The 2025 Wimbledon Championships saw it all. From thrilling action on the court to numerous famous personalities gracing the stadium, it was an action-packed tournament. However, the event also faced numerous controversies, one of which was the empty seats at the matches, which usually isn’t the case at the biggest tennis tournament of the calendar year. With ticket prices reaching sky-high and long waiting periods to get the tickets, many fans preferred to watch the matches on TV instead of going to the stadium. Nonetheless, a controversial plan is set into motion after receiving legal approval.

A few years back, Wimbledon set a proposal to ‘almost triple’ the size of the venue for the grass-court Grand Slam tournament. It would see an incredible 38 new courts being added and an 8,000-seat stadium on the grounds of the former Wimbledon Park Golf Club. This would allow the All England Club to host Wimbledon qualifiers there instead of in South London at Roehampton.

However, the ‘Save Wimbledon Park’ campaign was launched last year, and the group took action. The proposal, valued at nearly $200 million, was appealed against by the campaign. They filed a case against the Greater London Authority’s decision to grant permission for this proposal. A new development emerged in this case, with Justice Saini dismissing the petition.

In the judgment, he said, “In short, the defendant’s decision on the relevance of deliverability, applying to both the statutory trust and the restrictive covenants, was a planning judgment rationally exercised and having regard to appropriate and relevant factors.”

Although the ruling went in favor of Wimbledon, the Save Wimbledon Park campaign isn’t done yet. They have been advised to challenge the decision of the High Court. “SWP is not taking this step lightly but believes that the GLA did make a significant legal error in the way it dealt with the special legal status of the park,” the statement read, as it seeks a hold on this proposal.

Meanwhile, this wasn’t the only controversy that shaped this year’s Championships. Even the tournament’s latest technology, the electronic line-calling system, faced massive backlash.

Wimbledon’s technological failure raised many eyebrows

This year, the tournament replaced the line judges with the electronic line-calling system. While it was introduced to eliminate human errors, the technology was erratic, with several incidents raising questions over its further use. In the match between Taylor Fritz and Karen Khachanov, the call was made mid-point when the ball had landed well inside the baseline. This led to the chair umpire replaying the point. Subsequently, the tournament released a statement over this blunder.

It read, “The player’s service motion began while the BBG (ball boys and girls) was still crossing the net and therefore the system didn’t recognize the start of the point. As such, the Chair Umpire instructed the point be replayed.”

This wasn’t the only error, as the likes of Emma Raducanu and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova were also calling out this technology. It only raises further questions about whether the tournament should continue with this technology or make a U-turn on their decision to replace the line judges.