Why Are There No Line Judges at the 2025 Wimbledon Tournament? Details

The 2025 Wimbledon tournament is officially in full swing, and some of the world’s top tennis stars are on hand to see who will claim this year’s title. However, there is a notable difference this year, as there will be no line judges for the 2025 championships.

Wimbledon 2025 officially began on June 23 and continues until July 13 in London, England, and some of the biggest stars in the sport will be competing for the ultimate prize including: Novak Djokovic, Coco Gauff, Jannik Sinner, and Carlos Alcaraz.

Back in October 2024, it was announced by the All England Lawn Tennis Club that for the first time in the 148-year history of Wimbledon, there would be no line judges, as they would be replaced by AI electronic line calling, according to Metro.UK.

“The decision to introduce Live Electronic Line Calling at The Championships was made following a significant period of consideration and consultation,’ Sally Bolton, Wimbledon chief executive, said, per the outlet.

“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,” she continued. “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,” she added. “Line umpires have played a central role in our officiating set-up at The Championships for many decades, and we recognize their valuable contribution and thank them for their commitment and service.”

Following the announcement of the end of line judges, Malgorzata Grzyb, chair of the Association of British Tennis Officials, spoke to BBC Sport about what she described as an “inevitable” decision.

“There is a bit of sadness of course – it is the end of a tradition at Wimbledon, but it is something we anticipated,” she said. “We have watched the developments in major tennis events around the world – two of the Grand Slam tournaments already use electronic line calling. I think this was inevitable it was going to happen.”

With Wimbledon’s move to dump line judges, the last professional tennis tournament to still utilize the traditional calling method is the French Open, according to Metro.UK.

In 2021, the Australian Open was the first championship tournament to switch over to electronic line calling, followed by the U.S. Open, which made the same decision in 2022.

Per the president of the French Tennis Federation, Gilles Moretton, the French Open currently has no plans to adopt electronic line calling, opting not to give in to losing human control of the game. “I think we are right to keep our referees and line judges at Roland Garros,” he said, per the outlet.