“Did you like the previous system?” John McEnroe challenged by BBC colleague in electronic line-calling debate

John McEnroe had an interesting conversation with his BBC colleague, Andrew Castle, about the use of electronic line calling. There has been a lot of debate recently about whether Wimbledon’s decision was right to use electronic line calling instead of line umpires.

Recently, in the fourth-round match of the women’s singles category between Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Britain’s Sonay Kartal, there were controversial calls that forced Wimbledon to issue a statement admitting that the system on one side was not functioning properly.

At the end of the match, Pavlyuchenkova, who came out on top with a score of 7-6, 6-4, questioned the reason behind having technology that makes players doubt themselves. “Sometimes when we play, I’m thinking, ‘Am I crazy, or I just feel like the ball is long?’,” she said while talking to talking to the media. “Then nothing is happening. There is no automatic line calling. The chair umpire was so confused. I think the chair umpire needs to maybe have a clear plan if that happens. We probably should have this system like in football to review.”

Pavlyuchenkova was not the only player who raised concerns about the use of technology. Britain’s number one, Emma Raducanu, shared similar sentiments. Talking to the media after losing to world number one Aryna Sabalenka, Raducanu was critical of the technology and stated optimism that the errors will be fixed soon. "It's kind of disappointing, the tournament here, that the calls can be so wrong, but for the most part they've been okay," said Raducanu. "It's just like, I've had a few in my other matches, too, that have been very wrong. So yeah, I don't know. Hopefully, they can kind of fix that."

McEnroe, who is currently working for the BBC in the Wimbledon transmission, also spoke about the issue. The former world number one was of the opinion that while using the technology is the right thing, there needs to be a mechanism to test the technology before implementing it in such mega-events. "I'm the perfect guy to ask," said McEnroe while speaking to BBC One. "My hair is pretty white at this stage and I haven't got much left. I might have a little more if it wasn't for all of those line judges blowing those calls. The thing is, it needs to be right. I think they [Hawk-Eye] have said it's plus or minus 3mm, but is that for sure? Who's done the testing?"

His comments did not go down well with Castle, who was quick to respond by stating the newer system is better than the previous one. "Did you like the previous system where players could challenge calls? Because this is the exact same system except there's no line judges and it's automatic,” he said. McEnroe then stated that he is all for technology if it is accurate. "If it's accurate I'm all for it," said McEnroe. Castle, once again, was quick to highlight that the technology has made the majority of calls correct, and it is the players who are losing matches who end up complaining about it. “It is accurate,” said Castle. “It's only people that lose that say, 'I didn't think that was right.' You know, come on. Maybe on clay it's different and maybe it's still not perfect."