Wimbledon to ‘replace 300 officials’ with AI technology to end 147-year tradition | Tennis | Sport
Wimbledon is set to get rid of all line judges, who will be replaced by artificial intelligence technology from 2025.
For the first time in the tournament’s 147-year history, human officials will no longer call the lines as the All England Club will implement electronic line calling for all main draw and qualifying matches.
It will bring Wimbledon in line with the other four Grand Slam tournaments and the rest of the ATP Tour, as all big events will use the ELC system from next year.
The club announced the news on Wednesday, confirming that the technology would be used during the Championships and during qualifying week, which currently takes place off-site at Roehampton.
“The decision to introduce Live Electronic Line Calling at The Championships was made following a significant period of consideration and consultation,” club chief executive Sally Bolton said.
“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.
“For the players, it will offer them the same conditions they have played under at a number of other events on tour.”
Addressing the decision to scrap line judges, she added: “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.”
According to The Times, around 300 line judges are said to have been required for the fortnight of the Championships, covering more than 650 matches. They would use a 60-minute on, 60-minute off system.
Wimbledon has used standard hawkeye technology since 2007. Players are allowed challenge calls that linespeople have made. If they get three calls wrong in a set, they will lose their challenges until the tiebreak or the next set.
But these calls will now be automatic, with a voice calling balls “out” and “fault” within a tenth of a second.
The club’s decision to move to the new system comes more than a year after the ATP announced that ELC technology would be adopted tour-wide from 2025.
The automatic system was first trialled at the Next Gen ATP Finals in 2017. The US Open became the first Grand Slam tournament to adopt the technology during the Covid-affected 2020 edition. By 2022, they replaced all line judges.
The Australian Open followed suit in 2021. Wimbledon will be the last of the four Majors to use the automatic system, as the French Open will also introduce ELC next year.
