VETERAN LEFT SEETHING OVER LINE CALL HOWLER; WIMBLEDON ISSUE APOLOGY

A glaring non-out call went against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. (Jose Morgado/X)

Wimbledon has been left red-faced after the newly implemented electronic line calling system failed to detect an obvious error because it was "deactivated".

Locked in a pivotal game at 4-4 in the first set, a ball hit long by Britain's Sonay Kartal wasn't called "out" by the automated system, as it was later discovered that it switched off completely.

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Understandably, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova was fuming when the chair umpire ruled that the point would be replayed in what should've been a 5-4 lead for the Russian.

"Because [Kartal] is local, they can say whatever. You took the game away from me," Pavlyuchenkova told umpire Nico Helwerth, who was placed in an awkward situation.

"I think he felt bad, a little bit," she said about Helwerth. 

"He probably felt like he should have taken the initiative and called it out."

The 34-year-old also mentioned that the umpires are "very good at giving fines and code violations", when instead, they should be more alert to identify clear mistakes.

Kartal stressed that she didn't see where the ball had landed.

"That situation is a rarity. I don't think it's really ever happened — if it has. It's tough. What can you do? The umpire's trying his best in that situation, and he handled it fine," she said.

"I think the system just malfunctioned a little bit, and the fairest way was what he did: replay the point."

The All England Club offered a statement regarding the matter.

"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 human error, and as a consequence, we have fully reviewed our processes and made the appropriate changes," it read.

Although she was broken in that particular game, Pavlyuchenkova regrouped to win 7-6(3), 6-4 to march into the quarter-finals at SW19 for the first time since 2016.

Before the tournament, Wimbledon organisers revealed that line judges would be removed in favour of the highly popular electronic line calling.

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