledon, their uniforms being so striking and so different to any uniform anywhere else in the world.

The tournament’s shift to electronic line calling (ELC) is in step with the rest of the tennis world. The ATP and WTA Tours have adopted the system, as have the Australian and US Opens. Roland-Garros remains the only grand slam competition using human line judges for “out” and “fault” calls.

For Wimbledon to follow this trend might not seem like a particularly radical move, but the grass-court grand slam, brimming with history and old-school values, is often viewed as a separate entity to other tournaments, a world unto itself. The decision, according to All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) chief executive Sally Bolton, was made to ensure “maximum accuracy in our officiating” and to give players “the same conditions” as for most other events on tour.

The introduction of such a system was probably inevitable, as per Andrew Jarrett, the tournament referee at Wimbledon between 2006 and 2019. “From a technology point of view, if it exists and if it improves, why wouldn’t you use it as the line that’s been taken across the world?”.

On the other side of the story, there have been occasional teething issues with electronic calling, too. During Wednesday’s second-round match between Madison Keys and Olga Danilović, the automated system made an unprompted “out” call between points, causing brief confusion and a ripple of laughter from the crowd.

And after her first-round match on Court 8, located in one of the busiest parts of the grounds, China’s Yuan Yue said that the automated calls were sometimes too quiet to hear.

From observing other tournaments, Line Judges have reaffirmed that electronic calls aren’t always loud enough. Line judges, by contrast, are instructed to shout their calls clearly.

According to the organisers, the tournament’s pool of around 300 Line Judges has been reduced to 80 at this year’s event, with those remaining deployed as “match assistants” who step in should the ELC system fail.

Wimbledon first used Hawk-Eye cameras to provide electronic officiating in 2007, and since then players have been able to “challenge” the calls made by human line judges, potentially overturning a decision against them. A Referee who had the priviledge of officiating when Hawk Eye was introduced, reiterated that scrapping line umpires “was not on the agenda” during his time in office, which ended six years ago.

Team Maverick