Wimbledon officials have issued an apology after the electronic line-calling system missed pivotal calls in Sonay Kartal’s loss to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova on Sunday.
No call came from the system as Kartal hit a backhand long in the first set despite replays showing it was clearly out, prompting chair umpire Nico Helwerth to pause the match and troubleshoot the issue.
While the rulebook states the decision should fall to the umpire in such a situation, the point was replayed. Kartal went on to break, leaving Pavlyuchenkova incensed.
Addressing the umpire, she said: "You took the game away from me... They stole the game from me. They stole it.”
While Pavlyuchenkova went on to win the match in straight sets, tournament organisers have apologised for the officiating gaffe, which had initially been put down to operator error.
A spokesperson for the All England Club told the BBC: “We have apologised to the players involved.
"We continue to have full confidence in the accuracy of the ball tracking technology.
"In this instance, there was a human error and as a consequence we have fully reviewed our processes and made the appropriate changes."
Speaking after the match, Pavlyuchenkova expanded on her complaints, implying that favouritism had been shown to the London-born Kartal.
She went on: "[The umpire] also saw it out, he told me after the match.
"I thought he would do [make the decision himself], but he didn't. Instead they just said replay.
"I don't know if it's something to do [with Kartal being] local.
"I think it's also difficult for him. He probably was scared to take such a big decision."
Debbie Jevans, chair of the All England Club, insisted on Friday that she was confident in the system’s accuracy after a range of players said they did not trust it.
Among their number was Emma Raducanu, who felt it had made some ‘dodgy’ decisions.
Pavlyuchenkova will face Amanda Anisimova in the Wimbledon quarter-final on Tuesday.
