Tennis is moving forward with technology, though this year's Wimbledon event will have a vintage look as line umpires will be present.
Tennis has pretty much had human line umpires for the duration of its history but those things have changed in recent years. We've seen more and more events with electronic line calling as the system becomes better and more reliable.
It's going to be adopted Tour-wide from 2025 as all ATP events will have electronic line calling, including the clay ones. It's a divisive topic as not all players support it. Jelena Ostapenko was very open about her dislike for electronic line calling finding them to be unreliable. Some like Djokovic are in favour of them though he had his own brush-off with umpire mistakes earlier this year.
I can say that in 2023 we’ve definitely got line judges. You’re right that line-calling technology has changed. We’ve been using the challenge system since 2007, and it currently works for us. Who’s to say what might happen in the future. Obviously we’ve seen what’s going on with announcements in the ATP for their plans, and things like that will be considered in the future.
It's a general trend that tennis moves with technology even at its own slow pace. Electronic line calling is the future and for the most part, players are okay with it as the executive revealed that he rarely gets complaints about players wanting for calls to be checked post-match.
I think the players are used to both systems. I get very, very few actual things that need to be checked post-match. Hardly any per tournament, where the player has got to the point where they say, I want you to prove to me that it was the right [call]. The players are accepting about the way the technology is developing.
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