Wimbledon introduced Wednesday that it’ll substitute its iconic line judges with digital line calling beginning in 2025, marking a major shift for the historic grass-court match.
The presence of well-dressed umpires and line judges has been a staple of the 147-year-old Grand Slam, alongside strawberries and cream and gamers’ all-white apparel. However, the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club is now following swimsuit with different tournaments, stating that this choice goals to “balance tradition and innovation.”
In 2023, the boys’s ATP Tour revealed a tour-wide adoption of digital line calling (ELC) starting in 2025 to boost accuracy and consistency throughout tournaments, with the ladies’s WTA Tour additionally embracing this alteration.
The expertise is used on the Australian Open and U.S. Open, although the French Open stays an outlier among the many 4 Grand Slams.
The All England Club introduced it might make the change to dwell ELC beginning subsequent yr.
“The officiating technology will be in place for all Championships and qualifying match courts and will cover the ‘out’ and ‘fault’ calls that have previously been made by line umpires,” it stated in an announcement Wednesday.
Tournament officers stated the choice to make use of ELC, which builds on present ball-tracking and line-calling expertise, was made following in depth testing throughout this yr’s Championships.
Since 2007, Hawk-Eye has assisted officers at Wimbledon on sure courts, permitting gamers to problem line calls.
“The decision to introduce live electronic line calling at the Championships was made following a significant period of consideration and consultation,” stated All England Club Chief Executive Sally Bolton.
“Having reviewed the outcomes of the testing undertaken on the Championships this yr, we take into account the expertise to be sufficiently sturdy, and the time is correct to take this vital step in in search of most accuracy in our officiating.
“For the gamers, it’ll provide them the identical situations they’ve performed below at plenty of different occasions on tour.
“We take our responsibility to balance tradition and innovation at Wimbledon very seriously. Line umpires have played a central role in our officiating setup at the Championships for many decades, and we recognize their valuable contribution and thank them for their commitment and service.”
The All England Club additionally introduced that the boys’s and girls’s singles finals will begin on the later time of 4 p.m. native time (3 p.m. GMT) on the ultimate weekend of the match, pushed again from 2 p.m.
Next yr’s Wimbledon takes place from June 30 to July 13.
Source: www.dailysabah.com