Ben Shelton Reveals How He Feels About Wimbledon’s Controversial Rule Change After 148 Years

In the tennis world, there is a long-standing debate surrounding the Electronic Line Calling system and the line judges. Some favor the machines, while others, like Arthur Fils, claim implementations of electronic systems make the game lose its charm. But are these systems error-free? We’ve seen plenty of controversies this season surrounding the line calling. Remember, during the 2025 Stuttgart Open, Aryna Sabalenka was handed a warning from the officials for taking a photo of the ball-mark on clay courts because she was not happy with the line call. Alexander Zverev was also spotted raising a similar issue with the electronic line calling system during a match at the Madrid Open. However, amid all these, for the first time in 148 years, Wimbledon came up with a major change.

Line judges have long been an iconic and instantly recognizable facet of this historic grass court major, decked out in Ralph Lauren uniforms and often considered the world’s best-dressed officials. But from this season, the organizers have announced that they will part ways with human line judges and bring in the Electronic Line Calling (ELC) system. Speaking on this move, Sally Bolton, the chief of the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC), said that it’s to ensure “maximum accuracy in our officiating,” and to give players “the same conditions” as most other tournaments on the Tour. What does Ben Shelton have to say about this move from Wimbledon?

Well, on Thursday, Ben Shelton’s match was suspended due to darkness at 9:29 p.m. local time. Interestingly, as per several reports, he had asked the chair umpire to suspend the match at the end of the second set (i.e., approximately 30 minutes earlier). But despite his call, the match went on. However, when he was about to serve for the match, the play was suspended. This decision raised quite a few eyebrows in the tennis world. “They ain’t wanna see anything else from me tonight but I’ll see yall tomorrow,” Shelton said.

It was too dark for the Hawkeye to work. But interestingly, this wouldn’t have been the case if there were some human line judges. And while he cleaned up the fixture in 70 seconds when play resumed, Shelton’s match could’ve ended on the same day itself! Now, during his post-match interviews, while addressing all the ifs and buts, this issue popped up on the discussion table.

Commenting on this new move by Wimbledon, Ben Shelton said, “If the umpires were still there and we could play one more game, it’s possible, right? But I mean, tennis is kind of going away from that. I don’t think the Hawkeye system’s perfect. I think you know, we’ve seen that at earlier tournaments in the year, you know, players taking pictures of marks on the clay and stuff, but in terms of the accuracy in a match, whether it was you know line calls on every point or Hawkeye every point, I feel like Hawkeye is probably a little bit better.“

He further added, “You know, there are probably fewer mistakes using Hawkeye for the whole match. It’s just that I think it’s tough sometimes to wrap your head around when it’s the machine that makes a mistake, and there’s nothing you can do about it. But obviously Hawkeye system is the same system that we use for challenges. So when you challenge, it could still you know not be accurate as well. So, I don’t really know what the best option is in terms of line calling, but I do think that taking out the human error in line calling has probably helped in some matches, but I don’t know about every match.” But did this delay make an impact on the result?

The player was suspended when Ben Shelton was leading Hijikata by 6-2,7-5,5-4 and on Friday, it took the world number 10, Ben Shelton, just 71 seconds to wrap up the match. What was his reaction after this victory?

Ben Shelton apologizes to the crowd for ending the show within the blink of an eye

Almost sixteen hours later, Ben Shelton stepped back on Court 2 to finish off the contest against the Aussie, Rinky Hijikata. He managed to beat him by 6-2,7-5,6-4. With victory, he is now all set to take on Hungary’s Marton Fucsovic in the third round. But what did Shelton say after securing this comfortable victory in the second round? Well, first and foremost, during the on-court interview, he jokingly apologized to the crowd, saying, “I’m sorry you guys didn’t get to see much tennis.“

During his post-match interviews, he also spoke about how difficult it was for him to switch off overnight. “When you’re in the middle of a match, you’re thinking about what you did, what you could have done, how you could have been off the court, what you’re going to do when you get back out there. For me, it’s what my game plan is going to be for that one service game to make sure that I hold. You can’t really completely switch off.” But thankfully for the American fans, despite all these hurdles, he managed to keep the hopes alive in this tournament.

Talking about hopes, Shelton’s best record in this tournament was reaching the fourth round in 2024. Can he make a better run this year? Well, talking about his chances in this tournament, former American pro John Isner stated, “I think the one who excites me the most is probably Ben Shelton. His game is so huge.” Not only that, he even believes Ben Shelton has probably the best chance to break through in a huge tournament like Wimbledon in the next three to five years. Whereas, Coco Gauff’s ex-coach Brad Gilbert also showcased his optimism surrounding Shelton’s deep run at Wimbledon 2025. How far do you think ‘Big Ben’ can go in this tournament? Follow the Championships in real-time with EssentiallySports’ Live Blog updates.