Baseless blame
- 13 Oct 2024
Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka jokes with a line judge during the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London. File/AP
Another sporting tradition dies, Tennis players blaming a linesperson rather than themselves for an ‘out’ shot. The Wimbledon tournament will start to replace line judges with robotic artificial intelligence. John McEnroe will be spinning in his commentator’s chair.
Yes, mistakes have happened but overall the linespeople were accurate and honest. The sports cheats, mostly online gamblers, might use hackers to change a few close results and win or lose a set with an ‘out’ call.
Tennis is played by humans and it has its faults, but for 147 years humans have officiated and it is still one of the greatest competitions. Let’s leave it in the old hands rather than the new bucket of bolts.
Dennis Fitzgerald,
Melbourne, Australia