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Let’s face it, Tennis can be a pretty difficult sport to officiate. With serves in the men’s game coming in at upwards of 150mph and ground strokes being hit with a ton of pace and spin, calling a sphere in or out when it comes to hitting a flat line is pretty difficult. And, that has come to the forefront at Wimbledon this week.
Important line calls have been missed in big matches involving stars like Venus Williams, Andy Murray, and Bianca Andreescu.
Wimbledon needs to get rid of the line judges. Too many wrong calls at critical times in the Andy Murray match. Cost him dearly.
— Iain McCulloch (@_iainmcculloch) July 7, 2023
Tennis does have an incredibly accurate review system, Hawkeye. But, it’s not used for every shot. Rather, players are three challenges per set at courts equipped with the technology, with the player retaining their challenge if they win the challenge. But, there’s a renewed push for line judges to be permanently replaced by technology for all shots. Here’s the New York Times with more.
But when players come to the All England Club for what is widely regarded as the most important tournament of the year, their fates are largely determined by line judges relying on their eyesight. Even more frustrating, because Wimbledon and its television partners have access to the technology, which players can use to challenge a limited number of calls each match, everyone watching the broadcast sees in real time if a ball is in or out. The people for whom the information is most important — the players and the chair umpire, who oversees the match — must rely on the line judge.
When the human eye is judging serves traveling around 120 m.p.h. and forehand rallies faster than 80 m.p.h., errors are bound to happen.
“When mistakes are getting made in important moments, then obviously as a player you don’t want that,” said Murray, who could have won his second-round match against Stefanos Tsitsipas in the fourth set, if computers had been making the line calls. Murray’s backhand return was called out, even though replays showed the ball was in. He ended up losing in five sets.
No tennis tournament clings to its traditions the way Wimbledon does. Grass court tennis. Matches on Centre Court beginning later than everywhere else, and after those in the Royal Box have had their lunch. No lights for outdoor tennis. A queue with an hourslong wait for last-minute tickets.
Those traditions do not have an effect on the outcome of matches from one point to the next. But keeping line judges on the court, after technology has proved to be more reliable, has been affecting — perhaps even turning — key matches seemingly every other day.
I’m a proponent of robot umps in all sports, so I obviously support this. Regardless, even human line judges are much better than the kids I played in high school missing line calls by a foot.
Wimbledon continues through Sunday.