Wimbledon announced on Wednesday that it will replace its iconic line judges with electronic line-calling beginning in 2025, transforming the grass-court competition.
Smartly dressed umpires and line judges are as much a part of the 147-year-old Grand Slam as strawberries and cream and players’ all-white uniforms.
However, Wimbledon has now aligned itself with other championships across the world, stating that the move is intended to “balance tradition and innovation”.
In 2023, the men’s ATP Tour stated that electronic line-calling (ELC) would be used throughout the tour beginning in 2025 in order to “optimise accuracy and consistency across tournaments,” while the women’s WTA Tour is following suit.
The technology is employed at the Australian and US Opens, although the French Open remains an outlier among the four Grand Slam events.
The All England Club stated that it would transition to live ELC starting next year.
“The officiating technology will be in place for all Championships and qualifying match courts and cover the ‘out’ and ‘fault’ calls that have previously been made by line umpires,” it said in a statement on Wednesday.
Tournament chiefs said the decision to use ELC, which builds on existing ball-tracking and line-calling technology, was made following extensive testing during this year’s Championships.
Since 2007, Hawk-Eye has assisted the officials at Wimbledon on certain courts, with players able to challenge line calls.
“The decision to introduce live electronic line calling at the Championships was made following a significant period of consideration and consultation,” said All England Club chief executive Sally Bolton.
“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.”
The All England Club also announced that the men’s and women’s singles finals would start at the later time of 4:00 pm local time (1500 GMT) on the final weekend of the tournament, pushed back from 2:00 pm.
Next year’s Wimbledon takes place from June 30 until July 13.