Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova was left sobbing into a tissue after feeling cheated by an umpire’s decision during her Wimbledon fourth-round clash with Sonay Kartal. The pair were on serve and in the midst of a deuce battle at 4-4 in the first set when Kartal hit a backhand which was clearly long, although the Electronic Line Calling (ELC) system did not call it out.
Chair umpire Nico Helwerth immediately stopped proceedings and called the ELC team. After some deliberation, decision-makers ordered them to replay the point rather than award it to Pavlyuchenkova, and Kartal went on to break the Russian’s serve.
During the changeover, Pavlyuchenkova became emotional suggested that Kartal benefited from the decision because she is a Brit playing at her home tournament. “I don’t know if it’s in or it’s out,” she told Helwerth. “How can I know? You cannot prove it. Because she is local they can say whatever. You took the game away from me.”
Helwerth replied: “I have to trust the system. If they tell me it’s up and running, there’s nothing we can do. That’s the rule, unfortunately.” A sniffling Pavlyuchenkova hit back: “They stole the game from me. They stole it.”
It was later confirmed that the ELC mishap was due to an ‘operator error’ as ‘the ball was not being tracked’ at the point it landed beyond the baseline.
The mistake, and the controversial decision to replay the point, did not end up helping Kartal as Pavlyuchenkova pulled a break back, forced a tiebreak and won the opening set.
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But the incident does cast a concerning light over the ELC issues which have been raised by players like Carlos Alcaraz, Emma Raducanu and Jack Draper. Wimbledon bosses have introduced the system to bring the tournament in line with other tour-level events.
This is the first year traditional line judges have been dispensed with, and the decision has not gone down well with everyone. But Wimbledon tournament director Jamie Baker has defended the change.
“The concept of live line calling is absolutely standard across the tour now – mandatory across the ATP tour,” he said. “Two of the other Grand Slams have had it for four or five years.
“What that has meant is that the level of sophistication and certification around the system has become more professional and more robust as time has gone on. The accuracy and the reliability and the robustness of the system and the process as a whole, in terms of officiating, is in as good a place as it has been.”