Following a technical issue impacting line calling during a fourth-round match between Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Sonay Kartal on Centre Court, Wimbledon officials have apologized.
The occurrence happened when three missed calls resulted from the electronic line-calling system being unintentionally switched off for a segment of one game. Pavlyuchenkova objected after Kartal’s backhand seemed to fall long but got no “out” call. She ceased playing, which caused bewilderment on the court, as she believed the point was over.
Ignorant of the system’s deactivation, chair umpire Nico Helwerth tried to umpire manually, calling two previous points himself before the contentious one that sparked Pavlyuchenkova’s annoyance.
Originally, the All England Club mentioned operator error, but further research showed that the system was somewhat switched off on the server side, affecting only one side of the court for one game.
“We have apologised to the players involved,” a Wimbledon spokesperson said. “We continue to have full confidence in the ball-tracking technology. This was a rare human error, and we’ve reviewed and updated our procedures accordingly.”
