Latest news with #automatedlinecalling
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
You cannot be serious!: Line-call tech fails at Wimby
Wimbledon's much-vaunted automated line-calling system has come under fire from a disgruntled player who complained of home bias after it malfunctioned at a crucial point of a fourth-round clash on Centre Court. Former French Open champion Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova was robbed of a point during her last-16 victory over Britain's Sonay Kartal on Sunday because of the glitch, leading the Russian veteran to complain bitterly. Serving at game point at 4-4 in the opening set, Kartal hit a shot that was clearly long, prompting Pavlyuchenkova to stop playing the point. An automated voice call of "Stop Stop" then blared out, causing more confusion as chair umpire Nico Helwerth had to telephone for help from tournament organisers. Helwerth ruled that because the Hawk-Eye technology had not tracked the ball, the point had to be replayed, even though TV showed the ball to be way out. It proved a crucial ruling with Pavlyuchenkova then going on to have her serve broken. Raging at the changeover, she told Helwerth: "Because she is local, they can say whatever. You took the game away from me. They stole the game from me. You stole the game from me". Ultimately, Pavlyuchenkova got back on track to win 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 to book a quarter-final place, but she was later still voicing her unhappiness about the call system, which has only be introduced this year after the decision to get rid of all line judges at the tournament. Tournament officials reported the non-call had been down to operator error, but Pavlyuchenkova felt Helwerth should have intervened to correct what everyone saw was a clear error. "I just thought the chair umpire could take the initiative. That's why he's there sitting on the chair. He also saw it out, he told me after the match. I thought he would do that, but he didn't," said Pavlyuchenkova. "I think it's also difficult for him. He probably was scared to take such a big decision." Asked how she would have felt if the point had cost her the match, Pavlyuchenkova smiled: "I would just say that I hate Wimbledon and never come back here!" Other players at the Championships have complained about wrong calls, with British star Emma Raducanu saying she didn't trust the system and Jack Draper adamant it was not 100 per cent accurate. Pavlyuchenkova added: "I think we are losing a little bit of the charm of actually having human beings. Like during COVID, we didn't have ball boys. It just becomes a little bit weird and sort of robot-orientated." And with another dig at organisers, she added: "They're very good at giving fines, though, and code violations. I would prefer they looked at the lines and call the errors better." With agencies
France 24
3 days ago
- Sport
- France 24
Wimbledon defends electronic line-calling after Raducanu criticism
A fully automated system has replaced human line judges at the All England Club this year, ending player challenges of contentious calls. But Raducanu, Britain's leading women's player, was unhappy after her 7-6 (8/6), 6-4 third-round defeat against top seed Aryna Sabalenka on Friday. The world number 40 said one call in particular, when a shot from Sabalenka was ruled to have clipped the line, was wrong. "That call was for sure out," said the former US Open champion after the intense battle on Centre Court. "It's kind of disappointing, the tournament here, that the calls can be so wrong, but for the most part they've been OK. "I've had a few in my other matches, too, that have been very wrong. Hopefully they can fix that." The automated technology has become standard across tennis, with all events on the men's ATP Tour and many WTA tournaments using it. The Australian Open and the US Open are fully automated but the French Open remains an outlier, sticking to human line judges. Britain's Draper, the men's fourth seed, queried one serve from Marin Cilic during his second-round loss on Thursday. "I don't think it's 100 percent accurate, in all honesty," he said. "A couple of the ones today it showed a mark on the court. There's no way the chalk would have showed." But Wimbledon chiefs said Saturday they were confident in the technology. "Live electronic line-calling technology is now widely used week in and week out on tour," said a spokesman for the tournament. "The technology goes through a rigorous certification process and meets the (agreed) standards... so we can provide maximum accuracy in our officiating." © 2025 AFP
