Russian star accuses Wimbledon of handing Kartal point ‘because she is British’

CENTRE COURT — Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova accused Wimbledon officials of deliberately favouring her opponent, Britain’s Sonay Kartal, after an issue with the Hawk-Eye system.

At 4-4 in the first set, and Pavlyuchenkova’s advantage on serve, umpire Nico Helwerth called an abrupt stop to proceedings.

A Kartal backhand appeared to have landed out and Pavlyuchenkova stopped playing immediately, but there was a fault with the electronic line-calling (ELC), in use at SW19 for the first time this year, and no call was made.

“The electronic line-calling was unable to track the last point so we will replay the point,” Helwerth said, to which there were jeers from the crowd.

The decision to replay the point actually went in Kartal’s favour, since she would have lost the game if the system had been working, and the British No 3 went on the break Pavlyuchenkova, much to the Russian’s dismay.

“I don’t know if it’s in or it’s out. How do I know? How can you prove it?” she told Helwerth at the changeover.

“Because she is local, they can say whatever. You took the game away from me.”

ELC has been the talk of the locker room after Wimbledon did away with 148 years of tradition by ditching line judges for the technology.

British No 1s Emma Raducanu and Jack Draper have both questioned the accuracy of the calls, while other players have complained about the low volume of the electronic shouts of “out”.

“It’s kind of disappointing, the tournament here, that the calls can be so wrong, but for the most part they’ve been okay,” said Raducanu after third-round defeat to Aryna Sabalenka.

“I’ve had a few in my other matches, too, that have been very wrong. Hopefully they can fix that.”

Organisers were forced to defend the move to ELC, which is already used at the Australian Open and the US Open. All England Club chair Debbie Jevans said it was “funny” some players were against it.

“When we did have linesmen, we were constantly asked why we didn’t have electronic line calling because it’s more accurate than they do the rest of the tour,” Jevans told the BBC.

“The players wanted it because they were asking us, why do we have linesmen? Because of potential human error. And now we have it in situ.

“We have to think of innovation and we’re just moving with what the court and mostly what the players expect.”

The ELC is monitored by a 50-strong team inside a Wimbledon bunker, known as “Ball Traffic Control”, tucked away behind the Broadcast Centre.

There are 12 cameras on each of the 18 courts to track the balls, while every court has a review official who is in communication with the chair umpire – hence Helwerth’s phone call from his chair on Centre Court as Kartal and Pavlyuchenkova patiently waited for the ELC to get back up and running.

‘Most of us have the same opinion’

Olympic champion Belinda Bencic said: “Of course, you feel a little bit stupid questioning an electronic line call, but of course it always depends how it’s installed and how accurate it is.

“We players talk about it and I think most of us have the same opinion.”

The women’s world No 1 Sabalenka has said playing is “easier” without having to think about challenges.

The 2014 US Open champion Marin Cilic, meanwhile, bemoaned the absence of line judges.

“Honestly, I don’t like it. Line judges are part of tennis family,” the Croatian said this week.