All in favour, say AI. Wimbledon’s new electronic line-calling (ELC) system is supposedly the talk of the locker room, so what do the players actually think?
A Monday mission saw The i Paper ask seven players, including seven-time Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic, about the technology that was accidentally turned off due to “human error” during one match on Sunday.
Wimbledon apologised to the two players involved, Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Britain’s Sonay Kartal, and have since made changes to ELC to ensure the error “cannot now be repeated”.
'They stole the game from me' Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova wasn't happy when #Wimbledon's electronic line-calling system failed pic.twitter.com/JA0WIYSccD
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) July 6, 2025But is the trust still there? Emma Raducanu and Jack Draper had already questioned Hawk-Eye’s accuracy at these Championships, and while Tim Henman has said their claims are “utter garbage”, the British pair are not alone in being sceptical.
Marin Cilic, the 2014 US Open winner, and Tokyo 2020 Olympic gold medallist Belinda Bencic both admitted to thinking their own serves had gone out on Monday, only for play to resume.
Cilic said he noticed “weird” calls in previous matches as well as in Monday’s defeat.
“I felt like I missed a serve by this much,” Cilic said, indicating around half a foot with his hands, “and it was called in.”
“I don’t think there’s a necessity,” he added. “For years the line judges were doing great. Maybe there is a mistake, but that’s okay.”
Cilic also queried the future quality of officials, pointing out chair umpires had previously been line judges at major tournaments. “What happens now? Where is your experience?”
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Bencic, who had already spoken of her distrust with ELC last week, said doubts over the technology – which has replaced line judges at Wimbledon for the first time this year – are proving “stressful” and effectively changing how she plays.
“Honestly, yes, I don’t trust it,” Bencic said. “It’s really stressful. Sometimes you see a ball that’s out. You want to stop playing, but now I’m reminding myself to just play every ball.
“It’s difficult to say. I don’t just feel this in my matches. Maybe I’m wrong, I’m not sure, but I also see a lot of bad calls in other matches.”
Djokovic, into the quarter-finals, was pro-tech when asked. The Serb had called for line judges to be replaced back in 2020, with ELC going on to be introduced at the Australian Open in 2021 and the US Open in 2022 before being widely used across the majority of tour-level events by 2025.
“Since we made the introduction of this technology for the line calling, I guess you have to heavily rely on the technology,” Djokovic said on Monday.
“I think that technology’s probably more accurate and making less mistakes than a lines person. But where you’re going to have a system failure and then it happens in an awkward time of the match, like yesterday, that’s not good.
“I didn’t feel in my matches so far I had some really bad calls from the system, to be honest. I don’t have any complaints in that regard.”
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Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( I asked Djokovic and six other Wimbledon stars if they still believe in Hawk-Eye )
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