Grand Slam tournaments are already making preparations ahead of their respective 2026 tournaments.
Roland Garros in particular had three changes that needed to be made after this year’s tournament, where they received a lot of criticism.
One of those in particular related to night sessions, where Roland Garros once again excluded women from them.
The Parisian major have not yet addressed that issue, but they have confirmed that one thing will definitely remain.
The French Open receives backlash for keeping line judges for the 2026 tournament
Roland Garros has confirmed that they will keep line judges for the 2026 tournament and not implement electronic line calling.
The clay court major are the final Grand Slam tournament to keep human line judges, with Wimbledon adding electronic line calling in 2025, joining both the Australian Open and the US Open.
As a result, chair umpires at Roland Garros will continue to come down and look at ball marks on the clay if there are any contentious decisions made.
This announcement has created quite a reaction, with many tennis fans being critical of Roland Garros for this decision.
Many of these tennis fans on social media have accused Roland Garros of being stubborn in sticking to their previous stance.
One wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter), “Bad decision. It’s the opposite of ‘natural’ to use humans for tasks that are 100% solved by cameras. Obtuseness and stubbornness in the face of innovation do not make us more human; just the opposite.”
Another said, “The French [Open] want to [be] stuck in the dark ages.”
Someone else added the same sentiment, “The French Open still attached to the past.”
“Ughhhhh. I love the French Open but they make it hard sometimes. Always slow to change and annoyingly proud of it.”
Others pointed out the issues that the current system has, “It’s not a good decision, in my opinion. There’s always going to be human error.”
“So we have to suffer through another year of the chair, umpire coming down onto the court and circling what he thinks was the ball mark?”
An additional social media user suggested that Roland Garros will not be able to stick with this stance forever.
“Pride. They’ll come around in 2-4 years.”
While there was a lot of backlash for this decision, there were also some people who were in favour of what Roland Garros had done, citing tradition and drama as two reasons to keep the human line judges.
“This actually makes sense for clay, also great to keep some tradition.”
“Hear, hear! I miss having linespeople on the court and the extra little drama of challenges to close line calls.”
French Tennis President explains reasons behind Roland Garros’ decision
Former top 100 player and President of the French Tennis Federation, Gilles Moretton, was keen to defend electronic line calling at Roland Garros earlier this year and he has now released a statement upon the announcement of this decision.
In a statement, Moretton claimed that France is the best country for providing officials, but suggested that they would be open to changing one day if players were adamant they needed it.
“We are a federation where umpires and line judges work every day and, I say this with all humility, we are the best country for providing officials on the tour,” said Moretton. “We take pride in this, we have a strong training system. We are a benchmark and we want to stay that way.
“The federation’s will is to keep line judges as long as possible; right now, the players are driving the train. If one day they unanimously say: ‘We won’t play without the machine,’ we’ll see… But I believe we have a bright future ahead to preserve this officiating pyramid.”
It is now official that Roland Garros will be without electronic line calling once again, when the 2026 tournament takes place between May 24 and June 7.
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