The French Open will retain human line judges for 2026, making it an outlier amongst tennis’ Grand Slams as others will use digital line calling.The French Tennis Federation (FFT) confirmed the choice in a press release Monday, wherein it stated it “will continue to show off the excellence of French umpiring, which is recognized across the world”, in response to vice chairman Lionel Ollinger. Ollinger’s feedback observe FFT president Gilles Moretton final yr calling France “the best country for providing referees on the circuit”.Wimbledon adopted digital line calling (ELC) in 2025, leaving the Paris match because the final of the 4 tennis majors to make use of people to adjudicate whether or not a ball has landed in or out. As an alternative, officers depend on marks left by gamers’ photographs on the Roland Garros clay. The road judges make an preliminary resolution, earlier than the chair umpire verifies any contentious ball marks on the gamers’ request.
These marks might be illusory, as a result of clay is a “live” floor. It’s affected by the quantity of crimson brick mud in numerous elements of the court docket, climate situations and a shot’s trajectory.Tennis balls compress after they land, creating marks of all styles and sizes that don’t at all times inform an correct story of the impression. ELC has additionally confronted occasional issues with malfunctions, and gamers are largely cut up over which system they like, even when digital methodology removes the back-and-forth that may be created by human error.Harder is the discrepancy between having ELC at some tournaments and line judges on the French Open. It requires gamers to rewire their brains in response to which system is in place, which some have struggled to do as ELC slowly replaces line judges at occasions additional down the tennis ladder.After years of counting on ball marks, gamers have needed to reckon with being instructed to not imagine their eyes. Some gamers, together with world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and world No. 3 Alexander Zverev, used their telephones to take photographs of marks in the course of the European clay-court swing earlier this yr.The Australian Open adopted ELC in 2021, whereas the U.S. Open adopted it in 2022 after utilizing it on some courts in 2020. When Wimbledon eliminated line judges earlier this yr, All England Garden Tennis Membership (AELTC) chief government Sally Bolton described the transfer as “inevitable”. The French Open believes in any other case.(Prime photograph of Frances Tiafoe and Timo Janzen on the 2025 French Open: Clive Brunskill / Getty Photos)
