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As day one of Wimbledon gets underway, there will be a noticeable difference on all of the show courts - no line judges. The All England Club previously announced they would be replacing the officials with electronic line-calling technology, which is used at the majority of ATP and WTA Tour events and at the Australian Open and US Open.

But the line judges haven't been axed entirely. All England Club CEO Sally Bolton has now confirmed that around 80 of them have stayed on for this year's Championships, being given new jobs on the court.

Speaking as the grounds opened to the public on Monday morning, Bolton said: "The decision we've made there is, I suppose very, much about the way in which Wimbledon has always balanced heritage and tradition with innovation and how we walk that line, and we're always very conscious of that.

"And we think about the players using electronic line calling for most of the rest of the year on tour, for us, it was time to make that change.

"It's not a money-saving exercise. It's about evolving the tournament and making sure that we're providing the most effective possible line calling.

"The line judges have been such an important part of the Championships for so many years, and we are obviously hugely appreciative of the service that they've provided.

"Quite a few of them, around 80, are still with us as match assistants in a new role, supporting the chair umpires, so many of them have returned to work with us again this year at the Championships."

Bolton also confirmed that the move to technology had not saved them money despite eliminating 300 line judge roles. And the club has ensured that familiar voices will be heard on the courts.

"We don't comment on what things cost, but I promise you it's not a money-saving exercise. The technology investment we've had to make to deliver ELC is not insignificant," she added.

"I think it'll be a little bit different, and I think it'll take us a little bit of time to get used to that, but as I said before, you know, we felt very much that it was time to move on.

"The voices are a range of voices from colleagues that work here at the Championships, so we will still hear different voices around the grounds. We just won't see them on court."

Line judges are often trained up to become umpires. The All England Club has also been working with the LTA, Britain's governing body for tennis, to ensure there are still pathways to getting in the chair.

The AELTC boss explained: "As we were going through the process of considering the change to introduce electronic line calling, we worked closely with the LTA on exactly that, the kind of potential impact on the officiating pipeline of the decision we were going to make.

"The LTA's view was, working with us, that there were ways in which we could deploy those officials in a different way.

"So whilst it's not for us to put in place those sorts of activities, that's very much the job of the LTA, we have been very supportive of them in doing that, and we've been very conscious of that in making the decision, but nonetheless, it was still the right decision for us to make this here."

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