2023-06-10 13:12:00
In spring, Porte d’Auteuil, they are part of the decor. Hands on their knees, eyes on the line, they’re on the prowl, ready to scream “mistake” at the slightest ball that lands a little too far. Each year, just under 300 linesmen are recruited for Roland-Garros, divided into groups of seven to nine depending on the size of the courts. A function which is an integral part of the image of the Parisian Grand Slam but which is disappearing on the circuit.
“Through the discussions I have with other judges, no one has any illusions about our disappearance. So everyone enjoys being there for the short time that they will surely stay.blow to Release one of the linesmen present at Roland-Garros this year. Another, who has never officiated at Porte d’Auteuil before, wants to be more optimistic: “I do not believe at all in the disappearance of judges at Roland, it is the carrot to officiate throughout the year on smaller tournaments, they cannot remove them.”
At the end of April, the ATP, which manages the main men’s circuit, announced their disappearance from 2025. Concretely, on the ATP 250, 500 and Masters 1000 tournaments, humans will be replaced by robots. Or more precisely by the Electronic Line Calling Live, also called Hawk-Eye Live, a technology which makes it possible to announce the faults live using cameras distributed all around the court and calculations carried out in instantaneous. A decision justified by the ATP for “optimize accuracy and consistency in tournaments” – we are talking about a margin of error reduced to 3 mm compared to 2 cm for the human eye.
In Australia and the United States, judges have disappeared
If this announcement does not currently concern the women’s circuit, as well as the Grand Slams which are free to legislate on the question, in fact, many did not wait for the announcement of the ATP to take the course. Since 2021, robots have already replaced judges at the Australian Open and the US Open. First to allow human interactions to be limited and to prevent players from catching the Covid, the device has since been made permanent. Enough to satisfy Novak Djokovic who asked for the disappearance of line judges from 2020: “With all due respect to the tradition and culture that we have in this sport, the technology is so advanced right now that there is no reason to keep them around.”
Players have been able to use the Hawk-Eye for many years now in most tournaments if they believe a ball has been flagged when it was not, or vice versa. But the tool did not come to replace the line judges, just to complement them, supporting or judging their decision. The clay court tournaments, Roland-Garros in the lead, were resisting.
Among the arguments put forward to refuse the technology, its lower reliability on a moving surface like ocher, where the earth gradually covers the lines and where the marks can differ according to the playing conditions, weather in mind. And especially its uselessness since the ball leaves a mark in the ground, allowing, normally, to decide when there is debate on the validity or not of a blow. But the marks are still up for debate – which one really belongs to the shot in question – and many players have been clamoring for the use of the Hawk-Eye on land for years. Video refereeing is now being tested in several tournaments on land and its automation should be fully functional by 2025 according to the ATP. Roland-Garros is still resisting.
For Guillaume Woelfle, former linesman who officiated at the biggest French tournaments including the Parisian Grand Slam, the disappearance of the judges “was predictable” : “When the Hawk-Eye came, it was pretty well seen by the linesmen. We saw it as a way of showing that we were refereeing well and it avoided certain debates. Today it is obviously much less well experienced. My friends who are still in there are sad, they feel like they’re being robbed of their jobs and more than that, their passion.
Roland at the foot of the wall
On the side of Roland-Garros, we refuse for the moment to any comment on the subject. We simply hear ourselves repeating that “refereeing is important” organization, especially since France is reputed to train the best referees on the circuit. However, it is impossible to know how the French Tennis Federation, which manages the tournament, envisages their fate in the coming years.
As for the line judges present this year at Roland, it is also impossible to discuss the subject with them. During the tournament, they are forced to ask their hierarchy for an agreement to be able to speak to the media. And here again the federation is blocking. Even anonymously, almost everyone refuses. “I don’t prefer because it would be to risk never being selected for tournaments again”, explains one of them. Another, now far from the circuit but who still wishes to remain anonymous: “There is a real obedience in refereeing because it is very competitive. There is little space, many people dream of getting there, so everyone tries to be the best little soldier they can be. Everyone knows that their dream can come to an end in a few months.”
More talkative in 2020, the FTT did not say to itself “not in favor of replacing referees with machines”. After the officialization of the decision of the ATP, Rémy Azémar, the judge referee of the tournament, was more evasive with France Info. Admittedly, the man in the suit recalled that “nothing affects, in the immediate future, Roland-Garros”tournament “independent” which is not required to follow ATP guidelines. But he recognized at the same time that “if 98% or 99% of the tournaments of the season are done without a line judge”the Parisian Grand Slam will be “pushed against the wall”.
Small tournaments, big threat
For critics of automated refereeing – and there are many of them – replacing linesmen risks making tennis colder and sanitized. In Australia and the United States, the courts now seem very empty and the interactions between players, referees and judges, which are the salt of sport, have almost completely disappeared. This also raises questions about the future of the role of the chair umpire. “If they are just there to do the rules of conduct, time overruns and keep score, it’s a bit poor compared to the quality and skills they have”denounces Arnaud Clément, former player and current sports director of the challenger tournaments of Brest and Aix-en-Provence. “Maybe one day a robot will announce the score. And if a player does not return after three minutes of a pee break, he will penalize him.laughs yellow a line judge of challengers tournaments.
Removing linesmen from big tournaments also risks having consequences for smaller ones. “The linesmen are also the referees of the small tournaments. Most do chairs at small tournaments or qualifiers, take days off for that, with the idea of getting noticed so they can be line judges at big tournaments. If you take the big tournaments away from them, they will have no interest in going to the trouble of refereeing on the small ones”analyzes the linesman quoted above.
Especially since all of them are volunteers and only receive a meager financial compensation, which varies according to the size of the tournaments, with in addition normally the support of transport, accommodation and food. “Before quitting, I spent about 100 days a year on refereeing, alongside my studies.recalls Guillaume Woelfle. Because to go to big tournaments you have to show that you are invested, that you referee a lot. And then, there are tournaments that you start in the chair on the first rounds or the qualifications, then that you end up as a line judge since when the tournament progresses they require a higher level of skill. Who will agree to cross France if it is just to spend three days doing the chair on the qualifications of a tournament?
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