Will ‘sport’s best dressed officials’ be missed at Wimbledon?

Thomas Sweeney’s first incentive to become a line judge was the offer of a free sandwich.

The main recompense for her work was taking annual leave of absence, for Pauline Eyre, who had been playing tennis for 16 years.

The best officials today could make up to £200 per day plus expenses.

But line judging has never been about the money for those who spend hours leaning forward, hands resting on knees, staring intently at a line of chalk to determine in a split second on which side of it the yellow ball has bounced.

For Eyre, having been so close to Jana Novotna on Centre Court that she could see her foot swaying in the Wimbledon final first point or being “psyched out” by John McEnroe was priceless.

The outfits followed, too.

“There’s nothing quite like walking out on to the iconic grass courts at SW19, wearing the uniform of what many consider the best-dressed officials in all of sport”, Malgorzata Grzyb, chair of the Association of British Tennis Officials (ABTO), told BBC Sport.

However, times have changed. Electronic line calling will be used for the first time in its 148-year history at Wimbledon, which will result in no line judges.

Players and umpires have already got used to the new set-up as it has been at other tournaments for a while, but on the green grass at Wimbledon, where advertising logos are muted and the players are dressed in white, the emptier courts may feel that bit more noticeable.

Eyre said, “It’s all the tradition of Wimbledon, with the people and the funny uniforms,” and that’s lost some of the personality. “I believe it’s all those little things that made Wimbledon Wimbledon,” she said.

Traditionalists will miss them, but technology fans will point to progress.

“Mr Djokovic is challenging the call on the right baseline, the ball was called out”.

When the umpire indicated that a line judge’s decision would be re-aired on video, there was frequently a buzz of excitement.

The rhythmic “ooooooh” followed when the human eye’s judgment was revealed to a packed arena and millions of viewers. The rhythmic “clap-clap-clap-clapping built up to the moment being shown on the big screen.

More than 14, 000 pairs of eyes on Centre Court could bore into the line judge who had been wrong by less than the width of a blade of grass. However, when the official was proven to be accurate, they had to resist the urge to appear even mildly arrogant.

Fans will gasp over the depiction of a “close call” rather than a verdict on human instinct versus technology, even though players can still request a replay this year. And, if recent tournaments are anything to go by, their laughs may be at the delayed reaction for some of the “out” calls.

The challenge system had probably “had its day” with fans, according to Paul Hawkins, the creator of the Hawk-Eye technology, which was first used at Wimbledon in 2007.

People “kind of got into it” when it was new, he said.

The absence of line judges now gives players fewer people to take out their frustrations on, with Eyre remembering being “yelled at” by players and being hit by many balls.

Andrey Rublev was defaulted in Dubai last year for screaming in the face of a judge, while Djokovic was disqualified from the 2020 US Open for hitting a ball accidentally.

About 80 of the 300 line judges who have been cut will no longer be employed at Wimbledon, serving as “match assistants” who are on hand if the technology fails. They will also take on duties like escorting players who need to leave the court.

But their opportunities to work at big tournaments are dwindling, with the French Open now the only one of the four Grand Slams not using electronic line calling.

This year, the technology was introduced by the men’s ATP Tour and the combined ATP/WTA competitions, and only WTA-only competitions are doing so.

Eyre worries that this will affect the standard of umpiring in the future because line judging is a way to become a chair umpire.

“Why would you go to call the lines at Finchley Tennis Club under-12s if you haven’t got that carrot of ‘ maybe one day I can get to call lines at Wimbledon'”? Eyre, who contested the lines in 12 Wimbledon finals in the 1990s and 2000s while currently touring as a comedian, described her line-jumping career.

Grzyb points out that line judges are still used at many events below the top level of tennis and that the development process for officials has changed.

“Instead of starting solely as line umpires, new officials now receive training in both line and chair umpiring from the outset, enabling them to progress more rapidly to chair umpire roles”, the ABTO chair said.

Being a line judge typically requires being able to stand for a long time and, crucially, to bellow the call in a way that makes it clear what is happening.

As British number one Jack Draper found out at Queen’s, the automated calls cannot always be heard over a raucous crowd.

No one in the crowd was sure whether there had been an “out” call, so Draper’s attempt to take his semi-final to a decider was met with confusion.

The voices used at the grass-court tournament, according to Eyre, were not loud enough for the players because they were also unable to rely on the line judges’ arm gestures to indicate whether the ball was out.

“They have used very calm voices – it sort of sounds like the voice isn’t sure”, she said.

“Sort of like it says “out,” I believe. It’s a little awkward, I think. That’s very different psychologically, not hearing something sharp”.

And while some prefer the technology, some are unsure, as Briton Heather Watson recently remarked about how bad it had been with Birmingham’s line judges’ calls.

Sonay Kartal, a compatriot, claimed she struggled at the Australian Open because she could hear automated calls coming from other courts, which created confusion and even caused players to pause while imagining the call was coming from their court.

It is not yet known what the voices of the Wimbledon calls will sound like, with the tournament using the voices of some of its behind-the-scenes staff and tour guides. To avoid confusion between neighboring courts, The All England Club will use various voices on various courts.

Eyre suggests that it would have been great if McEnroe himself had a booming voice among the others.

A stopwatch, paper, and a pencil were all first. Then came an electronic scoring system and next Hawk-Eye.

The need for human intervention decreases as technology improves.

What will happen next, then? Chair umpires?

McEnroe, a seven-time Grand Slam champion known for his verbal outbursts, has previously suggested eliminating the umpires and using technology as a substitute.

Sweeney, the man behind the free sandwich, is now the chair umpire for the 2023 French Open final.

He has overseen numerous matches on Wimbledon’s Centre Court and cannot imagine time being called on umpires in top-level tennis any time soon.

At the end of any situation where technology has its limitations, there will always be a need for a human to assist, Sweeney said.

There are circumstances in life that cannot be anticipated, and you need that person to be able to handle pressure, provide opportunities for understanding and empathy for a player, and be able to advise and direct the operation of the court itself.

But with nine fewer people on court during matches, Sweeney said it “can feel a bit lonely out there” after the “tradition of living the match together and encouraging each other to stay focused”.

One review official monitors the line technology while one ball kid and match officials are still available to help with tasks like getting towels for players or facilitating bathroom breaks.