Wimbledon line judges being replaced was ‘inevitable,' says All England Lawn Tennis Club

New York Times

a day ago

The phasing out of line judges at Wimbledon was an 'inevitable' development, All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) chief executive Sally Bolton said Thursday.
This year's Wimbledon will be the first in the tournament's 148-year history not to use line judges, a recognizable part of the event with their smart uniforms and crouched poses. It will instead rely on electronic line calling (ELC), as is used at the Australian and U.S. Opens. The French Open, where shots leave marks on the clay that can be inspected by the umpires, is the only Grand Slam that still uses line judges.
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The tournament's pool of 300 judges has been condensed to 80 'match assistants,' two of whom will be assigned to each court. They will support the umpires in managing what happens on the court and are there as a backstop should ELC go down.
Bolton said that the line judges understood the inevitability of their being replaced.
'I think they — and I wouldn't speak for them individually — probably recognise that with the evolution of the technology and the consistent change across many of the other tournaments that this is probably inevitable,' she said at a media briefing ahead of Wimbledon 2025.
'So I think for many of them they had expected this change to come along and for those that will be joining us for the Championships in the match assistant role obviously they're delighted still to be part of delivering the Championships.'
ELC is compulsory at all ATP and mixed tour-level events. Discreet testing was carried out during last year's Wimbledon, where the ball tracking and line technology has been in place for more than 15 years. In 2007, Wimbledon used Hawk-Eye technology for the first time, allowing players to challenge line calls. ELC removes the need for challenges by making the calls in real time; players can request a replay of the call.
'The time is right for us to move on,' Bolton said.
'We absolutely value the commitment that those line umpires have provided to the Championships over many years. And we do have a significant number of them coming back in a new role as match assistants, so we're really pleased to have many of them still involved with delivering the championships.'
ELC has generally been popular with the players, though there were some issues at the clay events this year where the marks left on the court were sometimes in conflict with the images being displayed by the technology. This will not be an issue on grass courts.
Wimbledon has also announced the prize money pool for this year's event, with an increase of seven percent on 2024 to £53.5 million ($72.7 million), which is double the pot of 10 years ago.
The two singles champions will each receive £3 million ($4.1 million) — the most of any Grand Slam, though the U.S. Open is yet to confirm its prize pots for this year's event. It's an 11.1 percent increase from last year. At the lower end of the tournament, there have been similar increases, with first-round losers receiving £66,000 (89,691), a 10 percent increase from last year. Doubles and wheelchair events have seen smaller increases.
The increase in prize money for the singles events follows meetings between executives from the Grand Slams and leading players from both tours. Some of those players met with the Grand Slam representatives, including Bolton and AELTC chair Deborah Jevans, in Paris during the French Open. They both said it was important to continue that dialogue, but Jevans stressed the importance of looking at the 'bigger picture' around scheduling and burnout, and not just prize money.
Jevans added that — having been one herself, once reaching the Wimbledon fourth round — she knew that 'tennis players, they're always going to, I think, ask for more money.'
Jevans added that Wimbledon has no plans to become a 15-day event like the other Grand Slams. The tournament's priority is resolving the legal battle over their plans to build 39 new grass courts on the old Wimbledon Park golf course, which would almost triple the size of the grounds at the Wimbledon Championships and allow the AELTC to host qualifying on site, as the other majors do.
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The Greater London Authority (GLA) granted the AELTC planning permission at a hearing in September 2024, but after appeals led by the Save Wimbledon Park (SWP) group, a judicial review will take place July 8 and July 9 of 2025, in which the AELTC and SWP will outline their arguments. The AELTC expects the judge to make their decision a few weeks later.
A separate issue is the question of whether a statutory trust exists on the golf course land. After appealing to the courts for the case to be expedited, a separate hearing will be held on this matter in January 2026.
The AELTC is desperate to press on with its expansion plans as it continues to lose ground on the other three majors. Jevans said that the need for the transformation 'becomes ever more apparent as we see our fellow Grand Slams staging fully integrated three-week events by welcoming many more spectators and staging charity and community events during the qualifying week and, crucially, providing the players with a stage benefiting their sporting excellence.'
The Wimbledon main draw starts Monday June 30.