LONDON (AP) — John McEnroe — he of “You cannot be serious!” call-arguing fame — is quite all right with Wimbledon’s latest of many steps into the modern era, choosing technology over the human touch to decide whether a ball lands in or out.
There were no line judges at the All England Club’s matches for Monday’s start of the oldest Grand Slam tournament, with rulings instead being made by an electronic system that uses recorded voices to announce when a shot lands astray.
“In some ways, the players, and even the fans, miss that interaction, but at the same time … if it’s accurate, I think it’s great, because then at least you know that you’re getting the right call,” said McEnroe, who won Wimbledon three times during his Hall of Fame career and is a TV analyst at this year’s event for ESPN and the BBC.
“My hair,” the 66-year-old McEnroe joked, “wouldn’t be quite as white as it is now.”
From an AI chatbot and real-time win predictions, at one of tennis’s biggest global stages, Wimbledon is testing new ways to bring fans closer to the action. As the world tunes in, artificial intelligence is changing how the game is followed off court by millions. (AP Video by Mustakim Hasnath)
Wimbledon joins most top tennis tournaments with electronic line calls
The new system puts Wimbledon in line with nearly ever other top-tier tennis event on all surfaces — although the French Open, played on red clay, remains an exception, sticking with judges — and Monday’s debut seemed to be mostly seamless, as far as players were concerned.
Indeed, Frances Tiafoe, an American seeded 12th, didn’t even notice there were no line judges at his first-round victory.
What he did notice, and chuckled about afterward, was when the chair umpire wasn’t even paying all that much attention at one point, grabbing the phone on his stand to place a call and request that more towels be brought to the court on the hottest Day 1 in tournament history.
“It takes him completely out of play,” Tiafoe said about the on-court official, “other than just calling the score and calling time violations.”
Players like that Wimbledon’s removal of line judges removes doubt, too
No. 1-ranked Aryna Sabalenka liked that the All England Club’s switch to electronic line-calling eliminated the need for her to question whether she should contest a ruling. From 2007 until last year, players were allowed to ask for a video replay to check whether a decision was correct.
“If you have line umpires, you (are) always thinking, like, ‘Should I challenge or shouldn’t I?’” she said. “It’s a lot of doubt in your head.”
Cam Norrie was pleased that there no longer is a reason to get angry about what’s perceived as a wrong decision, the way McEnroe — and plenty of others through the years — used to.
“To be honest, it’s good. You get on with it. There’s no kind of getting mad at anyone for missing a call or saying something or moving during the point or something happening,” said Norrie, a British player who won Monday. ”It’s pretty black-or-white with the calls. In, out, and you hear it. There’s no mistake.”
Not everything is favorable in his view, though.
The familiar scene of officials sitting or standing around the court “looks cool,” Norrie said. Plus, he noted the loss of work for some of the 275 line judges the tournament used in the past (80 were brought back as “match assistants” to help chair umpires from behind the scenes).
“The decision we’ve made there, I suppose, is very much about the way in which Wimbledon has always balanced heritage and tradition with innovation and how we walk that line. We’re always very conscious of that. … For us, it was time to make that change,” All England Club CEO Sally Bolton said. “It’s not a money-saving exercise. It’s about evolving the tournament and making sure that we’re providing the most effective possible line-calling.”
At Wimbledon, ‘You cannot complain against the machine’
Frenchman Adrian Mannarino liked having what he called “a machine” involved Monday, saying: “You cannot complain against the machine.”
“When you feel like someone is judging the ball and … is probably not seeing so well, and maybe not even concentrating, it’s pretty annoying,” Mannarino said. “But the fact that it’s a robot calling the balls, there’s nothing to complain about.”
He did caution that it wasn’t always easy to figure out which recorded announcements were for his win at Court 5, because it’s wedged amid other courts.
Sometimes he thought an “Out!” call at an adjacent match was for his.
“It can be a little tricky with this,” Mannarino said, “but overall, I think it’s a good thing.”
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