Rise of Machines: Most Prestigious Tennis Tournament Wimbledon Replaces Line Judges With Technology
Wimbledon, the oldest Grand Slam tennis tournament, is replacing line umpires with line-calling ball tracking technology, the Associated Press reports.
The All England Tennis Club has announced that starting from 2025, the championship will use technology that will give out and foul signals, eliminating the need for referees. This technology has long been used at Wimbledon and other tennis tournaments to indicate whether a serve has been served or not.
The tournament organisers said the technology was successfully tested at the 2024 tournament and ‘builds on ball tracking technology that has been around for many years’. In addition, other major tournaments have also switched to an electronic refereeing system. The Australian Open and the US Open have already abandoned human line judges.
‘We believe the technology is robust enough and it's time to take this important step in achieving maximum officiating accuracy,’ says Sally Bolton, chief executive of the All England Tennis Club.
The French Open is now the most conservative tennis tournament in the Grand Slam.
This year, Wimbledon also launched Catch Me Up, a mobile app with integrated artificial intelligence that summarises matches.