Djokovic, Sinner on Wimbledon collision course

Hindustan Times

a day ago

Wimbledon title rivals Novak Djokovic and Jannik Sinner will move closer to a blockbuster semi-final showdown if they win their fourth-round ties on Monday as officals blamed human error for an embarrassing electronic line-calling blunder. Djokovic, Sinner on Wimbledon collision course
Djokovic, the seven-time Wimbledon champion, and world number one Sinner are on course to meet in a heavyweight last-four clash.
While defending champion Carlos Alcaraz is yet to consistently find his top form at the tournament, Djokovic and Sinner have been dominant on the grass.
Fresh from his 100th win at Wimbledon on Saturday making him the third player to reach that landmark after Martina Navratilova and Roger Federer Djokovic faces Australian 11th seed Alex de Minaur.
Sinner has dropped just 17 games in his first three matches, equalling Jan Kodes' 1972 record for the lowest number of games lost on route to the Wimbledon last 16.
"About the games lost, this is whatever. I'm not looking at these kind of records. I know that everything can change very quickly from one round to the other," said the Italian.
Both Djokovic and Sinner, who is yet to drop serve in this year's event, have added motivation to lift the trophy on July 13.
Three-time Grand Slam champion Sinner, who takes on Bulgarian 19th seed Grigor Dmitrov on Monday, is looking to reach his maiden Wimbledon final.
Aged 38, Djokovic is aiming to win a record 25th major title, breaking a tie with the long-retired Margaret Court, and a record-equalling eighth men's crown at the All England Club.
Five-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek has never reached a Wimbledon final but the Pole is in a strong position in the second week of the tournament after the exit of so many of the top seeds.
Although Swiatek, who plays Danish 23rd seed Clara Tauson in the last 16, has reached only one All England Club quarter-final, she made the Bad Homburg final on grass recently and also won the Wimbledon junior title.
Russian seventh seed Mirra Andreeva, who is just 18 years old, can reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals for the first time if she defeats American 10th seed Emma Navarro, who ended Barbora Krejcikova's reign as champion on Saturday.
Wimbledon officials will be keen to shift the spotlight back to the tennis after a failure of the tournament's electronic line-calling system on Sunday.
A fully automated system has replaced human line judges at Wimbledon this year, but officials were forced to apologise to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Sonay Kartal after a mistake with the technology during their fourth-round match on Sunday.
Organisers admitted the system was turned off in error on a section of Centre Court for one 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, who eventually won the match, accused the official of home bias, saying: "Because she is local, they can say whatever. You took the game away from me."
But All England Club chief executive Sally Bolton 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 not being made aware of the fact that it had been deactivated," she said.
"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."
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