Wimbledon Challenges: Alcaraz Disastrous, Djokovic Average, And Who Was Best?

Players used their option to challenge the line umpire's call quite a lot during the 2024 Wimbledon Championships, but some of them had disastrous success rates.

Human line judges won't be seen around the ATP and WTA Tours for too long, as they are set to be replaced by the live electronic line calling from 2025. At the 2024 Wimbledon Championships, the human line umpires were still present, and players made good use of their challenges, at least some.

Overall, there were 1,020 challenged calls in the Gentlemen's Singles and 512 challenges in the Ladies' Singles, with a 25% success rate of these challenges made by players.

But while some were more successful when challenging the calls, others let the line judges shine, showing that if they were to choose another career, it probably wouldn't be the one in umpiring.

Two players with most challenges out of everyone were Carlos Alcaraz and Daniil Medvedev. Both challenged 27 calls, and while the Russian was correct in seven instances, with an average 26% success rate compared to the tournament's average, the tournament champion was quite disastrous.

The young Spaniard proved over the fortnight at SW19 that he is probably the greatest 21-year-old man to ever hold a tennis racket, but he's also lucky that that's the case, because he couldn't make a career in umpiring.

Out of 27 challenged calls, the four-time major winner was correct only twice, making up for a 7% success rate, well below the rest of the field, and still, he wasn't the worst out of all players.

Naturally, there were many players who never had a successful challenge during this year's grass-court major, but the vast majority of them challenged only once or twice, but one name that stands out is Jack Draper.

In his two matches at the 2024 Wimbledon Championships, the young Brit didn't trust the line judges at all, challenging 14 calls, but he wasn't right even once.

On the other hand, there were also some players who were quite good at challenging calls. For example, Novak Djokovic's rate was relatively average compared to the rest of the field, with 16 challenges and four successful.

Alexander Zverev was successful five times from the same out of challenges, resulting in an above-average 31% success rate, while Frances Tiafoe caught the line judges lacking 38% of the times he challenged their calls (eight successful challenges out of 21).

Alex de Minaur was the most successful out of those that challenged at least 10 times, as he was proven right seven times out of 12 challenges, resulting in a 58% success rate.

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There were also two men who succeeded every time they challenged. Maximilian Marterer's two challenges were both successful, and Daniel Elahi Galan challenged only one call, and he was correct.

In the Ladies' Singles, the list of players who had a 100% success rate was much longer. Ajla Tomljanovic and Shuai Zhang both challenged two calls, both times correctly, while Eva Lys, Kateryna Baindl, Clara Tauson, and Tamara Korpatsch all challenged only one call, but correctly.

Ladies' champion, Barbora Krejcikova, was successful not only when hitting the lines, but also when challenging the calls, as she was right five out of ten times for an imposing 50% success rate.

Jelena Ostapenko, known for her distrust in the live electronic line calling, wasn't really successful when challenging the calls, as she was right only two times out of 20 challenges for a 10% success rate.

On the other hand, Coco Gauff (50%), Iga Swiatek (29%), Emma Raducanu (27%), and Elena Rybakina (27%) were all above the tournament's average.

On the other side of the table were Daria Saville, Caroline Wozniacki, Caroline Garcia, Maria Sakkari, Danielle Collins, Bianca Andreescu, and Anna Kalinskaya, who all challenged at least five times but didn't succeed even once.

The full overview of challenges made in singles by players in the Gentlemen's and Ladies' competition can be seen below.

2024 Wimbledon Championships Gentlemen's Singles Challenges:

2024 Wimbledon Championships Ladies' Singles Challenges: