Follow-up: Wimbledon & automated line calling

During a very dark time for the entire planet in the early days of global pandemic, one innovation popped up in the sports world that had your author extremely excited back in 2020. As a refresher, the "Hawk Eye" automated line calling system had been around at big time tournaments for many years being used as a challenge & review system to either confirm or correct a human line judges call at the request of a player. Out of necessity, tennis replaced the human line judges completely and tuned their automated line calling software to make "out" calls in real-time. This also had the effect of removing the challenge system entirely as the call was correct 100% of the time - reportedly the margin of error is a mere 2-3mm which is extremely impressive considering the speed of the game and breadth of the court that needs to be covered.

A Surprising Impetus for Change

Some traditionalists certainly moaned about the initial implementation of this technology, but the pandemic forced changed. When I wrote my article in August 2020 I was excited that the change was happening for big time tournaments at the Masters 1000 level, which is one step below the grand slams we all know and love as household names. Shortly thereafter, automated line calling became official at two of those major tournaments - the Australian Open and the US Open - and they haven't looked back since. They've even added fun voices and personalities to Hawk Eye so it sounds and feels more human and less robotic.

Wimbledon Gets On Board

Now finally in October 2024 the most traditional, historic, and downright beautiful tournament in the world has made the decision to embrace AI and move to automated line calling beginning with the 2025 tournament. Sure, we'll miss the sharp white, green, and purple linesperson outfits on Centre Court, but the sport will be much better off for this change.

Changing Culture

Players have learned to play within the new system and these new rules. No longer are they dealt a handful of challenges to be used at their discretion throughout the match. Remember John McEnroe's epic meltdown at Wimbledon where he famously berated the umpire saying "you cannot be serious!" before continuing on a tirade? While it was amazingly entertaining to look back on, the sport really doesn't need that sort of thing - in tennis sportsmanship does matter.

The Last Holdouts

So surely the stodgy old All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club that runs Wimbledon were the last holdouts in embracing this new technology, right? Wrong! While Wimbledon marks 3 of the 4 majors using automated line calling, the French Open is still hanging on to the traditional human line judging ways. There are two prevailing theories as to the reason for holding out:

1. The ball leaves a clear mark on clay which leads to auditability of calls and accurate corrections upon review by the chair umpire
2. Because clay is a dynamic and ever changing surface the actual court height can change enough to throw off Hawk Eye outside its margin of error

While theory #1 is true and it is a fairly cool tradition to see the chair umpire come down onto the court and make their final decision, it still misses the mark in that it doesn't address root cause of first call accuracy. Even if the physical ball mark were 100% correct with no margin of error/human judgement (it's not), it still requires a review and pause in the play to make the second pass call, which is completely unnecessary if the ability to get it right the first time is within reach.

Theory #2 is actually more compelling for me. If the nature of the playing surface actually impacts the technology's accuracy in a meaningful way, then some questions need to be asked. However, Hawk Eye technology actually HAS been approved by the International Tennis Federation for use on all surfaces - let's hope they did their homework. It's already been embraced at the Masters 1000 level by the Madrid tournament, so I suspect it is only a matter of time before the French Open joins in.

What's Next?

Thinking about the journey of automated line calling technology as being used first for entertainment (tv coverage), then for exceptions (challenge & review), and finally embedded into the flow of the game in real-time, it has me wondering about what other sports could benefit from embracing technological change. Can you think of a sport where one player is stationary waiting for a ball to be thrown at them at speeds of 100mph while a referee stands behind them trying decipher whether or not it was a good enough throw that should've been hit?

I'm looking at you, baseball. It's absolutely ridiculous that in 2024 human umpires are still calling balls and strikes when the technology to make these calls perfectly in real-time has been a core part of our tv broadcast experience for years.

How about a sport where players are trying to force an oblong ball into a scoring area which only requires a single millimeter of that ball to break an imaginary vertical plane? American football has human referees eyeball where they think a ball stopped when a player was tackled or went out of bounds, then has the audacity to bring out a specific chain system for an exact measurement to see if they got far enough, again all based on that eyeballed judgement call in the first place - what a farce!

The Future Is Bright

And with that I announce my candidacy for Prime Minister of Global Sports - a vote for me is a vote for an automation first agenda!

Joking aside, while I can rant all day about the shortcomings of global sports to embrace technological change, I recognize that these things take time. For now, I'm celebrating advancement when it does come, and I commend Wimbledon and the tennis world for taking this next step toward embracing automation and AI. I predict that the French Open will follow suit in 2026.

The future of sport, much like the future of work, remains bright!