Being a line judge usually means being able to stand for a long period of time and, crucially, bellow out the call in a way that makes it obvious what is happening.
As British number one Jack Draper found out at Queen’s, the automated calls cannot always be heard over a raucous crowd.
Set point to take his semi-final to a decider was met with confusion as neither Draper nor the crowd were sure whether there had been an “out” call.
With players also no longer able to rely on the line judges’ arm gestures to indicate if the ball is out, Eyre says the voices used at the grass-court tournament were not loud enough.
“They have used very calm voices – it sort of sounds like the voice isn’t sure,” she said.
“Sort of like it’s saying ‘out… I think’. It feels a bit awkward. That’s very different psychologically, not hearing something sharp.”
And while some prefer the technology – Briton Heather Watson recently said a bad experience with line judges’ calls at Birmingham “ruined the match” – others are unsure.
Compatriot Sonay Kartal said she struggled at the Australian Open as she could hear automated calls from the other courts, leading to confusion and even players stopping the point because they thought the call was on their court.
It is not yet known what the voices of the Wimbledon calls will sound like, with the tournament using the voices of some of its behind-the-scenes staff and tour guides. The All England Club will be using different voices on different courts to avoid confusion between neighbouring courts.
It would have been great if the booming voice of McEnroe himself had been one of the voices, Eyre suggests.
“It would be fun to have McEnroe calling them, wouldn’t it? We’re all yelling at the telly going ‘you cannot be serious!’ – I’d like that, we could yell at him and that would be good karma!”