SANTIAGO, Chile – Nicolás Jarry lashed out at live electronic line calling and at the ATP’s decision to limit human intervention in matches.
“It doesn’t make sense to me that a machine is in charge. It’s ridiculous,” said Jarry, world No. 155, after losing in the first round of the ATP 250 in Santiago.
“It’s not just me. There are many players who don’t understand why the ATP wants a machine to be above human beings,” the Chilean added in the press conference following his 6–3, 5–7, 6–2 defeat to Croatia’s Dino Prizmic.
As the match was drawing to a close, Jarry complained that the electronic system had called a ball out that, according to him, landed on the line: “The ball touched the line and the system called it out. As simple as that.”
After greeting the 20-year-old world No. 120 at the net and before shaking hands with the chair umpire, Jarry complained with irony, speaking in English: “Let’s make machines more important than humans, right? Congrats!”
Since 2025, the governing body of men’s tennis has made the automatic system that determines whether a ball lands in or out mandatory at all tour events, from ATP 250 tournaments to Masters 1000 events.
“This advanced officiating technology provides coverage of all lines during matches (…) This change is aimed at optimising accuracy and consistency across tournaments, competition courts and surfaces, for players competing in main draws and qualifying. The decision was taken after an in-depth review with the different ATP stakeholders, including fans, who identified accuracy and consistency as the most important factors when assessing review systems,” the ATP states on its website.
The implementation of Live ELC marked a change of era: line judges were removed from the court, and the chair umpire no longer decides whether a ball is in or out. Now, umpires are limited to resolving disputes between players, applying penalties for rule violations, or handling specific conflicts under the regulations, among other duties.
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Meanwhile, Jarry continues to sink into a slump that now stands at ten first-round defeats in a row. His last victory came in the third round of Wimbledon last July.
“It’s very difficult to build confidence without continuity,” lamented the former world No. 16.
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