By Rob Harris
London: Wimbledon is considering replacing on-court officials with artificial intelligence in the future as it tries to balance the sport’s traditions with technological innovation.
Championship tournament director, Jamie Baker, said the club was not ruling out employing the technology in lieu of humans to make line calls during matches, having added AI-powered commentary to its coverage this year.
Line judges were replaced by an electronic system at the 2021 Australian Open.Credit: Getty Images
The Australian Open became the first grand slam event to introduce electronic line calling in 2021, replacing line judges in an effort to reduce the number of staff on-site during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The US Open followed, while both Wimbledon and the French Open retained line officials. Live electronic line calling is delivered through remote tracking cameras around the court, automatically sending the audio line calls in real time.
In April, the men’s ATP tour announced that line judges would be replaced by an electronic calling system, which uses a combination of cameras and AI technology, from 2025. The advanced officiating technology will cover all court lines for “out” calls throughout matches.
“Line calling obviously is something that is accelerated in the rest of tennis, and we are not making any decisions at this point, but we are constantly looking at those things as to what the future might hold,” Baker said on Friday.
“We are constantly trying to balance the parts of our heritage that are absolutely sacred, absolutely worth protecting because half a million people come here every year, and it’s a big part of their experience.”
Baker said there was a fine balance to be struck between preserving Wimbledon’s heritage and keeping up with the times. He said there were other parts of the championships’ heritage that did not carry the same value as it did in the past.
“We are looking at ways that we can change and innovate in a way that keeps up with things that are happening in society, but also doesn’t devalue the really important heritage points which basically nobody else has here,” he said.
“When we start to see people arriving, whether it’s fans, players, coaches, there’s something about the bricks and mortar of this place that doesn’t matter whether you’ve been here once or 15 times that you can physically see the reaction of people.”
Line judges look on during day five of The Championships Wimbledon Credit: Reuters
“I’m sure things are going to change over the next 10, 15, 20 years but our challenge as an executive team here is to make sure those changes don’t erode the heritage because it’s really important to us.”
In May, seven-time grand slam champion John McEnroe – a long-time broadcaster with the BBC at the annual fortnight – said line judges should be scrapped at Wimbledon in favour of automated electronic calling.
McEnroe said tennis was one of the few sports where you did not need umpires or linesmen.
“If you have this equipment, and it’s accurate, isn’t it nice to know that the correct call’s being made? Had I had it from the very beginning, I would have been more boring, but I would have won more,” he told the Radio Times.
McEnroe was disqualified at the 1990 Australian Open over misconduct after arguing with a line judge over a call. More recently, Australia’s Nick Kyrgios made headlines last year when he called another line judge a “snitch who has no fans”.
Wimbledon has used AI for its stats packages and player power index for a number of years, and generative AI technology from IBM watsonx is producing audio commentary and captions for all highlights videos during this year’s Championships.
While there are no plans to replace live human commentary, it was previously suggested that AI could be a future feature for matches away from the show courts that do not currently have commentary.
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