French Open chief Mauresmo backs human judgment after Ruud line-call controversy

PARIS (AP) — French Open director Amelie Mauresmo said on Monday that electronic line-calling is not 100% reliable on clay courts and has no immediate plans to introduce the technology at Roland Garros despite a controversial call during Casper Ruud's loss against Joao Fonseca.

Ruud, a two-time runner-up in Paris, ultimately lost the fourth-round match 7-5, 7-6 (8), 5-7, 6-2 on Sunday evening. During the second-set tiebreaker, with Ruud up 8-7, a spectator in the crowd shouted that a forehand down the line hit by Fonseca had landed out. The chair umpire came down to check the mark and ruled that the Brazilian's shot was in, handing him the point.

An electronic line-calling on television showed the ball was out.

Mauresmo, however, remains old school and said on Monday she still picks humans over technology, because it can't be trusted entirely.

“What we observed at the clay-court tournaments leading up to Roland Garros is that the reliability of this system is not absolute,” she told journalists. “As of today, the machine is not 100 percent reliable, so we continue to place our confidence in human officials.”

Wimbledon, the oldest Grand Slam tournament, replaced line judges with electronic line-calling last year. The move made the French Open the only major without some form of electronic line-calling. The Australian Open and U.S. Open already had eliminated line judges and only have chair umpires on court.

The WTA and ATP have added machine-generated rulings for events on red clay, but Grand Slam hosts can do what they want. Although disputes over marks are not rare at Roland Garros, Mauresmo said that many players recognize that the system is not entirely reliable on clay, a live surface constantly changing with weather conditions that poses challenges to accurate digital tracking.

“So we have received no real feedback pushing us in that direction (of electronic line-calling),” she said, adding that a review will be made after the tournament.

“For us today, what matters is reaffirming our trust in human officials,” Mauresmo said. “We’ve made that choice for 2026. As for 2027, we’ll see. We remain open to any new technology that becomes available to us.”

Mauresmo said that looking at Rudd's reaction after the call, she could tell “he was not shocked by the decision.”

Ruud said after the match “the forehand he hit, it was marginal, either in or out. It was called in, obviously. So if I win that set, maybe it can be two-one up instead of two-one down. Instead of love-two, you’re one-all. So that’s unfortunate, obviously, in my situation.”

AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

Brazil's Joao Fonseca servea to Norway's Casper Ruud during the fourth-round tennis match at the French Open in Paris, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Norway's Casper Ruud returns to Brazil's Joao Fonseca during the fourth-round tennis match at the French Open in Paris, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Norway's Casper Ruud wipes his face during the fourth-round tennis match against Brazil's Joao Fonseca at the French Open in Paris, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Roland Garros tournament director and former tennis star Amelie Mauresmo, left, watches as Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland, right, returns to Jesper De Jong of the Netherlands during their first round men's singles tennis match at the French Open tennis tournament in Paris, Monday, May 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A panel of international arbitrators has rejected a multimillion-dollar claim by Rwanda against the United Kingdom linked to a refugee resettlement deal that Prime Minister Keir Starmer scrapped immediately after taking office in 2024.

The deal, struck in 2022 by Starmer’s predecessor, Rishi Sunak, involved sending migrants who arrive in the U.K. as stowaways or in boats to the East African country. It included arrangements for payments to Rwanda to help cover costs. Starmer’s home secretary at the time the deal was scrapped, Yvette Cooper, called it the “most shocking waste of taxpayer money I have ever seen.”

The Permanent Court of Arbitration rejected two Rwandan claims, each for 50 million pounds ($67 million), linked to funding for the canceled deal. The decision was dated May 15, but formally announced by the Hague-based panel on Monday. It also rejected two other Rwandan claims linked to alleged breaches by the U.K. of the pact.

In a 76-page ruling, the panel said that written diplomatic exchanges between the two countries after Starmer scrapped the deal amounted to an agreement that the U.K. would not make the two 50 million-pound payments, due in April of 2025 and 2026, to cover costs of migrant relocations.

Under the deal, migrants were to be sent to Rwanda, where their asylum claims would be processed and, if successful, they would stay. Britain’s Supreme Court ruled that the policy was unlawful because Rwanda is not a safe third country for migrants sent there.

The British government said in a statement: “The U.K. robustly defended its position, and the tribunal has now ruled in favor of the U.K. on all grounds."

It added that Starmer's under-fire government is "now focused on delivering vital reforms to restore order and control to our borders, including removing the incentives drawing illegal migrants to Britain and scaling up removals of those with no right to be here.”

Rwandan Government spokesperson Yolande Makolo said Rwanda “respects the tribunal’s award and considers the matter concluded,” but she also noted a dissenting opinion by one of the arbitrators that she said “shows that the issues before the tribunal were complex and open to different legal conclusions.”

"Rwanda will continue to work constructively with international partners, guided by international norms and mutually beneficial cooperation,” she added.

Associated Press writer Jill Lawless in London and Ignatius Ssuuna in Kigali, Rwanda, contributed.

FILE - Exterior view of the Peace Palace, which houses the International Court of Justice, or World Court, in The Hague, Netherlands, Monday, Feb. 18, 2019. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)