The French Open has decided not to follow the crowd and has opted for the more traditional line calling system.
All ATP clay court tournaments in the lead-up to the French Open have had electronic line calling, but it has not removed all controversy.
At the WTA tournament in Stuttgart, Aryna Sabalenka took a picture of a ball mark, for which she received a warning from the umpire.
Sabalenka is not the only player to do this, with Alexander Zverev picturing a mark in Madrid.
French Tennis President explains why Roland Garros has decided not to use electronic line calling
Despite the French Open being the biggest event of all on clay courts, the tournament has decided not to use electronic line calling and has stuck with the traditional human line judges.
This decision has divided opinion amongst fans, especially with Wimbledon adopting electronic line calling this year, and now the president of the French Tennis Federation Gilles Moretton has explained the reasoning behind the French Open’s decision.
“This is important for us, regarding what happened in Madrid and what happened in Rome,” said Moretton. “The system used by the ATP and not yet by the WTA seems to be not perfect. We know that it is 10% errors possible, 10%, that’s what we know.
“And regarding clay, we think that it is very important, because sometimes and you saw it with Medvedev (Zverev) in Madrid. I think he took the picture, we think that it can happen and it did happen already so it’s more human.
“To us having… first of all we need those people working all year long in our tournaments, promoting tennis in small clubs, being there for club matches. If we stop having those linesmen, those referees, we feel that is not too good for tennis in France maybe, and I think it may be the same in other countries.
“I can understand not on clay, but on fast surface with no mark could be helpful, like at Wimbledon, it’s so fast now. But at Roland Garros we want to keep our linesmen as long as the players agree with that. If sometime the players say we don’t want then maybe we will have to change.”
Coco Gauff wants the French Open to have electronic line calling
Moretton suggested that if players were to request electronic line calling at the French Open then the tournament may consider it.
While she admittedly does not feel too strongly about the topic, world number two Coco Gauff believes that tennis should use the technology available to it.
“Yeah, I mean, I don’t know if it’s like Gen Z of me but I think if we had the technology we should use it,” Gauff said in her pre-tournament press conference. “I don’t have strong feelings about it. Obviously, umpires are great but I think, to me personally, I just feel like if we have the technology, it should be used.
“These small details in the match can matter in the grand scheme of things but I respect the tournament’s decision and I respect the fact that they still have line umpires. I don’t feel very strongly either way but if you ask my opinion, I would say I prefer the electronic line system.
Yeah, I’m not going to be out here advocating and pushing for it but if I had a preference I would choose to play on the court maybe where the robots are making the decisions.”
Gauff will hope that the line judges are making the correct decisions when she plays her first round match at the French Open this year against Olivia Gadecki.
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