The sight of a chair umpire ringing his superiors on something resembling a 1970s telephone, after AI technology had failed to make a blindingly obvious line call, took us deep into the realms of a farce which overshadowed one of the brightest British stories of this past week drawing to a close.
The ‘electronic line calling’ system employs banks of cameras in place of the uniformed judges who were once such a fine and distinctive part of Wimbledon, to state which side of the line a ball has dropped.
Perhaps the system works. Perhaps it doesn’t.
Emma Raducanu and Jack Draper have made their doubts extremely clear these past few days. But it will certainly fail when somebody turns the machine off, which Wimbledon declared was the reason why a Sonay Kartal volley — sent a foot beyond the baseline at a vital moment towards the end of the first set of her match against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova — elicited no call of ‘out.’
In the absence of this most obvious verdict, Centre Court’s audio system started demanding ‘stop, stop’ and so, at the same time, did German umpire Nico Helwerth. A bewildering and rather dystopian moment.
Pavlyuchenkova ought to have been walking to her seat, 5-4 to the good. She — and every advocate of common sense — anticipated an umpire’s overrule.
This ball from Sonay Kartal was not called out as HawkEye line judge malfunctioned on Sunday
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova couldn’t believe the decision and made her feelings known
Instead, Helwerth declared: ‘We are going to check the system is up and running.’ And, after a three-minute hiatus: ‘The electronic line system is currently unable to replay the last point so we will replay.’
Summers in SW19 are supposed to offer respite from infernal VAR controversies, though this one was even more lamentable than that detested system football has come to know. At least football’s referees are wired up to people who can see the video, or may walk to a screen to view it back themselves. Helwerth was unable to use his own initiative on the point in question.
Pavlyuchenkova sensed a British conspiracy when the point had been replayed and Kartal ended up winning the game. ‘Because she is local, they can say whatever,’ the Russian told Helwerth. ‘They stole the game from me. They stole it.’
After six hours of deliberation, the All England Club finally issued a statement last night disclosing that ‘operator error’ had meant the AI system was ‘deactivated’ on Pavlyuchenkova’s side of the net for one game, including the controversial point in question. Helwerth, they said, had ‘followed the established process’.
After Pavlyuchenkova had won 7-6, 6-4, Helwerth admitted to her that he had seen the ball was out. ‘I think he felt bad, a little bit,’ she revealed.
Though some would argue that a Russian player should not even be here at a time when Putin’s drones are inflicting untold horrors on Ukraine,
Pavlyuchenkova spoke for many when she urged tennis not to render its officials completely redundant.
‘It’s difficult for him,’ she said of Helwerth’s reaction. ‘He probably was scared to take such a big decision. But they should take those decisions. That’s why they’re sitting on the chair. That’s why we have a chair umpire. Otherwise, soon we’ll just play without them and then we’re going to have everything automatic. It becomes, like, robot-orientated.’
The former French Open finalist appear to allege a pro-British bias from the line judging
German umpire Nico Helwerth made the decision to replay the point despite the clear error
Kartal’s struggle to capitalise on this opportunity belonged to the wider narrative of her match. She strode out in a storm —thunder booming overhead, rain hammering down on the Centre Court roof — and after a hesitant start, threw everything at the first set, despite having her right knee heavily strapped. Pavlyuchenkova struggled with the 23-year-old’s mobility and heavy forehand spin. The age gap — Pavlyuchenkova is 34 — felt significant.
But Kartal could not seize her opportunities, winning only three of 10 break points in that first set. She will feel regret, despite collecting £240,000 in prize money which she says can transform her future preparations.
In Kartal’s first-round game, her opponent Jelena Ostapenko had raged against AI, ironically clapping the cameras which foot-faulted her. Pavlyuchenkova has previously put this kind of behaviour down to the Latvian’s combustible nature but now she’s not so sure.
‘At the beginning it was funny, but after I was getting her point a little bit,’ Pavlyuchenkova said. ‘Sometimes when we play, I’m thinking, “Am I crazy?” I just feel like the ball is long, then nothing is happening. There is no automatic line calling.’
She is not the only one now demanding answers.
