Wimbledon centre court
Wimbledon line judges are to make way for artificial intelligence as of 2025.
All England club have announced that after 147 years, their use of line judges and the human eye will make room for the use of artificial intelligence in line calling. Following trend of their fellow grand slam tournaments: The US Open and the Australian Open. The announcement was made early this month, with their plan to be put into action from the 2025 tournament.
Officials have collected many memories over the years, being so close to some of tennis’ greatest stars competing in some the tournament’s greatest finals on the green of centre court. It was in 2007 when Wimbledon adopted the Hawkeye to assist in decision calling and players challenging decisions but now with the technology taking full control of the court, the room for human error will be little to none. The human error and tension caused by the calls of line judges for 147 years, played a vital role in adding to the spectacle of the game of tennis. An official line judge claimed that the decision to scrap the use of line judges, will “spoil Wimbledon”.
All England Club plan to introduce the new electronic line calling system also referred to as ‘ELC’ not just on centre court, but across all 18 grass courts used for play. They also will look to expand the use of ELC throughout qualifying in Roehampton as well as the main tournament tree.
