Out! | Wimbledon serves up new era as line judges replaced with new tech

Wimbledon is set to replace traditional line judges with an electronic line-calling system from next year’s championships, the All England Club has confirmed.

For almost 150 years, line judges have been an integral part of Wimbledon iconography smooth running of the tournament, but from the 2025 competition, Hawk-Eye Live Electronic Line Calling (Live ELC) will be deployed, removing the need for human line judges on all courts, including during the qualifying rounds. 

The electronic system reacts within one tenth of a second of the ball landing, and is regarded as more accurate than human line judges who are trying to estimate the position of tennis balls which often exceed 100mph. A simple computer-generated call of 'out' or 'fault' will now be the final word on line calls.

Similar systems are already being used in other major Grand Slams such as the US Open and Australian Open.