For most of its history, the chair umpire’s word at Wimbledon was final. A call of “not up,” a double bounce, a player touching the net — these were judgement calls made in real time, with no recourse beyond a player’s protest and an umpire’s discretion. That has now changed. Wimbledon has adopted Video Review, giving players a formal mechanism to challenge specific decisions made by the umpire in the chair.
The technology is new to Wimbledon but not to tennis. Here is what Video Review is, what players can and cannot challenge, how the process works on court, and how it differs from the electronic line calling that already governs whether a ball is in or out.
What Video Review Is
Video Review allows a player to ask for a televised replay of a specific decision made by the chair umpire, with an official reviewing the footage to confirm or overturn the call. It is, in effect, tennis’s version of the video-assisted systems used in other sports — but applied narrowly, to a defined set of umpire judgement calls rather than to every decision on court.
At Wimbledon, Video Review is available on six courts: Centre Court and No. 1 Court throughout the fortnight, and No. 2 Court, No. 3 Court, Court 12, and Court 18 during singles matches. Players competing on the smaller outer courts, which are not equipped with the system, continue to play under the chair umpire’s unaided judgement.
Crucially, players face no limit on the number of reviews they may request. Unlike the challenge systems used elsewhere in tennis, where a player has a fixed allocation of incorrect challenges before losing the right to review, Wimbledon’s Video Review can be used as often as a player believes a call has gone wrong.
What Players Can Review
Video Review applies to a specific set of chair-umpire judgement calls, not to every moment of a match. Players can request a review of:
- A not-up call — whether a ball bounced twice before it was struck.
- A foul shot — such as a ball hit before it crossed the net, or a double hit.
- A touch — a player or racket making contact with the net, or the ball touching a player.
- A hindrance — interference with an opponent during a point.
These are the close, often split-second calls that have historically been the hardest for an umpire to judge from the chair and the most contentious when they go against a player.
How a Review Works
The timing of a review request is tightly defined. A player may call for Video Review in one of three situations: on a point-ending call, when a player immediately stops play believing an error has occurred, or — in the case of a hindrance — immediately after the point has finished.
Once requested, the relevant footage is reviewed and the decision either stands or is overturned. Because the system is built around clearly defined trigger moments, it is designed to resolve disputes quickly without the open-ended stoppages that a broader review system might invite.
Video Review Versus Electronic Line Calling
The single most important thing to understand about Video Review is what it does not cover: line calls. Whether a ball lands in or out is determined at Wimbledon by electronic line calling (ELC), the automated system that replaced human line judges in 2025, ending nearly a century and a half of the tradition of line umpires seated around the court. ELC’s rulings are considered definitive, and a player cannot use Video Review to dispute whether a ball was in or out.
The two systems are therefore complementary rather than overlapping. Electronic line calling handles the in-or-out question automatically and instantly. Video Review handles the separate category of umpire judgement calls — the not-ups, touches, and hindrances that ELC was never designed to adjudicate. Together they cover two distinct kinds of officiating decision that were both, until recently, left entirely to human judgement.
For 2026, Wimbledon also added a visible enhancement to the line-calling system: scoreboards across the courts now display “out” and “fault” indicators alongside the audio announcements, a response to feedback that spectators sometimes struggled to tell how a ball had been called. For more on how all of this appears in coverage, see our guide on how to watch Wimbledon.
How Wimbledon Compares to the Other Slams
Wimbledon is the latest of the Grand Slams to adopt Video Review, not the first. The technology made its Grand Slam debut at the 2023 US Open, and the Australian Open subsequently adopted it as well. Wimbledon’s move for 2026 brings the grass-court major into line with its hard-court counterparts, leaving Roland Garros — where the clay surface allows umpires to climb down and inspect ball marks by hand — as the major where the calculus around electronic officiating has always been different.
The progression mirrors Wimbledon’s broader, deliberate approach to technology: cautious, late relative to the tour, and adopted only after the system has been proven elsewhere. The All England Club took the same path with electronic line calling, introducing it in 2025 after years of testing and long after other events had made the switch.
The Bottom Line
Video Review gives Wimbledon players something they have never had at the Championships: a formal way to challenge the chair umpire’s judgement on the close, contentious calls that fall outside the in-or-out question. It applies to a defined set of decisions — not-ups, foul shots, touches, and hindrances — across six show courts, with no cap on the number of requests.
It does not touch line calls, which remain the exclusive territory of electronic line calling. And it continues a pattern that has come to define Wimbledon’s relationship with technology: slow to adopt, but thorough once it does. For a tournament that built its identity on tradition, the arrival of Video Review is another quiet acknowledgement that even the most traditional event in tennis now runs on the same officiating technology as the rest of the sport.
