Wimbledon blames ‘human error' for embarrassing line-calling glitch
Officials apologised to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Sonay Kartal after the malfunction during their fourth-round match on Centre Court on Sunday, which Pavlyuchenkova won in straight sets.
After an investigation, organisers admitted the technology was turned off in error on a section of the court for a game, with the mistake only becoming apparent when a shot from Britain's Kartal that clearly missed the baseline was not called out.
Had the call been correct, it would have given Russia's Pavlyuchenkova a 5-4 lead in the first set, but instead umpire Nico Helwerth ruled the point should be replayed, with Kartal going on to win the game.
The Russian accused the official of home bias, saying: 'Because she is local, they can say whatever. You took the game away from me.'
Wimbledon issued a statement on Sunday saying the system had been 'deactivated in error' for one game by those operating the system.
'In that time, there were three calls not picked up by live ELC on the affected part of the court. Two of these were called by the chair umpire, who was not made aware that the system had been deactivated,' it said.
'Following the third, the chair umpire stopped the match and consulted with the review official. It was determined that the point should be replayed.
'The chair umpire followed the established process. We have apologised to the players involved.'
Sally Bolton, chief executive of the All England Club, told reporters on Monday that the system was 'working optimally.'
'The issue we had was human error in terms of the tracking system having been inadvertently deactivated, and then the chair (umpire) not being made aware of the fact that it had been deactivated,' she said.
She added: 'We've spoken to the players, we've apologised to them, we've very quickly moved into reviewing everything that had happened yesterday afternoon and putting in place the appropriate changes to the processes.'
A fully automated system has replaced human line judges at Wimbledon in 2025, in line with the Australian Open and the US Open.
But the glitch in Sunday's fourth-round match follows concerns raised by other players about the technology, including British stars Emma Raducanu and Jack Draper.
Around 80 former line judges are employed as match assistants, with two on each court offering support to the umpire.
But Bolton said there was no need to put them back on the courts.
'The system was functional,' she said. 'It had been deactivated. We didn't need to put line judges back on the court again, we needed the system to be active.'
Automated line-calling technology has become standard across tennis, with all events on the men's ATP Tour and many WTA tournaments using it. – AFP
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
37 minutes ago
- The Star
Tennis-Shelton's need for speed proves costly against Sinner
Jul 9, 2025; Wimbledon, United Kingdom; Ben Shelton of the United States returns a shot during his match against Jannik Sinner of Italy on day 10 at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. Mandatory Credit: Susan Mullane-Imagn Images LONDON (Reuters) -American Ben Shelton said he paid the price for trying to serve too fast after losing 7-6(2) 6-4 6-4 to Jannik Sinner in the Wimbledon quarter-finals on Wednesday. The 22-year-old left-hander cranked out some huge firepower as he tried to knock the ice-cool Sinner off his stride but in the big moments his big weapons failed him. Top seed Sinner won seven successive points from 0-2 in the first set tiebreak, then broke Shelton's serve for the first time to capture the second set and repeated the trick as the 10th seed served to stay in the match. "You feel consistent pressure playing a guy like him, who returns as well as him throughout the match," Shelton, who was also beaten by Sinner in this year's Australian Open semi-final and has now lost 15 successive sets to the Italian, said. "I think possibly trying to go a little bit too big on the first serve in those moments or hitting it too hard. "Being able to stay calm and keep my emotions the exact same and know that my normal service motion where I go after a first serve, it's going to show up at 140mph on the clock. "It's not like when I go and hit my smooth service motion, it's going to come off 122mph. If I go from a flat serve with a smooth motion, it's going to come off 140, but chasing 147 sometimes in those moments is stupid." Shelton did not do much wrong against world number one Sinner but said playing him was like being on fast-forward. "His ball speed is really high. Never seen anything like it. You don't see anything like it when you're going through the draw. When you play him, it's almost like things are in two times speed," he said. Shelton reached a career-best fourth round at last month's French Open, losing to eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz, and leaves Wimbledon with another personal best run. But he is hungry for more. "I know that I can play at the Grand Slams at this point. I know that I have the ability to be deep in the tournament when it's three-out-of-five sets," he said. "I could sit here and be like, 'wow, 22 years old and I've been able to do these things and achieve these things.' "But my mind is critical. I'm a critical thinker. I'm trying to solve problems," he said. "I know that I'm not where I want to be. That's kind of what I'm focusing on." (Reporting by Martyn HermanEditing by Toby Davis)
The Star
37 minutes ago
- The Star
Tennis-Djokovic sets up Sinner showdown, Swiatek reaches first Wimbledon semi-final
Tennis - Wimbledon - All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, London, Britain - July 9, 2025 Serbia's Novak Djokovic in action during his quarter final match against Italy's Flavio Cobolli REUTERS/Toby Melville LONDON (Reuters) -Novak Djokovic's pursuit of yet more career milestones continued unabated as he reached a record 14th Wimbledon semi-final and a showdown with world number one Jannik Sinner on Wednesday. The 38-year-old Serb recovered from a set down to beat Flavio Cobolli 6-7(6) 6-2 7-5 6-4 and is now only two victories away from an unprecedented 25th Grand Slam title. Blocking his path next is a rather more formidable Italian in the form of Sinner who eased any worries about an elbow injury to beat American powerhouse Ben Shelton 7-6(2) 6-4 6-4. In the women's quarter-finals, Poland's claycourt specialist Iga Swiatek broke new ground by reaching her first Wimbledon semi-final, beating Liudmila Samsonova 6-2 7-5. The eighth seed will face Switzerland's unseeded Belinda Bencic who edged out Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva 7-6(3) 7-6(2) to also reach her first semi-final at the grasscourt slam. By reaching a record-extending 52nd Grand Slam semi, Djokovic also kept alive his hopes of equalling Roger Federer's men's record eight Wimbledon singles titles. It remains a tall order even for a player widely regarded as the greatest of all time, especially with top seed Sinner and Spain's holder Carlos Alcaraz, the two new powers in men's tennis, most people's bet to contest the final on July 13. But no one should be writing off Djokovic who has won 44 of his last 46 matches at the All England Club and seems to know every single blade of grass on the historic Centre Court. "It means the world to me that at 38 I am able to play in the final stages of Wimbledon," Djokovic, who suffered a nasty slip on match point but appeared unscathed, said. "Competing with youngsters makes me feel young, like Cobolli today. I enjoy running and sliding around the court. Speaking of the young guys, I will have Sinner in the next round so I look forward to that. That is going to be a great match-up." SINNER INJURY Sinner may well have been back home in Italy had Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov not damaged his right pectoral muscle and retired with a two-set lead in the fourth round on Monday. The three-times Grand Slam champion also sustained an elbow injury early on in that match and there was some doubt about his physical state ahead of his clash with 10th seed Shelton. But he produced a clinical performance, reeling off seven successive points to win the first-set tiebreak and then pouncing in the 10th game of the next two sets to match his run to the semi-final two years ago when he lost to Djokovic. Sinner, bidding to become the first Italian to win a Wimbledon singles title, wore a protective sleeve on his right arm but was rock solid against the big-serving Shelton. "I had quite good feelings in the warm-up today," Sinner, who dropped only six points on his first serve, said. "I put into my mind that I'm going to play today. So the concerns were not that big if I would play or not. "It was just a matter of what my percentage is. Today was very high, so I'm happy." Swiatek appears to have finally overcome her grass court demons and the four-times French Open champion could not hide her delight at reaching the semi-final at the sixth attempt. "Honestly, it feels great. I have goosebumps after this win. I am super happy and super proud of myself and I will keep going. I worked really hard to progress here on this surface." Former Olympic champion Bencic became the first Swiss woman to reach the semis since Martina Hingis in 1998 after stunning 18-year-old seventh seed Andreeva on Centre Court. "It's crazy, it's unbelievable. It's a dream come true," the 28-year-old mother said. "I'm just speechless." Bencic will face Swiatek on Thursday after top seed Aryna Sabalenka takes on 13th-seeded American Amanda Anisimova. The first silverware of this year's tournament will also be decided on Thursday when Dutchman Sem Verbeek and Czech Katerina Siniakova face Britain's Joe Salisbury and Brazil's Luisa Stefani in the mixed doubles final on Centre Court. (Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Ken Ferris)
The Star
5 hours ago
- The Star
Tennis players share their mental health struggles during Wimbledon
Zverev lost unexpectedly to France's Arthur Rinderknech during the first round of this year's Wimbledon Championships men's singles, revealing afterwards that he has been struggling to find joy in life. — AFP Mental health is not often spoken about in tennis, but the three-time Grand Slam finalist Alexander Zverev's candid revelations at Wimbledon have made it a talking point at this year's (2025) tournament. The German third seed told reporters after a disappointing first round exit that he often struggled, both on and off the court. "I feel very alone out there at times. "I struggle mentally... I feel, generally speaking, quite alone in life at the moment," he said. "I've never felt this empty before... Just lacking joy outside of tennis, as well," the 28-year-old former Olympic champion added. His comments come four years after former women's world number one Naomi Osaka withdrew from the French Open, revealing she had suffered for a long time with depression. Asked about Zverev's remarks, the 27-year-old replied she wasn't sure if she was the "person that should be giving advice". "Life is serious and not serious at the same time," she said, adding that she didn't play at England's Queen's Club tennis tournament last month (June 2025) because "mentally, I didn't feel ready after losing in the French [Open]". "So I skipped that," she said. Zverev, who reached the Australian Open final in January (2025), said on July 1 (2025) that he lacked motivation in life, and for the first time, probably needed to consider therapy. He said that even when he was winning, he did not feel happy or motivated to keep going. Be open His frank comments prompted Belarus' Aryna Sabalenka, 27, to urge him to continue to "talk openly", adding she had previously been in therapy for five years. "I think it's really important to be open and to talk about what are you experiencing because if you're going to keep it inside, it's just going to destroy you," she said. "The moment you start talk about your problems, you kind of start realising a lot of things... helping to solve them," she added. Tenth seed Emma Navarro, 24, said it was difficult for players to stay positive "when you're losing most weeks". "We have ourselves as our own critics, and then however many other people out there who are equally as critical," the American player said. She added she had "built a bit of a hard shell around me" to cope with the pressures. But she said she was often alarmed by the criticism and attention, both positive and negative, directed at young women players still in their teens. "I think it's really tough as a teenager to be exposed to that type of attention. "It's a little bit scary because you're so impressionable at that age." "I cringe a little when I see younger kids dealing with that much attention," she said. For fellow American Madison Keys, 30, one major problem was the all-consuming nature of players' lives. "From a pretty young age... our identity becomes very wrapped up in being a tennis player. "That's great, but when you have the tough kind of weeks, months, years on tour, that can really take a toll on how you think about yourself as a person." She urged players to surround themselves with a "really great support system and... don't go on Twitter (now known as X)". – By Helen Rowe/AFP
