Motionless men and women dressed in the finest summer attire has been a reliable indicator that Wimbledon is in full flow since the competition’s first edition was held 147 years ago.
But the picturesque sight will be consigned to history after the All England Club announced the iconic line judges are to be replaced by artificial intelligence on every court at the tournament.
The Hawk-Eye Live system has been used on the tour for a number of years and was rolled out at a Grand Slam for the first time in the 2020 US Open.
It is an upgrade of the original technology, first introduced at tennis’s premier competition in 2007, which has gifted players with the ability to review calls they feel to be incorrect.
Wimbledon is set to replace its famous line judges with an automated system
This system will also now be ditched as automated voice calls can now make a decision within a tenth of a second after a ball lands out.
Several cameras will be able to track the ball’s flight throughout the rally as an additional video operator watches on in a separate room away from the court.
Some things will remain the same, however, with the chair umpire continuing to lead the officiating team out in the heart of the action, but the edges of the court will take on a decidedly quiter feel from 2025.
The move to automated electronic line calling might come as a shock to devoted fans of the yearly event but, for tennis stars, the technology is familiar.
Hawk Eye Live has gradually been installed in tournaments across the world and the men’s ATP Tour has made clear its desire to implement it in every competition from next year.
This means that the All England Club risked being left behind as technology raced into the future, burdened still with the yearly controversies over tight calls in important moments.
One former star whose support for the radical change comes as no surprise is John McEnroe. The American’s foul-mouthed rants directed towards officials have a firm place in the annals of tennis history and his ‘you cannot be serious’ catchphrase was synonymous with the sport in the 1980s.
The 65-year-old, who is now a prominent commentator, said: ‘If you have equipment that’s accurate, I’m sorry, you have got to go with that.
‘Maybe I wouldn’t be talking to you now because of the antics and maybe I would have won more, but I would have been more boring.’
Nonetheless, organisers are not believed to have come to the decision lightly, with concerns over the breaking of Wimbledon’s staunch tradition as well as the effective dismissal of dozens of line judges coming into consideration.
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