Wimbledon adds video review and electronic line calling visual aids after 2025 controversy

Wimbledon will use video review technology for the first time at this year’s tournament. It will also continue with electronic line calling after several controversies during last year’s edition, which was the first in Wimbledon’s 148-year history not to employ line judges.

In a news release Saturday, the All England Lawn Tennis Club said that video review will be available on the six biggest courts: Centre Court, No. 1 Court, No. 2 Court, No. 3 Court, Court 12 and Court 18. Players will be allowed to review double bounces, foul shots and other decisions by the chair umpire either on a decision that ends a point, or by immediately stopping play.

They will also be able to review hindrances at those times, with a review on that rule also available when a point ends, should a rally extend beyond the perceived hindrance. This last rule is the one Daniil Medvedev cited last week in the BNP Paribas Open quarterfinals, when he asked for a possible hindrance from Jack Draper earlier in a point to be reviewed once it was over. Medvedev’s appeal was upheld and Draper lost the point in question.

The Australian and U.S. Opens have introduced video review in the past couple of years.

Wimbledon has made changes to its ELC protocol, thanks to audience feedback and the impact of some incidents in 2025. Scoreboards on all courts will visually indicate when the ELC system makes an “out” call, or a “fault” call on serve, after spectators and players sometimes struggled to hear the system. This is a variation on a system introduced by Tennis Australia this year, which featured red lights flashing on the net post for each “out” or “fault” call.

There were also player criticisms of ELC, with some not believing in the system’s accuracy as they transitioned to using it on a new surface. Britain’s Draper said in a news conference at last year’s tournament that he did not think it was “100 percent accurate,” and compatriot Emma Raducanu described some calls as “so wrong” even as replays showed them to be correct.

Another British player, Sonay Kartal, was involved in the only truly controversial moment, when human error led to ELC being “deactivated” on Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova’s side of the court in their fourth-round match. A shot by Kartal landed long with Pavlyuchenkova serving at 4-4, Ad-40, but the point had to be replayed because no call came. Pavlyuchenkova lost the point and the game, and said at the change of ends that officials “took the game away” from her.

“It’s funny, because when we did have linesmen, we were constantly asked why we didn’t have electronic line calling because it’s more accurate, AELTC chair Deborah Jevans told the BBC last year. The French Open remains the only major yet to introduce ELC.

Elsewhere, Wimbledon is also sticking to its changed singles finals times of 4 p.m. from 2025, a couple of hours later than the traditional time of 2 p.m.

The tournament gets underway in 100 days on June 29. The AELTC had further good news in the UK High Court on Thursday after a ruling went in its favour on a campaign group’s central legal challenge to Wimbledon’s plans for 39 new grass courts.

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