Jamie Murray has revealed what players really think about Wimbledon’s controversial decision to replace line judges with electric line calling.
There are no line judges at the All England Club for the first time in 148 years, with Wimbledon introducing new Hawk-Eye technology in SW19.
Up to 18 cameras have been placed around each court at Wimbledon to track the progress of the ball and determine whether it is in or out.
The big change means Wimbledon is now using the same line-calling system as other Grand Slam events and key tournaments on the ATP Tour.
The introduction of Hawk-Eye at the Championships has been a huge talking point, especially after British No.1s Jack Draper and Emma Raducanu both publicly complained about how reliable the system was.
There was also a dramatic moment in Sonay Kartal’s defeat to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in which the technology was accidentally turned off, with the British star’s opponent left furious that a game was ‘stolen’ from her.
Murray: Players want ELC instead of line judges
Despite there being a few ‘failures’ at Wimbledon this year, Murray is adamant players would rather have electric line calling than line judges.
Murray highlighted how the system works at many other tournaments throughout the year – although he did stress that Wimbledon must have a plan in place for if and when the technology fails, like in Kartal’s match.
‘Players overall would rather have electric line calling than line judges,’ Murray told Metro. ‘It removes [more of the] human error and if the computer calls it in or out, they don’t have anyone to complain or argue with. It’s just like, ‘Computer says no’, and you have to move on.
‘There’s 18 courts going at all times through the day. The system might work for 10 million calls but then it fails on one or two – and if it happens on a show court or whatever – maybe it blows up more than it should.
‘I saw the one with Kartal and the system failed. But to be honest, the umpire could’ve said the ball was out and called it himself. I don’t know why he replayed the point in that situation.’
Wimbledon make ‘appropriate change’ after embarrassing line call controversy
Wimbledon have taken action to remove the possibility of ‘human error’ after the electronic line calling system was accidentally deactivated on Centre Court in Kartal’s loss to Pavlyuchenkova.
Murray added: ‘It’s the same system we’ve been using for the whole year and at all the other major events. There’s not been many issues as far as I’ve been aware so it’s been working fine generally through the year.
‘It seems for whatever reason, there’s been a few failures or whatever but I guess that’s the issue with technology. If it fails, what do you do? If it completely fails, have you got line umpires that can come out to Centre Court? Do the matches have to stop or what?
‘We had it (ELC) at Queen’s, we had it in Eastbourne, it was absolutely fine with no issues. So I don’t know what’s gone wrong at Wimbledon.
‘I don’t think it’s been a failure. It’s far from being a failure. Wimbledon has had some issues with the setup but we’ve been playing with it the whole year with no problems so it’s not a thing that’s happening week to week like football where it’s always talked about.
‘I don’t think it’s a major issue that we’re facing.’
Murray lands Guinness World Record
Alongside Laura Robson, Murray has just smashed the Guinness World Record for the longest tennis rally of 101 strokes between two moving cars and fastest tennis serve of 46.67 km/h on the roof of a moving car.
Quizzed about Robson’s claim that he was ‘bricking it’ on the first run, Murray said: ‘They put us in a harness on the car and wanted to do practice runs but it was on the field, so it was super bumpy.
‘Yeah, I was not enjoying that! Once we got onto the airstrip, it was smooth so it was easier and you get your confidence up quick. It was cool. It was such a unique thing for us to do. It was fun.
‘We had quite a few runs at it and were getting better and better each time. It’s cool to get your name in that book!
Murray was speaking to Metro via Lexus as part of their record breaking Served at Speed campaign.
