'They stole the game' - electronic line call fails at Wimbledon
Had the ball been correctly called out, Pavlyuchenkova, who had the advantage, would have won the point and taken the lead.Instead, it was replayed, Kartal won the point and went on to break for a 5-4 lead.A frustrated Pavlyuchenkova was heard telling the umpire at the changeover: "They stole the game from me. They stole it." A spokesperson for the All England Club said: "Due to operator error the system was deactivated on the point in question."The chair umpire followed the established process."The automated line-calling system, which was introduced at Wimbledon for the first time this year, has been under scrutiny this week, with several players questioning its accuracy and sound level.Debbie Jevans, chair of the All England Club, said on Friday she was confident in the accuracy of the electronic line calling and in the decision to bring it in.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
24 minutes ago
- Reuters
Wimbledon expansion plan goes into legal tie-break
LONDON, July 7 (Reuters) - Wimbledon fans will have eyes only for the tennis this week but for those who run the world's oldest and most prestigious Grand Slam, the real high-stakes contest will unfold not on their grass, but in London's Royal Courts of Justice. On one side of the legal net is the campaign group Save Wimbledon Park, while facing them in a judicial review of their ambitious expansion plan on Tuesday and Wednesday will be the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (AELTC). It is the latest stage of a long-running fight that has split the south-west London "village", which has been home to the Championships since 1877. Last September the AELTC secured planning permission from the Greater London Authority (GLA) to treble the size of the main site to include 39 new courts including an 8,000-seat show court by redeveloping a former golf course on parkland land it already owns. The 200-million-pound ($272.92-million) expansion aims to increase daily capacity to 50,000 people from the current 42,000, upgrade facilities and move the qualifying rounds on site to mirror the Australian, French, and U.S. Opens. The plans have the backing of several leading players, including Novak Djokovic, and 62% of 10,000 residents in Merton and Wandsworth, the London boroughs that share the new site, also support the scheme, according to the AELTC. 'Our confidence in the development and the proposals that we've been working on for many years is as strong as it ever has been,' Wimbledon tournament director Jamie Baker told Reuters. 'For the championships to continue to be in the position that it is and to deliver all the benefits to stakeholders including the local community it is vital that we are able to stage the tournament on one site and bring all the grounds together." However, this week's judicial review will decide whether the GLA's decision to grant planning permission was unlawful. Opponents of the development, including Thelma Ruby, a 100-year-old former actress who lives in a flat overlooking the park, and West Hill Ward Councillor Malcolm Grimston, say the club's plans will cause environmental damage and major disruption to the area. 'It's terribly important that it does not go ahead not just for myself but for the whole planet and future generations," Ruby told Reuters. "I overlook this beautiful landscape and there are all sorts of covenants that say you mustn't build on it, and yet the tennis people have this unnecessary plan they admit will cut down all these glorious trees, which will harm wildlife. 'They're using concrete, building roads, they're going to have lorries polluting and passing my window every 10 minutes. The whole area will be in chaos as they're closing off roads,' she said. Save Wimbledon Park says the GLA failed to consider covenants that were agreed by the AELTC, including restrictions on redeveloping the land, when it bought the Wimbledon Park golf course freehold from Merton council in 1993 for 5.2 million pounds. The AELTC paid a reported 63.5 million pounds to buy the Golf Club's lease, which was due to run until 2041. The campaign group also believes the GLA failed to consider the land's statutory Public Recreation Trust status which means it should be held as "public walks or pleasure grounds". 'It is not antipathy towards the AELTC that's driving this, as some of the benefits are real, such as the extension of lake,' councillor Grimston told Reuters. 'The problem is that it will treble the footprint of the current Championship and turn what currently has very much a feel of being rural England and a gentle pace of life into an industrial complex that would dominate the views of the lake. 'That's why it's classified as Metropolitan Open Land, which is the urban equivalent of the green belt that has been protected for many decades in planning law in the UK and rightly so,' he said. The AELTC say the plans will improve the biodiversity of the park, as well as bringing parts of it back into public use. 'The London Wildlife trust have endorsed the plans, they've spent many hours scrutinising our analysis and our expert views," the AELTC's head of corporate affairs Dominic Foster said. "We know that this expansion will deliver a very significant benefit to biodiversity, whereas golf courses are not good for biodiversity.' ($1 = 0.7328 pounds)
South Wales Guardian
31 minutes ago
- South Wales Guardian
Aryna Sabalenka's impressive grand slam streak goes on at Wimbledon
The world number one is yet to drop a set but has been pushed in all of her matches so far, with her latest scrap seeing her overcome former doubles partner Mertens 6-4 7-6 (4). There was not the same sense of jeopardy as there had been in Sabalenka's late-night duel with Emma Raducanu in the third round, with the top seed never behind but unable to shake off Mertens until the second-set tie-break. A post shared by Aryna Sabalenka (@arynasabalenka) 'Roland Garros was also quite challenging,' said Sabalenka, who has now made at least the quarter-finals on her last 11 appearances at grand slams. 'I love these challenges. I think every time you go through these tough matches, you kind of bring your game to the next level, and it helps to improve your game as well. 'I feel like, with every match I'm playing here, I'm getting better and better mentally and also physically. So I love these tough challenges. I only hope to get better and better in each round.' The victory was her 46th of the season – way ahead of any other player, with only four women managing more wins in the whole of 2024. Sabalenka is extending her lead at the top of the rankings with every success having missed Wimbledon last year through injury, but she is desperate to add a fourth grand slam title to her CV after heartbreaking losses in the finals of the Australian Open and French Open this year. She is yet to reach a Wimbledon final but it would be a huge shock if she falls before then this year, with numerous upsets on her side of the draw meaning she finds the unlikely figure of Laura Siegemund awaiting her next. The 37-year-old German had won only two singles matches here in her career prior to this year but made it through to the last eight with a 6-3 6-2 victory over Argentinian lucky loser Solana Sierra. Siegemund has an unusual game based on heavy slice and attacking the net, and she insisted she will not be fazed by facing Sabalenka. She said: 'Of course I am surprised. If you would have told me I play quarter-finals here, I would have never believed it. 'On the other hand, it's a very simple math always in tennis. You have an opponent, either you find good solutions and you execute well, you go forward, or you don't, and you don't go forward. 'As I said after big wins before, I have this game and this maybe boldness to take out big names. I've always had that, just maybe because I don't care who is on the other side. In a positive, respectful way, I don't care.' It is proving to be a good tournament for the veterans, with 34-year-old Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova ending a nine-year wait to make a second quarter-final by seeing off Britain's Sonay Kartal 7-6 (3) 6-4. In the last eight, Pavlyuchenkova will take on 13th seed Amanda Anisimova, who reached this stage of Wimbledon for the second time with a 6-2 5-7 6-4 victory over young Czech Linda Noskova.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Alcaraz marches past Rublev while Khachanov and Fritz ease into Wimbledon last eight
Every point in tennis is worth the same as the next, but some are more valuable than others. At 3-3 in the third set here on Sunday, after two and a half sets of outrageous hitting, Carlos Alcaraz held a break point to finally move ahead in the match for the first time. He then produced the kind of athleticism and shot-making that make him such an incredible champion, going side to side, sliding across the court and ripping an unstoppable forehand past the onrushing Andrey Rublev. Until that point, the Russian had played outstanding tennis, testing the Spaniard with big serving, huge ground strokes and staying calm, which has not always been the case. But Alcaraz, like all great champions, has an uncanny ability to turn it on when he needs to and from that point on, he pulled away for a 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 victory that takes his winning streak to 22 matches and secures a clash with Britain's Cameron Norrie. Alcaraz hit 22 aces and even served and volleyed 15 times, winning 13 of those points, as he moved into the last eight for the ninth time in his past 10 slams. He has won 18 matches in a row here, too, and remains favourite to win the title for a third straight year. 'Andrey is one of the most powerful players we have on tour,' Alcaraz said of Rublev. 'You kind of feel he's pushing you to the limit on every ball. I am just really happy with the way I moved today. I think I played intelligent, smart today, tactically, which I'm really proud about.' Taylor Fritz, meanwhile, may be beginning to believe that the tennis gods are on his side at Wimbledon this year. After a narrow escape against Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard of France in the first round, when he trailed by two sets to one and 5-1 in the fourth set tie-break, the American was given an easy passage through to the quarter-finals when his opponent, Jordan Thompson, pulled out due to a hamstring injury. The fifth seed was leading 6-1, 3-0 when Thompson called it quits. The Australian had been battling a lower back problem throughout the tournament and pulled up early on clutching his right hamstring. Clearly hampered, especially in his sideways movement, he took a medical timeout at 2-0 down in the second set but after playing one more game, he decided to give up. The match lasted just 41 minutes in all, including the timeout, which Fritz will doubtless be grateful for as he prepares to face Russia's Karen Khachanov, who beat Kamil Majchrzak of Poland 6-4, 6-2, 6-3. Khachanov has won both his matches with Fritz, even if the most recent one was five years ago. 'I think our games are quite similar overall,' Fritz said. 'To be honest, we practise [together] all the time, so we're pretty familiar with each other's games. But I think I improved a ton and have become a much, much better player since the last time we played.'
