The painful extinction of tennis line judges

These are days of great nostalgia for tennis lovers. In addition to the announcement of the retirement of Rafael Nadal - one of the rare cases where the "end of an era" is not forced - a statement released last Wednesday revealed the end of another institution in this world. No, Novak Djokovic did not bid farewell, the only survivor of the Holy Trinity that shaped the recent golden age for the ATP, but a piece that is irreplaceable in its own way in the tennis world: the line judges of Wimbledon, the most prestigious and exclusive event on the circuit. Their place, after years of technological progress and experimentation, will now be definitively taken by Electronic Line Calling, the artificial intelligence that has gradually, starting with the so-called "hawk-eye" (Hawk-Eye), assumed an increasingly central role in managing tennis matches. Until it becomes the only assistant for close calls, that is, the most complex decisions regarding balls that fall near the lines of the court.

The nostalgic matrix of this change unfolds along two distinct paths. On the one hand, a peculiar aesthetic component of an event that, from this point of view, has no equal in the entire sports landscape will be lost; on the other hand, the mere replacement of flesh and blood people with infallible and cold computers - at Wimbledon as in many other ATP and WTA tournaments - is a snapshot of the current historical moment, in which a significant part of human interactions is being sacrificed on the altar of technological progress. Beyond the anthropological debate in which this second nostalgia inevitably falls, in the tennis context it raises a question: are we facing the extinction of line judges, and what impact will this have on the training of young referees? In the background, there is also the question of the value of data collected by AI, a topic that is becoming less marginal for the event organizers themselves.

A piece of tradition

The statement released on Wednesday, signed by Sally Bolton (Wimbledon's Chief Executive), put an end to a centuries-old tradition. "There is a bit of sadness, of course," commented Malgorzata Grzyb, president of the Association of British Tennis Officials, adding that "it is the end of a tradition, but something we expected." And so, in the 2025 edition we will no longer hear the shouts of "out" that we have been accustomed to for 147 years of the tournament's history, but not only that; we will no longer see the parade of line judges, with their iconic blue jackets, striped shirts, white pants and skirts. Figures that, despite their role being more in the background, represented one of the most distinctive pieces of the aesthetic puzzle of Wimbledon. After the adoption of the hawk-eye to judge the regularity of serves, technology will now be used on all 18 courts of the All England Club to evaluate shots during rallies. "The decision to introduce real-time electronic calling was made after a long period of reflection and study," explains Sally Bolton.

"After examining the results of the tests carried out during this year's edition, we believe that the technology is robust enough and that the time has come to take this important step to seek maximum precision in our refereeing. The choice is dictated by the seriousness with which we try to balance tradition and innovation at Wimbledon." The decision to abandon line judges in favor of artificial intelligence reflects a global trend in tennis and more generally in the sports world. Two other Grand Slam tournaments, the Australian Open and the US Open, had already embraced this technology in recent years, following the impulse dictated by the needs of social distancing during the "pandemicized" editions; and with Wimbledon also aligning with the standards suggested by the ATP and WTA - who see the ELC as a path towards a future with faster and more uniform decisions - now only Roland Garros remains to defend the more human dimension of the game. However, the feeling is that it is simply a matter of time.

The dominance of artificial intelligence

The definitive adoption of Electronic Line Calling not only marks an aesthetic and technological revolution, but also leads to an important moment of reflection for the entire sector. The figures of the line judges, often not full-time but of crucial importance during the two weeks of the event, represented a gateway for many aspiring referees into the professional tennis world. How will they be trained now, instead? If until now the traditional path started from minor events and culminated in Grand Slam tournaments like Wimbledon, the radical transformation on the horizon casts shadows on the developments of this profession. The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) has already expressed concerns about this, both for the training path itself and for the incentives that the movement will have more difficulty providing to young people.

In parallel, economic opportunities are also changing with the advent and massive use of technology. Tracking game data, which provides valuable input for betting platforms, opens up new avenues of profit for partners in the tennis circuit. Wimbledon itself could obtain considerable financial benefits from selling licenses for data generated by the ELC, following in the footsteps of what the ATP has recently done. And this is how the advent of this technology can not only redefine some dynamics on the court, but also the overlying economic model. Like it or not, the tennis of the future is (also) this.