Wimbledon will follow the lead of the Australian and US Opens and employ a video review system on its biggest courts, one year on from a tournament wreathed in electronic line calling missteps.
The tournament took the decision last year to scrap line judges, with Roland-Garros now the only Grand Slam to employ the analog means of officiating.
But SW19 will now join the tournaments in Melbourne and New York, as well as Masters events on both the men’s and women’s tours by utilising technology which allows for players to request video reviews on certain contentious points.
As confirmed by the All England Club, players will have access to the technology on their six show courts – Centre Court, No1 Court, No2 Court, No3 Court, Court 12 and Court 18 – with their two biggest courts using reviews throughout the championships.
Smaller courts will see the technology in use until the conclusion of singles events on them.
VAR has been in use at other events with growing frequency since 2023, with one memorable review brought about at the 2025 Dubai Open, when Felix Auger-Aliassime alleged that he had been hampered by a moving ball kid during his clash with Alexander Bublik.
Players at Wimbledon will be allowed to request video replays from umpires should they find fault with the electronic line calls
Last year Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova felt she was hard done by when a volley of Sonay Kartal’s went out by some margin – but was missed by the technology
The review proved Auger-Aliassime’s claim, and forced a replay of the point.
Video review technology might have applied a balm for Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova last year, when the Russian star found herself at the centre of a swirling controversy which saw electronic line-calling technology inexplicably turned off.
Facing off with British star Sonay Kartal, Pavlyuchenkova believed that a volley of her opponent’s had landed some way behind the baseline.
But there was no call of ‘out’ from the electronic line judges, nor a review available to Pavlyuchenkova to overturn the point against her.
‘I don’t know if it’s in or it’s out,’ she argued with chair umpire Nico Helworth, after he confirmed on the heels of a lengthy delay that the players would have to replay the point.
‘How do I know? You cannot prove it. Because she is local, they can say whatever. You took the game away from me.’
Helworth responded: ‘The problem is that we have to go with the system. If they tell me it is up and running, there is nothing we can do. If they tell me they don’t have it, that’s the rule unfortunately.’
‘They stole the game from me,’ replied Pavlyuchenkova, who still went on to clinch the opening set. ‘They stole it.’
Wimbledon later confirmed that the ability to manually turn off the electronic line calling had been removed.
Home favourites Jack Draper and Emma Raducanu were among those to find fault with the first year of electronic line calling, but the possibility for a video review should allow players to intervene with more confidence if they feel the decision is incorrect.
Spectators in south west London this year will also be aided when decisions are made, with the introduction of visual indicators of line calls.
In the past, the hand of a line judge would have shown whether a ball was out if some – such as fans with hearing impairment – were unable to catch the audible call.
But spectators struggled in 2025 with their removal, relying only on the automated voice of the electronic judge.
