Wimbledon’s Electric Line-Calling System Fails During Quarterfinal Matches

LONDON — A technical malfunction with Wimbledon’s new electronic line-calling system led to a point being replayed during a quarterfinal match between Taylor Fritz and Karen Khachanov on Tuesday. The incident occurred at the start of the fourth set on Court No. 1, immediately after Fritz served at 15-0. Following an exchange of shots, a “fault” call was made.

Chair umpire Louise Azemar-Engzell halted play moments later, instructing the players to replay the previous point due to the malfunction. The All England Club explained that the system tracked Fritz’s shot as if it were a serve. They noted that Fritz initiated his service motion while a ball boy or girl was still crossing the net, which caused the system to fail to recognize the start of the point. Consequently, the chair umpire ruled that the point should be replayed.

In the replay, Khachanov claimed the point, but Fritz, the fifth seed, ultimately advanced to the semifinals with a score of 6-3, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (4). This year marked Wimbledon’s transition to using an electronic line-calling system that has replaced human line judges. However, the implementation has faced several issues. For instance, during a fourth-round match between Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Sonay Kartal, a critical error occurred on Centre Court when Hawk-Eye failed to call a shot from Kartal that clearly landed beyond the baseline because the system had been turned off.

The club subsequently attributed the oversight to “human error,” explaining that the technology was inadvertently deactivated for three points during the match.