Players will no longer question linesmen’s decisions at ATP Tour tournaments starting in 2025, as there will be no linesmen at these events by then.
The ATP announced on Friday that it will use “Electronic Line Calling Live” — known as ELC Live — for all “offline” decisions in all of its matches beginning in 2025.
Each game will still be supervised by a chair umpire, but the linesmen who once had the mandate to determine where shots land will no longer be present on the field.
It represents the next step towards using technology for line decisions, in a process that accelerated during the ATP Next Gen Finals in 2017. At that time, ELC Live had been tested for the first times on the men’s circuit.
The WTA Women’s Tour has not made an announcement regarding a plan for electronic decisions at its tournaments. A WTA spokesperson, however, said in an email to The Associated Press on Friday that “this is something we are evaluating and very interested in.”
Linesmen have been used at fewer and fewer tournaments during the COVID-19 pandemic, which began in 2020. This was notably the case at the Australian Open and the United States Open, Grand Slams which are not managed by the ATP and which are not required to respect the policies of the circuit.
Electronic systems were used primarily on hard-surface and grass courts, but the ATP said its new policy will include all surfaces, including clay courts.
Some tennis tournaments, including Roland-Garros, have resisted abandoning human decisions because balls leave marks on the clay court and these can be used to determine where a shot hit the ground.
“This is a historic moment for our sport and we have not reached it without careful consideration. Tradition is at the heart of tennis and linesmen have played an important role in the game over the years,” said ATP President and CEO Andrea Gaudenzi.
“That said, we have a responsibility to embrace innovation and new technologies,” added Gaudenzi. Our sport deserves the most accurate form of officiating. »
