Wimbledon was once again compelled to address issues surrounding its live electronic line-calling system on Tuesday, following yet another malfunction. This incident occurred just a day after officials expressed confidence that previous problems, which had led to an embarrassing error on Sunday, had been resolved. The latest disruption took place during the quarter-final match between Taylor Fritz and Karen Khachanov.
In the opening game of the fourth set, Fritz faced a 0-15 deficit when he missed his first serve, which was accurately called out. However, confusion arose when his second serve landed in play. After hitting a subsequent forehand that fell approximately four feet in, the automated system erroneously called “fault,” mistaking it for a serve. This error occurred because the speed gun had not registered the second serve, prompting the chair umpire, Louise Azemar-Engzell, to quickly contact the control room. “Ladies and gentlemen, we will be replaying the last point due to a malfunction. The system is now working,” she announced, eliciting some boos from the crowd in No 1 Court.
A spokesperson for Wimbledon later explained that the mistake occurred because the ballboy was still on the court when Fritz initiated his service motion. “The player’s service motion began while the boy was still crossing the net, and therefore the system didn’t recognize the start of the point. As such, the chair umpire instructed the point to be replayed,” the spokesperson stated.
This year, Wimbledon made the decision to replace traditional line judges with an automated live-calling system. However, Tuesday’s incident is not an isolated event but rather the latest in a series of technical issues. The situation peaked on Sunday, when the system failed to call a backhand by Sonay Kartal of Britain, which clearly landed out of bounds. This error should have granted Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova a 5-4 lead in the first set. Although Pavlyuchenkova initially accused the tournament of bias, she later managed to win the match. Tournament officials clarified that the technology had been inadvertently turned off in that section of the court, subsequently removing the ability for Hawk-Eye operators to manually deactivate the ball tracking.
After the match, Khachanov expressed his preference for human line judges, questioning the reliability of the automated system. “The question is why this is happening,” he remarked. “Is it just an error of the machine or what’s the reason? Sometimes it’s scary to let the machine do what they want.” In contrast, Fritz expressed support for the automated system, stating, “In that situation, it helped me because I got a first serve out of it. There are going to be some issues here and there. To be honest, I still think it’s much better to just have the electronic line calling as opposed to the umpires because I do like not having to think about challenging calls in the middle of points. I think it’s a better system.”
As Wimbledon continues to navigate the complexities of integrating technology into its prestigious tournament, the balance between human oversight and automated systems remains a contentious issue. With players divided in their opinions, the tournament must address the technical challenges of the electronic line-calling system to ensure a fair and competitive environment for all participants.
