Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova was left furious after the technology failed, claiming a point had been ‘stolen’ from her in her victory over Sonay Kartal
Wimbledon issued a grovelling apology for an embarrassing failure in their new Electronic Line Calling (ELC) system. But not before Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova accused the German umpire of being “scared” to make a decision against “local” Sonay Kartal.
For the first time this year human line judges have been replaced by automated line calling at SW19. But “human error” still exists as a worker failed to switch on the system for three crucial points at 4-4 in the first set of the fourth-round tie.
Kartal’s backhand was clearly long on game point but there was no call – and official Nico Helmerth ordered the point to be replayed instead of giving the point to the Russian.
Pavlyuchenkova’s serve was broken and at the next changeover she complained: “They stole a game from me. Because she is local, they can say whatever.”
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Nearly six hours after the incident, a spokesperson for the All England Club said: “It is now clear that the live ELC system, which was working optimally, was deactivated in error on part of the server’s side of the court for one game by those operating the system. We have apologised to the players involved. We continue to have full confidence in the accuracy of the ball tracking technology.”
But Jack Draper and Emma Raducanu have both slammed the accuracy of the ELC. And former world No.11 Pavlyuchenkova, who went on to win 7-6 6-4, said: “It was very confusing in the beginning because the ball looked very long to me. I just also thought the chair umpire could take initiative. That’s why he’s sitting in the chair.
“Otherwise, I think soon let’s just play without them, right, and then we’re going to have everything automatic. He also saw it out, he told me after the match. I think he felt bad a little bit.
“He probably was scared to take such a big decision. They’re very good at giving fines, though, and code violations. This they don’t miss because every time any little thing, they are just right there on it. Yeah, I would prefer they looked at the lines and call in the errors, mistakes better.
“I think we losing a little bit of the charm of actually having human being, ballboys. Like during Covid, we didn’t have ballboys. It just becomes a little bit weird and, like, robot sort of orientated.”
She also called for changes in the system. “It’s such a big match, big event,” the Russian added. “So much invested into this, we should probably have better,. I think we should have a VAR system like in football so then it’s clear for everybody instead of just guessing.”
Asked if she thought her backhand was out on the controversial point, Kartal said: “It’s unfortunate for me. I’m quite short, so where the net tape is, a lot of the time I lose my vision. That kind of covers the baseline. From where I was, I couldn’t see.”
After her first appearance on Centre Court, Kartal has the consolation of overtaking Emma Raducanu to become the new British No.2 and banking £240,000.
“I wish that is the amount I took in my pocket, but obviously I’ve got a lot of stuff to pay before I take home anything,” she said. “This week I’ve proved to myself that I can go deep into slams, I can beat some of the best players on tour.”