Wimbledon apologises over embarrassing malfunction blunder

Wimbledon has been forced into a desperate move after a blunder left officials at the prestigious tournament with egg on their face.

Wimbledon has made major changes to its Electronic Line Calling system and are confident there will be no further blunders.

The tournament’s much-maligned automatic line-calling system has come under fire after it malfunctioned at a pivotal moment, resulting in Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova being robbed of a crucial point on Sunday night (AEST).

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Serving for the game at 4-4 in the opening set of her round of 16 match against Sonay Kartal, the 34-year-old stopped after Kartal hit a ball clearly long.

However, the ball wasn’t called out. After several seconds, an automated voice was heard saying “stop, stop”.

Chair umpire Nico Helwerth quickly called for help from tournament organisers and eventually ruled that due to Hawk-Eye technology not correctly tracking the ball, the point had to be replayed, despite replays showing it was several centimetres out.

You can watch the controversial moment in the player at the top of the page.

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova was fuming after a costly tech error. (Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova was left fuming after not being awarded a point after a ball clearly went long. Image: Instagram

Tournament officials were quick to apologise after the match.

“We have apologised to the players involved,” a statement from the All England club read.

“We continue to have full confidence in the accuracy of the ball tracking technology.

“In this instance, there was a human error and as a consequence, we have fully reviewed our processes and made the appropriate changes.”

Wimbledon have now communicated its ELC system “relies on the cameras and technology working in harmony with the operators and Review Officials”.

Following a “thorough review”, the All England Club have “removed the ability for Hawk-Eye operators to manually deactivate the ball tracking”, The Sun reports.

Though the source of the issue was a human mistake, tennis bosses say “this error cannot now be repeated due to the system changes we have made”.

German official Helwerth was not involved in any matches on Monday but the AELTC say he was simply “having a rest day”.

Umpire Nico Helwerth checks on a line call. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Hawk-Eye cameras have replaced line judges on all 18 courts for this year’s Championships.

CEO Sally Bolton said: “In between matches, the system is deactivated, so it’s not functioning when there isn’t a match on court.

“So, there is a process in place for activating and deactivating the system, and the humans are the people that need to do the activating and deactivating.

“Why was it turned off mid-match? Well, I don’t know. It was a mistake, obviously.

“It had been deactivated. We didn’t need to put line judges back on the court again. We needed the system to be active.

“The chair umpire wasn’t informed that the system had been deactivated in error.

“So I can be confident that our system is in the best shape it can possibly be at this stage.”

Sunday’s blunder proved a game-changing ruling with Pavlyuchenkova then going on to have her serve broken.

The Russian was understandably irate at the changeover and accused organisers of favouring her British opponent.

“Because she is local, they can say whatever. You took the game away from me,” she told the chair umpire.

“They stole the game from me. You stole the game from me”.

In the end, Pavlyuchenkova regrouped to win the match 7-6 (7-3), 6-4, booking a place in the quarter-final.

However, the disgruntled tennis star didn’t let it go post-match teeing off on tournament officials.

“I just thought the chair umpire could take the initiative. That’s why he’s there sitting on the chair. He also saw it out, he told me after the match. I thought he would do that, but he didn’t,” Pavlyuchenkova said.

“I think it’s also difficult for him. He probably was scared to make such a big decision. But I think they should. That’s what they’re there for, sitting on the chair.

“Otherwise, I think, soon, let’s just play without them. Right? Then we’re gonna have everything automatic.

“I think we’re losing a little bit of this charm of actually having human being ball boys. Like, during Covid, we didn’t have ball boys. It becomes a bit weird and robot sort of oriented.

“They’re very good at giving fines though and code violations. This, they don’t miss. Every time, any little thing, they’re just right there on it. I’d prefer they looked at the lines and called the errors, mistakes better.”

Asked what she would have said if the point had ultimately cost her the match, the Russian quipped: “I would just say that I hate Wimbledon and never come back here!”

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova defeated Sonay Kartal 7-6 (7-3), 6-4 (Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

However, it is far from the only incident at Wimbledon and fans have called for change.

“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,” one aggrieved fan wrote on X.

“Umpire not allowed to make a call when the tech has very clearly failed?! Pavlyuchenkova’s game stolen.”

“Anastasia Pavyluchenkova is absolutely right in telling the chair umpire that. That is embarrassing for tennis. It’s embarrassing for Wimbledon, the ball was clearly out and the tech failed,” another wrote.

While a third added: “Absolute shambles with the technology. That was miles out”

Several players have also voiced that they feel they have also been wronged by the new line-technology.

British star Emma Raducanu said she didn’t trust it, while Jack Draper said he felt it wasn’t 100 per cent accurate.

— with The Sun

Originally published as Wimbledon apologises over embarrassing malfunction blunder