Tennis/ATP: an automatic detection system to replace on-court line judges from 2025

The Association of Tennis Professionals will adopt Electronic Line Calling Live (ELC Live) technology to equip courts with an automatic detection system for unforced errors (balls that go out of bounds) and replace line judges from 2025, announced the ATP on 28/04/2023.

"The advanced officiating technology covers all court lines for 'out' calls throughout matches, a role traditionally carried out by on-court line judges," explained the body.

"The move is set to optimise accuracy and consistency across tournaments, match courts and surfaces, for players competing in both main draw and qualifying events. All-court ELC Live coverage will also deliver comprehensive player and ball tracking across the whole Tour, leading to an unprecedented level of data for player-performance analysis and the development of new statistics in the game in collaboration with Tennis Data Innovations (TDI), in addition to future commercialisation opportunities," added the body.

For the time being, this announcement only concerns the men's Tour managed by the ATP. Already present at the US Open and Australian…