Fritz reaches Wimbledon semis despite another line call blunder
LONDON: Wimbledon's controversial line technology system malfunctioned again as Taylor Fritz beat Karen Khachanov to reach his first Wimbledon semi-final, while world number one Aryna Sabalenka survived a scare to make the last four on Tuesday. Swedish umpire Louise Azemar Engzell had to stop a point in the opening game of the fourth set on Court One when 'fault' was incorrectly called after a Fritz forehand landed well inside the baseline.
The call of 'fault', rather than 'out', and positioning of the ball suggested the system was still tracking Fritz's serve as opposed to a rally and the point had to be replayed. Tournament organizers were forced to apologize and make a change to the system to avoid further issues after a major error in Sonay Kartal's fourth-round defeat to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the women's draw. On that occasion, the new system failed to call out when a shot by Kartal landed well behind the baseline.
A fully automated system has replaced human line judges at Wimbledon for the first time this year, in line with the Australian Open and the US Open. The latest blunder did not stop American fifth seed Fritz advancing after another hard-fought 6-3, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (7/4) win over Russian 17th seed Khachanov. Fritz, who lost in the US Open final last year, will face the winner of defending champion Carlos Alcaraz's clash with Britain's Cameron Norrie.
Sabalenka fought back from the brink of a shock exit to reach the semi-finals with a gutsy 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 win against Germany's Laura Siegemund. Sabalenka twice trailed by a break in the final set on Centre Court and was two games away from crashing out before staging a dramatic revival to win in two hours and 54 minutes of unrelenting tension. The 27-year-old top seed is through to the All England Club semi-finals for the third time after losing at that stage in 2021 and 2023.
Belarus's Aryna Sabalenka returns the ball to Germany's Laura Siegemund during their match on the ninth day of the 2025 Wimbledon Championships.
'Time to cool down'
Beaten in the Australian and French Open finals this year after winning the US Open in 2024, Sabalenka remains on course to reach a fourth successive Grand Slam title match. The Belarusian will face American 13th seed Amanda Anisimova or Russian world number 50 Pavlyuchenkova for a place in the final.
Sabalenka remains the only one of the top six women's seeds still standing at the tournament after two weeks of shocks. The three-time Grand Slam champion nearly joined that list of high-profile exits in a memorable clash. 'That was a real test. I need some time to cool down and recover after this,' Sabalenka said. 'She pushed me so much. After the first set I was looking at my box and thinking, 'book the tickets, we are about to leave this beautiful place'. 'She played an incredible tournament and match. I'm just super happy with the match and win.'
Alcaraz has dropped four sets during his run to the last eight before raising his level to keep his title defence alive. The world number two is aiming to join an elite group of men who have won the tournament in three straight years in the Open era — Bjorn Borg, Pete Sampras, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. But the Spaniard knows large sections of the Centre Court crowd will be behind world number 61 Norrie, who reached the Wimbledon semi-finals in 2022. 'He's going to use the crowd to his advantage,' said Alcaraz, who is on a career-best 22-match winning streak. 'I have to be really strong mentally and focused to play good tennis if I want to beat him.' Alcaraz has won 33 of his 36 Tour-level matches on grass. The five-time Grand Slam winner's last defeat at Wimbledon came against Jannik Sinner in the fourth round in 2022. — AFP
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