A former Wimbledon line judge has blasted the decision to reduce the roles of those employees following the introduction of electronic line calling (ELC). AI technology now makes the decisions on whether shots are called in or out, replacing iconic line judges who had been in place at SW19 for 148 years.

The controversial decision has been met with backlash after a string of errors and malfunctions. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova claimed that she had a game "stolen" from her after she was forced to replay a point that Sonay Kartal won, after the Brit had earlier hit the ball out but ELC did not pick it up.

Emma Raducanu and Jack Draper have both been vocal critics of the new system, which has left many original line judges out of a role at the All England Club.

CEO Sally Bolton has defended the decision and confirmed earlier in the competition that 80 line judges would be reassigned to match assistants.

These assistants still sit courtside and according to Bolton, their duties consist of: "Two match assistants are assigned to a court at one time, so we work in a team of two and we're there to assist the chair umpire with a number of duties on court.

"That's primarily opening the balls, assisting with the ball change, measuring the net at the change of ends and escorting the players for toilet breaks. We sit behind the chair umpire so that we can maintain eye contact. We're just a glance away so we can jump up and get involved in something if we need to."

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For Pauline Eyre, a line judge at Wimbledon between 1988 and 2003, that is not good enough. She compared the match assistants to "glorified butlers" and explained why the decision threatens to harm tennis.

Eyre told the Daily Mail: "Now, you've got two match assistants on each court, which is why on Centre Court and No 1 Court, they're still sitting in the old service line position, so it looks as though they're calling the line, but they're not.

"They are there to assist the umpire with the ball changes, so opening the cans of balls and supervising the ball kids - who don't need it, because they're amazing.

"And they take the players to the toilet, because when if player needs a toilet break, they have to have an official to go with them, because they're not allowed to receive treatment. So somebody accompanies them for that, and also makes sure that they are coming back into on time, because it's timed, and that's basically it.

"(It was an) extremely skilled role. Now it's very nice, because they still get to be involved, but they're not using their extraordinary skills anymore."

He added that they are little more than "glorified butlers" and revealed that his former colleagues have grown dismayed by their new positions.

"Some are just really happy to be there," she added. "Others are finding it, quite frankly, boring, and sort of feeling the loss, the loss of all their colleagues as well. So instead of a great bustling atmosphere with 300 people, and meeting up with old friends, it's just a very small number of people.

"I feel very sad about it. I'm finding it frustrating and it's a microcosm of a bigger problem. We're very good at going with new technology, and we're very good at looking at how we might do that, but we're not very good at doing looking at why we do that, and whether that's better for us as a culture.

"What's actually happening is (AI is) taking our jobs away so we can't afford any leisure time, and it's taking our skills away and dumbing us down."