(Reuters) – On-court line judges will be a thing of the past with the ATP set to adopt an Electronic Line Calling (ELC) system across all its events from 2025, the men’s tennis governing body said on Friday.
The Tour has operated with a combination of ELC Live, ELC Review and on-court line judges at its events but ATP chairman Andrea Gaudenzi said removing line judges altogether would give more accuracy in officiating.
“This is a landmark moment for our sport and not one we’ve reached without careful consideration,” Gaudenzi said in a statement.
“Tradition is core to tennis and line judges have played an important part in the game over the years. That said, we have a responsibility to embrace innovation and new technologies.
“Our sport deserves the most accurate form of officiating and we’re delighted to be able to deliver this across our whole Tour from 2025.”
ELC Live had its first trial at the NextGen Finals in 2017 but has become more popular since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Among the Grand Slams, the U.S. Open and Australian Open have had ELC in recent years but Wimbledon has resisted change and stuck to tradition with human line judges.
French Open organisers were also not in favour of replacing line judges with traces left by the ball on clay helping referees check line judges’ decisions.
“Multiple suppliers are currently approved to provide ELC Live technology on hard court and on grass, while final testing is underway for clay,” the ATP said.
The technology has been welcomed by players, however, as it saves them the trouble of challenging a potentially incorrect call and reduces human error.
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Ken Ferris)
