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Wimbledon line-calling tech malfunctions

Wimbledon line-calling tech malfunctions

eNCA13 hours ago
LONDON - Wimbledon's electronic line-calling system failed at a key moment on Sunday, prompting an outburst from Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who told the umpire "you took the game away from me".
The Russian put the controversy behind her to beat Britain's Sonay Kartal 7-6 (7/3), 6-4 in just over two hours on Centre Court.
But the glitch in the fourth-round match follows concerns raised by players earlier in the tournament.
A fully-automated system has replaced human line judges at Wimbledon in 2025, ending nearly 150 years of history.
The automated technology has become standard across tennis, with all events on the men's ATP Tour and many WTA tournaments using it.
The Australian Open and the US Open are fully automated but the French Open remains an outlier, sticking to human line judges.
On Sunday, a tight first set between Pavlyuchenkova and Kartal was marred by a computer failure that could have proved pivotal.
At 4-4, Pavlyuchenkova, who had saved two break points in the game, held game point when a Kartal backhand landed clearly over the baseline.
But no call came and instead of the point being awarded to the Russian, it was replayed and Kartal went on to break.
Pavlyuchenkova angrily made her case to the umpire, saying: "You took the game away from me."
Kartal held set point serving for the opener in the next game but Pavlyuchenkova saved it, breaking back and dominating the tie-break.
The world number 50 maintained her momentum in the second set, breaking immediately and although she was broken back, the Russian broke again in the fifth game and went on to win the match.
The All England Club released a short statement.
"Due to operator error the system was deactivated on the point in question," said an spokesman.
"The chair umpire followed the established process."
Britain's Emma Raducanu said she was unhappy about one call in particular during her defeat by Aryna Sabalenka on Friday.
Jack Draper, the men's fourth seed, queried the accuracy of the system after his second-round defeat by Marin Cilic.
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