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Meet Wimbledon's unsung heroes battling for survival amid rise of the robots

Meet Wimbledon's unsung heroes who are battling for survival amid rise of the robots - HEATHCLIFF O'MALLEY/TELEGRAPH
Meet Wimbledon's unsung heroes who are battling for survival amid rise of the robots - HEATHCLIFF O'MALLEY/TELEGRAPH

When Nick Kyrgios unleashed that verbal tirade at a poor lineswoman last week, accusing her of being a “snitch” for having the gall to inform the chair umpire of something she had heard during the course of his chunterings, the Australian may not have realised that she had no choice in the matter. Once she heard what she did, she was obliged to act. Her own match grading depended on speaking up.

“A lot of people don’t realise that we are not only the eyes but the ears of the chair umpire,” explains Padraig O’Sullivan, a 45-year-old line judge officiating in his 10th Wimbledon Championships.

“We are a team. A line umpire’s primary job, of course, is to call whether the ball is in or out. But if we hear something untoward – an obscenity, or coaching from the stands, or whatever it might be – there’s a clear code of conduct we must follow.”

O’Sullivan is an “L1S”: the highest grade of line umpire in the Lawn Tennis Association system. And as he explains the pathway to me - “everyone starts at L4,” he says, “then L4S [the “S” denoting that you are allowed to call service lines, which are deemed to be more difficult], then L3, L3S, and so on” – it rapidly becomes clear this is a niche world most casual fans know next to nothing about.

A small army of line umpires scuttle about SW19 during the Wimbledon fortnight, in teams of seven, decked out in their Polo Ralph Lauren gear. And they are part of the background furniture. But we usually hear very little from or about them.

Every so often, as with ball boys and girls, one is bopped on the head by a John Isner Exocet and presented with a bouquet of flowers, or carried out after fainting in the heat, or screamed at by an angry Australian. But generally they are seen and not heard. That is how it should be, says Samantha Conlon, an “L4” officiating at her first Wimbledon. “If you come off court and no one noticed you were there, you did the perfect job,” she says.

Conlon, who is in her late twenties, is like most junior line umpires in that she does this in her spare time. Her day job is as a senior parliamentary assistant and chief of staff to an MP. She is a line umpire at weekends and in her holidays. Conlon is also working her way up the chair umpire pathway. “For chairing, I’m a U2,” she says. “There’s U3, U2, U1. Then bronze, silver and gold.”

“I was a U2 as well,” O’Sullivan says. “But it was difficult to do both and I wanted to concentrate on getting my line grade to the top so that I could get the opportunities that I’ve had.” As an L1S, he gets invited to international tournaments and other slams such as the US Open.

Line judges have a key role at the Championships - REUTERS
Line judges have a key role at the Championships - REUTERS

O’Sullivan (who reckons he is one of “around 50 L1Ss” at Wimbledon this year and who has officiated in four singles finals in his career) and Conlon (who will be confined to the outside courts for her first year) believe human umpiring is crucial to the future of tennis.

The Hawk-Eye Live system, which began in 2017, meant line judges were for the first time replaced entirely by technology. Since 2020, various ATP events and the Australian and US Opens have followed suit.

Covid accelerated the transition, with tournaments attempting to restrict the number of people on court. But since the lifting of bans, these tournaments have not brought back the same level of line judges. Some are looking to eradicate them entirely. Line umpires are facing an existential threat.

The All England Club has stuck with tradition and said it will not be replacing line judges at the Championships. O’Sullivan, who officiated at Surbiton, Queen’s and Roehampton, believes it is right to do so.

He points out that line umpires are incredibly well trained. It takes years of lower-ranked events, online modules and mentoring to reach this level, with the LTA’s pathway one of the world’s best.

'It's not all about the slams'

“We have put a lot of time into honing the skills of being on-court officials,” he says. “We aren’t paid a huge amount – a bit at grand slams – but as a community we believe we’re a skilled labour force. When we go out on court we’re not volunteers who just turned up for this tournament.”

Conlon, who grew up playing tennis at the same Bromley club as Emma Raducanu, agrees. She adds that even if Hawk-Eye is more accurate and – once installed – cheaper to run, there is a big world of tennis out there.

“It’s not all about the slams,” she says. “What about grass-roots tennis? I do a lot of vision-impaired and deaf tournaments, for instance, which I love. Or the junior nationals, which I did recently.

“Big venues can afford to install Hawk-Eye but the majority of lower-grade tournaments can’t. So it’s about consistency. For lower-ranked players, getting them used to umpires. And for officials, honing their skills.”

“It’s also important for developing the best chair umpires,” she adds.

Human fallibility is also part of the fun. Mistakes, overrules, line challenges. Who would the modern-day John McEnroes scream at if everything was done by robots?

“It’s always been there,” O’Sullivan says. “If you take that away and you replace it with technology, it might be more accurate but it kind of takes away that element of entertainment, of suspense. Tennis would be far poorer without line umpires.”


Polo Ralph Lauren is official outfitter to the Wimbledon Championships