Wimbledon introduced an electronic line-call system for the championships this year, ending the 147-year use of line judges.
However, the change has been far from smooth, with various players complaining that the new system is not completely accurate. Emma Raducanu recently called the ELC, developed by Hawk-Eye, ‘dodgy’, while Jack Draper said he didn’t think the system was 100 per cent accurate.
On Sunday afternoon, Britain’s Sonay Kartal and Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova were locked in a tight battle at 4-4 in the first set of their fourth round match. On game point to Pavlyuchenkova, Kartal appeared to hit a ball clearly long, but no call was made by the electronic line call system, before it was heard to say ‘stop, stop.’
The Russian ended up losing the game after the point was replayed, handing Kartal an opportunity to serve for the set. At the change of ends, Pavlyuchenkova told the umpire he had taken the game away from her and ‘they stole the game from me.’
Tracy Austin, commentating for the BBC, said she agreed with the Russian player.
Tennis fans rushed to X to give their thoughts on the controversial matter.
Tennis fans outraged after Electronic Line Call System fails
One fan said on X (Twitter): “‘You stole a game from me.’ She’s right, and she took the call extraordinarily well, but this was a case where a bit of disagreeability might have helped.“
Another fan commented: “Umpire saw the ball was out, he could have made the call himself, while another said: “Fair to say this tech is not working.”
One tennis fan noted the possibility of checking the call via video replay: “Unbelievable.. while watching on TV we can see a replay, they can’t check it?“
After the umpire spoke on the phone from his chair, he said: “The electronic line system was unfortunately not able to track the last point so we will replay the point.”
Tracy Austin, who was commentating for the BBC on Sunday afternoon, said: They should just look at the video review and you can see that it’s almost a foot out.”
Co-commentator Naomi Cavaday replied: “We don’t have the video review system in use here and even if we did I’m not sure it can be used for line calls.”
Austin was quick to add: “Well it needs to be. That game should be over.”
Another fan on X said the ball was ‘so obviously out.’ They said: “This was so obviously out. How can everyone at home see this but no one amongst the Wimbledon referees. Fair play to Pavlyuchenkova, a true sportsman for playing on knowing full well she had won that game.“
Others weighed in on the failure of the line call system itself, with one fan saying ‘this is not video game tennis.’
One fan said: “The new line call tech at Wimbledon was always likely to raise some eyebrows, but having Pavlyuchenkova replay that game-winning point against Kartal is disgraceful. Umpire not allowed to make a call when the tech has very clearly failed?! Pavlyuchenkova’s game stolen.
Another added: “Wimbledon just demonstrated the failure of the electronic line calling system – asking the players to replay because computer can’t compute is simply wrong. This is not video game tennis“
Pavlyuchenkova vindicated as she beats Sonay Kartal
Despite the controversy, Pavlyuchenkova demonstrated a rock-solid attitude to break Kartal at 4-5 in the first set, before wrapping up the contest 7-6 6-4.
The result ends Kartal’s impressive run at Wimbledon, after she knocked out Jelena Ostapenko on her way to the fourth round.
The Russian will face Linda Noskova or Amanda Anisimova in the quarter-finals, before a likely contest against world number one Aryna Sabalenka.
Meanwhile, Kartal’s Wimbledon journey has come to an end for another year, as she is out of the women’s doubles also.
