4 days ago
Line judges: So much of Wimbledon's magic has been lost by ditching us
The switch to electronic line calling (ELC) has 'changed the atmosphere' at Wimbledon, according to two experienced line judges who attended the tournament this week.
The officials, who preferred to use assumed names in order to preserve relationships, pointed out that much has been lost with the switch to automation, including natural variation in the volume of line calls.
'We were always taught to sell the call to the players,' said Susan. 'When the ball was a long way out and nobody was following it, we would make a quieter, more subdued call. When it was landing close to the line, especially on a big point, we would shout much louder.
'There is an element of drama that the human line judges provided which has been lost. The system now is always the same volume, and it's not very loud either, so that there's plenty of cases where the spectators haven't heard the call and aren't sure whether the ball was in or out.
'There was an example in the match I was just watching where people thought one player had hit a fabulous winner and gave them a big ovation. Then the scoreboard showed that the point had gone the other way, so they felt the need to give polite applause to the other player instead.'
The various teething troubles of the past week – which included the system being accidentally switched off during Sunday's Centre Court match involving Great Britain's Sonay Kartal – have instilled a widespread sense of doubt around Hawk-Eye's performance.
'Once it gets into the players' heads that the calls can't be trusted, that becomes contagious,' said Graham. 'We've had electronic line calling around the tour for some time now, but almost everyone I've spoken to thinks that it works best on hard courts. Put it on clay or grass, where the granules or the grass blades move, and it doesn't seem as trustworthy. You're seeing players shaking their heads a lot, and even spectators are becoming sceptical.
'But it's not just about the calls. There are so many intangibles that the line judges provide. Take the situation where a player is swearing at the back of the court, loudly enough for fans and TV microphones to pick it up but not for the chair umpire to hear. There's no one there to report it to the umpire.'
Both line judges also raised the oft-stated question of where their successors will come from. This concern was at the heart of the French Tennis Federation's (FFT) decision to keep human officials at Roland Garros this year, thus making the French Open the only hold-out in a world of robots.
When asked why the FFT had not switched to ELC, president Gilles Moretton said, 'We are a federation of clubs and licensed players, with competitions every weekend and umpires working daily. And I say this with all modesty – we are the best country when it comes to supplying umpires on the circuit.'
Great Britain also has a long tradition of officiating, with James Keothavong, Alison Hughes and Richard Haigh among the circuit's more familiar faces. There must be a question mark, though, over where the next generation will come from.
'You still need line judges at Ilkley or Nottingham,' said Susan. 'But I know plenty of young tennis enthusiasts who want to be on court with Coco Gauff or Carlos Alcaraz. That's not going to happen at those smaller events.
'It will take a few years to see how this all shakes out, but my suspicion is that we will end up asking more overseas officials to come over to the UK during grass-court season, because there won't be enough British staff available.
'Yes, there are 80 match assistants at Wimbledon, but they are performing quite menial duties: checking the height of the net and escorting players to the bathroom, that sort of thing.'
Several tennis insiders have expressed surprise at the clunkiness of Wimbledon's first crack at ELC, given the AELTC's reputation for meticulous preparation. 'I would have expected them to run a shadow operation for at least one tournament before going live with it,' said another seasoned official. 'You have to test these things in a competitive matchplay situation for the weak points to show up.'
As for Nick Kyrgios, the agent provocateur of the locker room, he told the Whistleblowers podcast that the introduction of ELC had been 'an absolute s--- show', adding: 'I feel like Wimbledon just dropped it in and it's been a disaster... Maybe Wimbledon should just be one of the tournaments where its traditions never change. You have line umpires, and you have challenges.'
One experienced tennis administrator told Telegraph Sport that a video-review facility – which is present at the three other majors – would help avoid situations like the Kartal incident, where chair umpire Nico Helwerth felt unable to make a very obvious 'out' call because Hawk-Eye had stopped working.
But Graham suggested that this doubling up of technology could create problems as well as resolve them. 'Imagine a situation where Hawk-Eye had called the ball out but a video review showed chalk dust flying. As a tournament, your credibility would take a long time to recover.'
