Tennis player Djokovic calls for the abolition of line judges. He sees the future in technology

Novak Djokovic calls for a tennis revolution. According to him, there is no reason to keep line judges in tennis, which should gradually be fully replaced by technology.

Novak Djokovic has joined the influential group around Dominic Thiem, Stefan Tsitsipas and Denis Shapovalov, who are calling for hawk’s eye to decide disputed balls in clay tournaments. Djokovic, however, went even further in his reasoning; he could imagine tennis without line judges altogether.

“With all due respect to the tradition of the sport, I see no reason why every tournament couldn’t have what we had in New York,” Djokovic said of the potential change.

The Serbian tennis player was referring to the automatic hawk-eye system that announced autos with a human voice. Tournament organizers in New York have leaned toward that option, mainly because of concerns about a possible coronavirus infection. However, this system could certainly be used in other tournaments.

“Technology is so advanced now that there is absolutely no reason why we should have line judges on the court. That’s my opinion. Of course, I understand that technology is expensive. However, I feel that we are heading towards that and sooner or later we will not have line judges,” Djokovic continued his thoughts.

“If we don’t have linesmen, then I probably won’t repeat what I did in New York,” Djokovic added jokingly. He was severely disqualified in New York for accidentally hitting a linesman in the neck on court.

Source: Tennis World