Wimbledon to replace line judges with tech from 2025

The All England Club (AELTC) has announced that Wimbledon line judges will be replaced by electronic line calling technology from 2025.

The technology will be in place for all qualifying and main draw matches and replace the judges who were responsible for calling shots ‘out’ and ‘fault’ on a serve.

In recent years, 300 line judges aged between 18 and 80 have been used at Wimbledon to cover 650 matches over a two-week period. All these line judges will be replaced with all the automated electronic line calling (ELC) installed across all 18 match courts.

This also means that Wimbledon’s Hawk-Eye challenge system – brought into use in 2007 – where players could review calls made by the line judges, is no longer required and will be removed.

The iconic Wimbledon Championships tennis tournament will follow in the footsteps of other Grand Slam competition after the Australian Open and US Open adopted the technology in 2021 and 2022 respectively.

Last year, the ATP announced that ELC would be adopted at all ATP Tour events on every court from 2025 onwards.

This leaves the French Open at Roland Garros as the only remaining Grand Slam to retain line judges.

AELTC Chief Executive, Sally Bolton, commented, “The decision to introduce Live Electronic Line Calling at The Championships was made following a significant period of consideration and consultation.

“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.

“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.”

Wimbledon have also announced they are adjusting the schedule to the final weekend of the tournament. 

From 2025, the men’s and women’s doubles finals will start at 1pm, followed by the women’s and men’s singles finals at 4pm on the second Saturday and Sunday respectively. Traditionally, men’s and women’s singles finals had started at 2pm.

Bolton has said that the motivation behind the move is to attract the “largest possible worldwide audience”, with a particular focus on the US audience. The singles finals will now start at 11am (EST) in New York.