Sonay Kartal’s match against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova saw a moment of controversy after line calling technology failed to recognise that a ball landed beyond the baseline forcing a point to be replayed
Sonay Kartal’s match against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova was forced to undergo a brief pause after the automated technology failed to acknowledge a ball was out in the opening set. Kartal overhit the ball beyond the baseline but the out call never arrived amid Wimbledon’s first year utitlising the system.
The game was paused as Umpire Nico Helwerth attempted to clarify the error before the point ultimately had to be replayed. On his courtside phone, the official established the situation but was not able to overule the procession.
“The electronic line calling system was unable to track the last point so we will replay the point,” he told the players and crowd.
If the out call had been made Pavlyuchenkova would have won the game against her British opponent on Centre Court. But the match continued with the AI said to be in working condition.
Aftere losing the resultant game and being broken, Pavlyuchenkova was understandably frustrated and said: “they’ve stole a game from me. they’ve stole it”
There remains a team of line judges available, despite the All England club scrapping 300 officials in favour of using the technology. The judges come into play if the electronic line calling system is deemed to be faulty but Sunday’s match continued without their help.
British star Emma Raducana had earlier criticised the use technology following her Wimbledon exit. “Yeah, I mean, that call [against Sabalenka] was, like, for sure out,” Raducanu said in her post-match press conference. “It’s kind of disappointing, the tournament here, that the calls can be so wrong.
“For the most part they’ve been okay. It’s just, like, I’ve had a few in my other matches, too, that have been very wrong. So yeah, I don’t know. Hopefully they can kind of fix that.”
Line judges were used for 147 years before the decision was made back in October to utilise Live Electronic Line Calling. The change moves Wimbledon in line with the Australian Open and US Open.
Chief executive Sally Bolton suggested the technology is now ‘sufficiently robust’ as the tournament looks to achieve ‘maximum accuracy’ in its officiating.
But it is a decision that has split opinion. And Nick Kyrgios has also suggest it was an ill-move.
“I will, I will,” said Kyrgios when asked whether he would miss line judges by talkSPORT’s Hawksbee and Jacobs. “I actually had a conversation about this yesterday,” he added. “I think Wimbledon should never change any rule.
“It should be the only tournament that holds every tradition that ever started in tennis. I think every other week can have electronic line calling, but I wish Wimbledon kept it the same.
“It’s been 148 years with human line calls. I think they could have got to 150 and done a big anniversary challenge.
“Personally, I think it would have been cool to have traditions of tennis never change at Wimbledon. But the tennis world’s not going to listen to me.”