Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Sonay Kartal’s fourth-round encounter at Wimbledon was rocked by controversy after electronic line calling technology suffered a crucial failure in the first set. The Russian was far from happy at the situation, throwing out accusation against the tournament.
Pavlyuchenkova and local hope Kartal were tied at 4-4 in the set, with the former serving to keep the scores level. Serving with advantage on her side, Pavlyuchenkova believed she had taken the game when a ball from Kartal landed well past the baseline. Although the call from the HawkEye system was late, the video replay showed she was correct.
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Unfortunately, when the chair umpire called in to confirm the decision, it turned out the ELC system had failed to capture the call, meaning the players had to replay the point instead. The decision ended up going against the Russian's favor, as Kartal used the opportunity to break her serve moments later, leading to an outburst.
"You just stole me the game," Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova was heard lamenting on the on-court microphone.
Fans were also unanimously in support of Pavlyuchenkova, with users on Twitter shocked by how such a poor decision could be made at a tournament as prestigious as Wimbledon.
To her credit, Pavlyuchenkova did not let the moment affect her and broke Kartal right back, and forced a tiebreaker. There, she seized the set 7-6(3), taking a 1-0 lead in the match. She then sealed the second set 6-4 to reach the quarterfinals again at Wimbledon after a break of nine long years.
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova is not the only player who has had issues with the electronic line calling at Wimbledon
Meanwhile, the issues with electronic line-calling have been persistent at Wimbledon even before the controversy with Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Sonay Kartal.
After her loss to World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the third round, Emma Raducanu also shared his disappointment with the tournament over wrong calls, complaining that some of the errors at the tournament have been egregious.
"I mean that call was like, for sure, out. It's kind of disappointing at Wimbledon here that the calls can be so wrong, but for the most part it's been okay. It's just like I've had a few in my other matches too that have been very wrong. So, I don't know. Hopefully they can fix that," Raducanu said.
Up next, Pavlyuchenkova will take on either Amanda Anisimova or Linda Noskova in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon.
