A former Wimbledon line judge has shed light on the grim new reality facing her ex-colleagues – who she labelled ‘butlers’ – following the introduction of AI technology in SW19.
The All England Tennis Club officially replaced the iconic line judges – who have been a constant presence at the Grand Slam for 148 years – with automated technology.
However, its first foray into the SW19 competition has come under heavy fire with British stars Jack Draper and Emma Raducanu among the players to have called out the technology for incorrect decisions that they are unable to challenge or overrule.
In a high-profile blunder, it was revealed that the electronic system was turned off during a critical game in Sonay Kartal’s third-round match against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, prompting the Russian to allege that the game had been ‘stolen’ from her.
In another embarrassing turn, the automated AI line judge called ‘fault’ twice during a quarter-final game between Taylor Fritz and Karen Khachanov after mistaking an in-play move from the American for his service motion.
But while the robots have taken over at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, a handful of human line judges remain – in the greatly reduced role of ‘match assistants’.
Their responsibilities now include accompanying players to the toilet and opening tubes of fresh balls, as well as appearing at sponsorship opportunities with brand partners like Ralph Lauren.
A former Wimbledon line judge has shed light on the humiliating new roles her ex-colleagues have been reduced to in the wake of AI tech being introduced to the competition (pictured: a ‘match assistant’ opens a fresh tube of balls at SW19)
Cameron Norrie’s toilet break saw him accompanied by one of the new-look ‘match assistants’
A new ‘match assistant’ also provided updates to the umpire during Elsa Jacquemot’s extended toilet break during her clash with Belinda Bencic
Line judges became a thing of the past at Wimbledon this year as the position was replaced with electronic line calling, but the new tech has suffered a string of farcical errors
Pauline Eyre, a former line judge who officiated a slew of high-profile matches at the Grand Slam between 1988 and 2003, told Mail Sport that the decision was in danger of seriously harming the game.
‘Now, you’ve got two match assistants on each court, which is why on Centre Court and No 1 Court, they’re still sitting in the old service line position, so it looks as though they’re calling the line, but they’re not,’ Eyre explains of the new-look position.
‘They are there to assist the umpire with the ball changes, so opening the cans of balls and supervising the ball kids – who don’t need it, because they’re amazing. And they take the players to the toilet, because when if player needs a toilet break, they have to have an official to go with them, because they’re not allowed to receive treatment. So somebody accompanies them for that, and also makes sure that they are coming back into on time, because it’s timed, and that’s basically it.
‘(It was an) extremely skilled role. Now it’s very nice, because they still get to be involved, but they’re not using their extraordinary skills anymore.’
Instead, Eyre adds, they’re little more than ‘glorified butlers’.
‘I always felt that those uniforms were more like costumes. I always found them a little bit clownish myself,’ Eyre remembers. ‘That’s a very personal view, but they were great fun, and they were a great bit of sponsorship.
‘And that seems to be all they are now. They’re just this visual – “isn’t it fun to have people dress this way?” And it’s a lovely bit of sponsorship for Ralph Lauren.
‘They’re there to look like this terribly old fashioned idea of a butler who’s just there to do a bit of serving, as it were, as opposed to hard-working professionals with a huge skill.
AI technology has drawn criticism at this year’s Championships – with the system malfunctioning during Sonay Kartal’s round of 16 match
The line judging technology also failed when a ball boy was still on the court during Taylor Fritz’s serve on Tuesday afternoon
All England chief executive Sally Bolton has defiantly fronted the media and claimed that the new technology is here to stay, despite its string of flaws
‘It took a lot, it took a lot of experience and skill to be selected for Center Court. It was an enormous honor and an enormous achievement, to be selected for separate finals and have that special day, because you earned it.’
Eyre remains close with a number of her former colleagues currently working at the Championships, sharing that ‘some are just really happy to be there’, but for others, the experience is more challenging.
‘Others are finding it, quite frankly, boring, and sort of feeling the loss, the loss of all their colleagues as well,’ Eyre continues. ‘So instead of a great bustling atmosphere with 300 people, and meeting up with old friends, it’s just a very small number of people.
‘I feel very sad about it. I’m finding it frustrating and it’s a microcosm of a bigger problem. We’re very good at going with new technology, and we’re very good at looking at how we might do that, but we’re not very good at doing looking at why we do that, and whether that’s better for us as a culture.
‘What’s actually happening is (AI is) taking our jobs away so we can’t afford any leisure time, and it’s taking our skills away and dumbing us down.’
Without line judges, Eyre says, the familiar scenes of Wimbledon look almost ‘photoshopped’, as ‘there’s something missing’ from the traditional images the public is used to. A move away from the recognisable hand motions of officials to declare a shot out towards flashing signs as deployed at Queen’s last month, Eyre adds, is worryingly ‘naff looking’.
‘We can’t make everything perfect. A, there’s no such thing. And B, that takes the humanity at us all. It, because sport is about people,’ Eyre stresses. ‘That’s why I’m sad, because you’ve taken away jobs from 250-300 people, and and dumbed down the job of 80 more, and taken away something that’s really lovely about Wimbledon, and was really lovely at the US Open and the Australian Open.’
Concerning too is what it means for the technical aspect of the sport, and what happens when, as spectators have seen at the tournament this week, machines fail.
‘When you do have physical line judges, they won’t be as hot as they were, because they’re not doing it all the time,’ Eyre adds. ‘By the time I got to Wimbledon, that was my third and fourth week of my grass court season, I was really on the game because I’d done Queen’s, and I’d done Wimbledon qualies and I was ready to go.
‘If you bring on the line judges, because the tech screws up those line judges haven’t called lines before for four weeks, maybe for a year, maybe for two years, eventually, they won’t be as sharp.’
Pauline Eyre (seated left and standing right) served as a Wimbledon line judge between 1988 and 2003
Emma Raducanu voiced her opposition to the technology last week, labelling it ‘dodgy’
Without the human connection in tennis, tragic incidents like Grigor Dimitrov’s retirement could be met with coldness
Eyre is will perform in a stand-up show about her time as a Wimbledon at the Edinburgh Fringe
Despite the negative attention electronic line calling has rained down on this year’s Wimbledon, Eyre has no doubt that the technology, despite her wishes, is set to stay in place.
But for Eyre, the tournament’s decision to move away from the tradition has come at irreparable cost.
‘It’s really sad – the machine can’t get down from the umpire’s chair and go and check on Grigor Dimitrov when he’s crying on court,’ Eyre says, citing the tragic injury the Bulgarian suffered during his last-16 clash with world No1 Jannik Sinner.
‘Replace umpires, if you like, replace everybody with machines. It won’t make tennis better. It’ll definitely be impoverished for it, because we need people.’
Anyone for Tennis, a stand-up show about Eyre’s time as a Wimbledon line judge, will run at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, with tickets available here.
