‘It’ll always need humans’: former Wimbledon line judge laments the Hawk-Eye era

Spectators walk between two of the outside courts at Wimbledon under the many new cameras installed for electronic line-calling. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian

The cloth cap and blazer-wearing line judges of Wimbledon are as much an icon of this famous old sporting event as the manicured lawn courts. But this, the 138th tournament in its storied history, was the year SW19 took a leap into the 21st century – replacing some of their judges with an electronic line-calling system that was supposed to put an end to human error.

Now, as the sun sets on this new era at Wimbledon, many of the headlines have been about just that. Mistakes have been blamed on the people operating it, much to the ire of players forced to replay points that were sabotaged by the faltering Hawk-Eye.