Wimbledon hit with electronic line call controversy as Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova says game was ‘stolen’ from her

WNN — 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 – and the tournament subsequently has removed the ability for operators to manually halt the tracking of the ball.

The move comes after controversy stemming from a missed out call during Sunday’s fourth-round clash between Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Britain’s Sonay Kartal on Centre Court.

“Following our review, we have removed the ability for Hawk-Eye operators to manually deactivate the ball tracking,” the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club (AELTC) said in a statement Monday. “While the source of the issue was human error, this error cannot now be repeated due to the system changes we have made.”

During the first set of the match between Pavlyuchenkova and Kartal, 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.