PARIS — French Open director Amelie Mauresmo mentioned Monday that digital line calls aren’t 100% dependable on clay courts and there are not any speedy plans to introduce the expertise at Roland Garros, regardless of the controversial calls made in Casper Ruud’s loss to Joao Fonseca.
Ruud, a two-time runner-up on the Paris Video games, in the end misplaced 7-5, 7-6 (8), 5-7, 6-2 within the fourth spherical on Sunday night time. Through the second set tiebreak, with Ruud main 8-7, a spectator within the crowd yelled that Fonseca’s forehand down the road was out. The referee got here right down to verify the mark and dominated that the Brazilian’s shot had gone in, awarding him the purpose.
An digital line name on tv indicated the ball was out.
However Mauresmo stays an old-school man and mentioned on Monday that he nonetheless chooses individuals over expertise as a result of he cannot totally belief expertise.
“What we noticed within the clay courtroom tournaments main as much as Roland Garros is that the reliability of this method will not be absolute,” she instructed journalists. “Proper now, this machine will not be 100% dependable, so we proceed to place our belief in our human personnel.”
Wimbledon, the oldest Grand Slam match, changed its linesmen with digital linesmen final yr. The transfer leaves Roland Garros as the one main match with out some type of digital telephone calls. Line judges have already been abolished on the Australian Open and US Open, with solely the pinnacle umpire on courtroom.
The WTA and ATP have added machine-generated rulings to occasions on crimson clay, however Grand Slam organizers can do no matter they need. Whereas battles over marks aren’t unusual at Roland Garros, Mauresmo mentioned many gamers had been conscious that the system was not utterly dependable on clay, the place the climate always modifications, making correct digital monitoring a problem.
“So we’ve not acquired any actual suggestions that might push us in that course (of e-phone calls),” she mentioned, including {that a} evaluation would happen after the match.
“What’s vital for us right now is to reaffirm our religion in human officers,” Mauresmo mentioned. “We made that alternative for 2026. We’ll see about 2027. We stay open to new applied sciences as they turn out to be out there.”
Mauresmo mentioned Rudd’s response after the decision confirmed he was “not shocked by the choice”.
