An ‘operator error’, a player terming a game being stolen due to the turning off the ball-tracking technology and the concerned umpire taking a rest day. That’s what has happened within days of Wimbledon opting for electronic line-calling technology for the first time in its 148-year-old tennis history. A day after an ‘operator error’ resulted in ball-tracking technology being turned off for one game in the fourth-round women’s singles match between Sonay Kartal of Britain and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia on Centre Court, the All England Tennis Club has now announced that there will be a change in the technology.
“Following our review, we have now removed the ability for Hawk-Eye operators to manually deactivate the ball tracking. While the source of the issue was human error, this error cannot now be repeated due to the system changes we have made,” the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) said in a statement to BBC Sport.
On Sunday, Kartal was game point down at 4-4 in the first set against Pavlyuchenkova when a Kartal backhand went long with TV replays showing the ball was out. Chair umpire Nico Helwerth halted play before he addressed the crowd about the call. “We’re just going to check if the system was up and running, because there was no audio call.” The umpire would address. According to the BBC, the umpire made a telephone call and announced that the ball-tracking system ‘was unfortunately unable to track the last point’. The umpire then ordered the point to be replayed with Kartal winning the replayed point and taking the 5-4 lead in the match. According to the rules, if the electronic line calling system fails to make a call, ‘The call shall be made by the chair umpire,’ states the official rulebook. The rulebook further adds, “ If the chair umpire is unable to determine if the ball was in or out, then the point shall be replayed. This protocol applies only to point-ending shots or in the case when a player stops play.”
Wimbledon electronic line calling was ‘accidentally’ switched off during this match according to officials.
Am thinking it was deliberately switched off by an aggrieved former line judge in protest rage against the A.I. machine #Wimbledon #Wimbledon2025 pic.twitter.com/yASrloW1FI— BigCam (@ccbigcam) July 7, 2025
Post the point, BBC reported that the Russian did show her dissent to the umpire. “I don’t know if it’s in or out. How do I know? How can you prove it? You took the game away from me … They stole the game from me. They stole it.” Pavlyuchenkova was quoted as per BBC.
Following the match, which Pavlyuchenkova won 7-6 (7-3), 6-4, the Russian world number 50 would talk about the decision and talked about how the umpire also talked about him seeing the ball being out. “That’s why he’s there. “He also saw it out, he told me after the match. I thought he would do that, but he didn’t. Instead they just said replay. I don’t know if it’s something to do [with Kartal being] local. I think it’s also difficult for him. He probably was scared to take such a big decision.” Pavlyuchenkova said post the match.
Last week, Britain’s Emma Raducanu too had voiced her opinion on the technology following a shot from her opponent world number one Belarussian Aryna Sabalenka clipping the line in the first set during the 7-6 (8-6), 6-4 win for Sabalenka. “That call was for sure out. It’s kind of disappointing that the calls can be so wrong, but for the most part they’ve been OK. I’ve had a few in my other matches, too, that have been very wrong. Hopefully they can fix that,” Radacanu had said. The 2021 US Open champion also talked about how she does not trust the technology. “No, I don’t – I think the other players would say the same thing, there were some pretty dodgy ones but what can you do?” Radacanu added.
On Monday, All England Lawn Tennis Club chief executive Sally Bolton shared that umpire Helwerth was ‘having a rest day’. “We have a rotation of our umpires regularly. A little bit like the players, the umpires also need rest days throughout the tournament,” Bolton told BBC Sport. He’s having a rest day today. He’s fine. It’s really important to say that the umpire followed the protocols in place. He did what he needed to do on court and acted entirely correctly.” Bolton told the media.
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