The organizers of the Wimbledon tournament in October last year announced that the electronic call system will be introduced in future tournaments. He was to replace human linear judges who have long been the iconic and immediately recognizable aspect of Wimbledon. For the first time in the 148-year history of this tournament, athletes, supporters and viewers will not see the characteristic linear judges.
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According to the Reuters agency, The pool of about 300 linear judges of the tournament was reduced to 80 in this year's tournamentand the others were deployed as “match assistants” who enter the electronic system failure. As CNN notes, tennis lovers and Wimbledon fans believed that Lini judges were “part of the court furnishings”.
The transition of the tournament to the electronic call (ELC) is in line with the rest of the tennis world. As CNN, ATP and WTA Tours notes this system, just like the Australian and US Open. Roland-Garros remains the only Grand Slam tournament in which line judges whistle “out” and “fault”.
The end of almost 150 years of tradition on Wimbledon. People replaced the machines
Following Wimbledon for this trend may not seem to be a particularly radical move, but the Grand Slam tournament on grass courts, full of history and traditional values, is often seen as a separate existence from other tournaments.
As CNN explains, some players – like Barbora Krejčíková – prefer a traditional refereeing system, others – like Frances Tiafoe – enjoy new times on Wimbledon.
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Wimbledon used Hawk-Eye for the first time for electronic refereeing in 2007. And since then, players could “question” decisions taken by human linear judges, using the support of the computer system.
As CNN reports, during the Wednesday round match between Madison Keys and Olga Danilović, the automatic system without announcement reported “out” between points, causing a short confusion and a salute of laughter among the audience.
