Sonay Kartal said there wasn’t much she could do after the electronic line calling system glitched at a crucial moment in the first set of her match against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. The Russian had a game point at 4-4 and Kartal appeared to send the ball wide but a call never came.
The umpire stopped the point and then confirmed the technology wasn’t able to track that shot, so they had to replay the point. Kartal went on to break and Pavlyuchenkova wasn’t happy, accusing the umpire of “stealing” the game from her. But, after suffering a straight-set defeat, the British No. 3 has now asked: “What can you do?”
Had a call of ‘out’ come, Pavlyuchenkova would have held to lead 5-4. Instead, the point was replayed, and Kartal went on to break to serve for the set.
The Russian was furious with the umpire and argued: “How can I know? You cannot prove it. Because she is local they can say whatever. You took the game away from me.” However, Kartal was broken in the next game and went on to lose 7-6(3) 6-4.
Asked whether the technical error could’ve been handled any differently, the world No. 51 suggested the right decision was made.
She said: “I that situation is a rarity. I don’t think it’s really ever happened, if it has. But no, it’s tough luck. What can you do? The umpire is trying his best in that situation. I think he handled it fine.
“I think the system just malfunctioned a little bit. I think the fairest way was what he did, to replay the point. But no, was just a bit unlucky that happened. I think there’s hardly been any of them, so yeah.”
TV replays of Kartal’s backhand appeared to show the ball had gone far outside the line. But the 23-year-old admitted that she couldn’t even see where it landed due to her short 5ft 4” frame.
“It’s unfortunate for me. I’m quite short, so where the net tape is, a lot of the time I lose my vision. That kind of covers the baseline,” she explained.
“No, from where I was, I couldn’t see. From my point, I felt like I hit the backhand clean. So I maybe have to look at the replay. Yeah, my vision was kind of blinded. When the point stopped, I thought maybe it was a let or something, came on the court. But no, I couldn’t see.
“I can’t see from where I was. The net was in the way. As I said, I thought I hit it clean, but no. If I could typically see, like, it was massively out, yeah, you can’t argue with that. Yeah, if it’s tight, there’s not much I can do in that situation.”
Fellow Brits Jack Draper and Emma Raducanu have suggested there are issues with the automatic line-calling system, which replaced line judges at Wimbledon for the first time this year. Raducanu even said it needed “fixing”, but Kartal disagreed with her compatriots.
“No, I think maybe the first tournament I played with it, obviously it was difficult getting used to it. I’ve played quite a few now that have it. To be honest with you, I just try and get on with it,” she replied.
“If it calls it out, there’s not much as a player we can do. We just have to trust the system. We can ask for a replay, but that’s not going to change anything. Once the decision is made, it’s made.
“No, I try not to look at that stuff. To me, if it’s called out, it’s out. That’s the way I view it. I think if you view it differently, it can mess with your head a little bit, and maybe you can lose your frustration.”
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