Wimbledon organizers have apologized and explained that “human error” was the reason behind the electronic line-calling system being turned off during a match on Sunday.
During the first set of the fourth-round clash between Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Sonay Kartal on Centre Court, a backhand from Kartal went long but there was no “out” call from the electronic system, which has replaced human line umpires at Wimbledon this year.
Pavlyuchenkova, who was one point away from winning that game, stopped playing with the ball landing outside the court. Umpire Nico Helwerth called for the match to be paused, while the automated system said “stop, stop,” leading to confusion from both players and the fans in attendance.
Helwerth informed the crowd that he was going to check if the system was “up and running” before spending time on the phone.
After a short delay, he said that the electronic system “was unfortunately unable to track the last point,” which was subsequently replayed.
