After 147 years, Wimbledon will no longer have a line judge. And that means The Championships will never be the same again.
Tennis fans are familiar with Wimbledon for the line judges shouting "faults" and sporting their expensive Ralph Lauren suits.
And although the Hawk-Eye challenge system has been used at the tournament since 2007, line judges were still used until this year, before the decision was made to replace it entirely with AI.
It is understood that the All England Club is reluctant to switch from field officials to the electronic refereeing (ELC) system.
While the umpires will remain in place, around 300 line judges will have to be cut as the Hawk-Eye Live automated system takes over across all 18 tournament grounds including Centre Court - plus the qualifiers in Roehampton.
AELTC Chief Executive Sally Bolton said: “The decision to introduce Live Electronic Line Calling at The Championships was made after considerable consideration and consultation.
“After reviewing the results of the testing carried out at The Championships this year, we believe that the technology is robust enough and the time has come to take this important step to achieve maximum accuracy in our refereeing.
For the players, the tournament will offer them similar conditions as they would when playing in some other events on the tour.
We take our responsibility to balance tradition and innovation at Wimbledon very seriously.
Line judges have played a central role in our refereeing setup at The Championships for decades and we recognise their valuable contributions and thank them for their service and dedication."
Hawk-Eye Live was first used for a Grand Slam at the 2020 US Open at the height of the pandemic and continued in New York before also being adopted by the Australian Open.
Ultra-sharp cameras will record when shots go out and automatically trigger an "out" command over the PA system.
ELC is considered the most accurate way to ensure decisions are consistent - instead of line judge decisions which can lead to players challenging three times in a set.
However, the Hawk-Eye Live format is much faster and eliminates the need for challenges because the technology is used in real time – to the tune of one-tenth of a second.
Reaction to the move is likely to be divided.
Fans who love Wimbledon's traditions might liken the change to a key part of the tournament being ripped away.
But players will certainly appreciate the switch, especially since the men's ATP Tour is upgrading to ELC for all of its events from the 2025 season.
Wimbledon also announced a major change to their schedule for finals weekend.
Accordingly, the 2 singles finals will start at 4pm instead of 2pm, the 2 doubles finals previously at 1pm.
