Wimbledon tennis players complain about AI umpires

Wimbledon 2025 will ditch linesmen in favor of the Hawk-Eye Live AI system, but despite its claimed accuracy, the innovation has drawn criticism from players and fans alike, TechRadar reports.

British tennis players Jack Draper and Emma Raducanu have publicly expressed doubts about the system's decisions after controversial moments in their matches. During the match, Yue Yuan asked the referee to turn up the volume of the announcements, which were not clear enough for the athletes.

In the match between Sonej Kartal and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the system went down for one game due to an operator error. The All-England Club later apologized, admitting it was a server-side glitch.

The replacement of humans with algorithms has also affected the social side of the tournament - this year, more than 300 judges were fired. Some of them even protested at the entrance to the club with posters.

Despite technological advances, not all tournaments have followed Wimbledon’s example — Roland-Garros, for example, still uses human judges. Critics of the innovation point out that the lack of an opportunity to appeal AI decisions upsets the balance between accuracy and fairness.

Organizers say automated refereeing is a step toward objectivity. But whether players and spectators are willing to give up the human element that has shaped the spirit of the tournament for years is an open question.