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Wimbledon 2025: Electronic line-calling error and other controversies in ongoing edition of grass-court Grand Slam
Wimbledon's electronic line-calling system failed to detect a ball that had landed outside the line during the women's singles fourth-round meeting between Britain's Sonny Kartal and Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Reuters
Wimbledon 2025 has reached the halfway stage already, with the quarter-finals set to get underway 24 hours from now. And it has been quite the topsy-turvy ride at SW19 so far this year since the event got underway on 30 June.
While top names such as defending men's singles champion Carlos Alcaraz and three-time Grand Slam winner Aryna Sabalenka have advanced to the last-8, Wimbledon has witnessed a record number of seeded players crash out early this year.
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That includes the first-round exits of Alexander Zverev and Coco Gauff, seeded third and second respectively, with the latter flopping at Wimbledon after winning the French Open last month.
The grass-court Grand Slam has also witnessed its fair share of controversies this year, which we take a look at in greater detail below:
Electronic line-calling system error leaves Wimbledon red-faced
The ongoing edition witnessed a first in Wimbledon's 148-year history, with the grass-court Grand Slam joining the Australian and US Open, the two hard-court Majors, in implementing electronic line-calling technology. The decision rendered the job of Wimbledon's on-court line judges, considered 'sport's best-dressed officials', obsolete.
However, while Wimbledon insisted that the new technology would be almost fail-safe, a recent malfunction have left tournament organisers red-faced. During the fourth-round clash between Britain's Sonny Kartal and Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the line-calling system failed to signal 'Out' after a backhand by the latter went long.
Chair umpire Nico Helwerth checks a line-call during the Wimbledon women's singles fourth-round meeting between Sonny Kartal and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. AP
'You took the game away from me … they stole the game from me. They stole it,' the Russian could be heard telling umpire Nico Helwerth. Pavlyuchenkova was a point away from winning the game when the incident, which forced Wimbledon organisers to issue an apology, took place.
Earlier, British tennis stars Emma Raducanu and Jack Draper had criticised Wimbledon's decision to replace on-court line judges with technology.
'I don't think it's 100 per cent accurate in all honesty. A couple of the ones today, it showed a mark on the court. There's no way the chalk would have showed that. I guess it cannot be 100 per cent accurate – it's millimetres,' Draper had said in a press conference after his defeat against Marin Cilic.
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'That call was for sure out. It's kind of disappointing, the tournament here, that the calls can be so wrong, but 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,' fellow Briton Raducanu had said.
Tournament organisers slammed over night curfew
Wimbledon has also drawn criticism for being rigid when it comes to their night curfew, which requires all matches to come to a grinding halt sharp at 11 pm local time. The most recent incident of a match being paused overnight and resuming on the following day was the first-round men's singles meeting between USA's Taylor Fritz and France's Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard on Monday, 30 June.
The two players decided to have a word at the net at 10.18 pm local time after the latter won back-to-back sets to level the contest at 2-2, and they decided to battle it out in the deciding set, which was won by the American 6-4, on the following day.
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