Wimbledon has been warned that its historic decision to ditch line judges could put the UK’s entire tennis ecosystem at risk.

The All England Club (AELTC) confirmed on Wednesday that line judges, part of the furniture on court for the tournament’s entire history, will become a thing of a past next year, when Hawk-Eye’s live line-calling system will be used on every court – bringing the grass-court slam in line with the Australian and US Opens as well as the main tour.

But sources outside the AELTC fear the huge reduction of umpires in use at the Championships will damage the grass roots of the game in Britain, where officiating is a predominantly voluntary endeavour undertaken as preparation for work at a higher level.

“There will definitely be a lot of people that drop out because you’re not in Wimbledon any more,” one line judge tells i.

Australian authorities seeking to reduce the number of people on court during the Covid-affected 2021 season introduced Hawk-Eye Live at the Australian Open.

At the time, the AELTC said they were monitoring that development “with interest”, but insisted that line judges were “highly skilled individuals” who played a “key role in the fabric of the sport”.

The success of the Australian innovation caused the Hawk-Eye Live to become almost ubiquitous in the professional game and long-time line judge and umpire Nathan Watt quit, suspecting it would not be long before he too was replaced by the system.

“I could see this coming. That really was the end for me,” he tells i – ending the 32-year-old’s long association with Wimbledon, having been a ball boy, then a ball kid trainer and later a line judge in multiple singles finals.

“So generally, you start your career as a line umpire, and people progress. You do both [line judging and chair umpiring] in parallel for a while.

“A lot of people obviously progress through the ranks on line, but choose not to with their chair – but will do chair umpiring at small tournaments.

“That will probably be a big unintended consequence: lots of local clubs and small clubs have line umpires, like eight or 10 of them, for club finals. How much line umpires will carry on wanting to do the small tournaments, if they can’t then do Wimbledon at the end, remains to be seen.”

Other sources still working within the game echoed those sentiments but were unwilling to speak on the record with the competition for jobs at Wimbledon now particularly acute.

The AELTC insists that “we are working to ensure that opportunities exist for as many officials as possible to remain involved with the Championships”.

That is expected to involve the appointment of “match assistants” or “court assistants”, as is already the case at the two hard-court grand slams and tour events where there are no line judges.

The assistants deal with tasks such as ball changes, net measuring between sets and managing players’ off-court breaks, but there will only be one per match – as opposed to the nine-person teams who previously worked one hour on, one hour off Centre Court. Assistants are also required to be qualified line judges in case Hawk-Eye Live goes down.

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“Having reviewed the results of the testing undertaken at the Championships this year, we consider the technology to be sufficiently robust and the time is right to take this important step in seeking maximum accuracy in our officiating,” said AELTC chief Sally Bolton.

“For the players, it will offer them the same conditions they have played under at a number of other events on tour.

“We take our responsibility to balance tradition and innovation at Wimbledon very seriously. Line umpires have played a central role in our officiating set-up at the Championships for many decades and we recognise their valuable contribution and thank them for their commitment and service.”

The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) – the sport’s governing body, who also provide line judges for the Championships – is scrambling to ensure the job cuts at the top do not result in the feared contraction of the ecosystem, although no one can deny this is a risk and it’s clear this was a decision taken by the club, not by those involved in tennis more widely.

“We understand the reasons behind the AELTC’s decision to introduce live electronic line-calling and we recognise the ongoing changes to officiating around the world,” an LTA spokesperson said.

“With this in mind we are already working with the Association of British Tennis Officials (ABTO) to understand the impact on the pathway for British officials, and develop a new joint strategy with them that will ensure officials can be retained within the sport, new officials can be recruited and the officiating community will be supported through the changes.”

ABTO represents more than 800 licensed officials across the United Kingdom, who are understood to have been polled this year on possibility of the removal of line judges at Wimbledon. It is believed that nearly half indicated they would considering stepping down if working at SW19 was no longer a possibility.

Hawk-Eye Live will also be used at Queen’s and Eastbourne next summer, but the rest of the grass-court season will still rely on line judges at events such as Birmingham, Nottingham and Ilkley.

But with the men’s professional tour having already mandated that all of its events must use a form of electronic line-calling from next year, it is possible that the women’s game could follow suit, further reducing the incentive for volunteers to work at grass roots events.

At lower-level professional events such as the third-tier Futures Tour, line judge fees are usually just £60 a day. Without the carrot of advancement, authorities face an uphill battle to keep people involved in the sport.