'They stole it' - Wimbledon star fumes in outburst over huge controversy

Irish Daily Mirror

2 days ago

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova was left seething after a significant technical glitch during her match against Sonay Kartal, where she claimed the line calling system had 'robbed' her of a point.
The contentious moment unfolded in the first set of their women's fourth round clash, with the score tied at 4-4. Kartal hit a ball that appeared to be out, but the lack of a call meant Pavlyuchenkova missed out on clinching the game.
The players were instructed to replay the point, and to add insult to injury, Kartal managed to break Pavlyuchenkova's serve shortly afterwards. The Russian player didn't hold back when confronting umpire Nico Helwerth during the changeover.
Pavlyuchenkova was visibly upset and could be overheard arguing: "I don't know if it's in or it's out. How do I know? How can you prove it? Because she is local, they can say whatever. You took the game away from me."
Helwerth tried to explain: "I have to trust the system. If they tell me it's up and running there's nothing we can do. That's the rule unfortunately."
Still incensed, Pavlyuchenkova retorted: "They stole a game from me. They stole it."
Despite Kartal capitalising on the mistake, which caused a considerable delay, Pavlyuchenkova fought back to take a 6-5 lead as they battled to win the first set. Kartal, however, remained composed and held her serve to push the set to a tie-break, reports the Mirror.
Tracey Austin, a two-time Grand Slam champion, commented on the difficulty Pavlyuchenkova would have in overcoming the frustration caused by such a glaring error without letting it impact her performance.
"That is rough for Pavlyuchenkova," she remarked on BBC Sport. "Now you have the job of trying to compose yourself when you know that you should have been a game up.
"This is a mountain to overcome mentally."
Yet, Pavlyuchenkova did just that, clinching the first set tie-break 7-3 to seize the upper hand in her clash against Britain's No 3.
The introduction of automated line calls at Wimbledon has divided opinions this season, and the blunder on Centre Court comes after Emma Raducanu voiced her concerns about the technology following her third-round loss to Aryna Sabalenka.
"Yeah, I mean, that call [against Sabalenka] was, like, for sure out," Raducanu expressed in her post-match press conference. "It's kind of disappointing, the tournament here, that the calls can be so wrong.
"For the most part they've been okay. It's just, like, I've had a few in my other matches, too, that have been very wrong. So yeah, I don't know. Hopefully they can kind of fix that."
Pavlyuchenkova went on to win the game 7-6 (3) 6-4.