For the first time in its 147-year history, Wimbledon has replaced human line judges with electronic line calling – but the technology is proving far from flawless.
During Tuesday’s quarter-final between Taylor Fritz and Karen Khachanov, the AI-powered system triggered a bizarre error mid-rally, incorrectly calling a fault on a ball nowhere near the line.
The umpire was forced to stop play and explain the malfunction to a bemused Court 1 crowd, who responded with boos.
It follows a similarly controversial moment earlier in the tournament when Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova accused the system of “stealing” a game after an obvious out ball by Sonay Kartal went uncalled.
Organisers admitted this incident stemmed from a “human error” in the supposedly human-free system, sparking fresh scrutiny over Hawk-Eye’s reliability.
While players like Novak Djokovic and Jannik Sinner have backed the move to AI officiating, others question the wisdom of removing humans from such high-stakes decision-making, especially when the tech falters.
So what do you think: Is it time to bring back human line judges at Wimbledon?
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