TIM HENMAN has told Jack Draper and Emma Raducanu that questioning the accuracy of Hawk-Eye is “utter garbage”.
Britain’s two leading tennis stars have both raised concerns about the ball-tracking tech that has replaced line judges on all 18 courts.
Draper, 23, was unhappy with calls in his second-round defeat to Croatian Marin Cilic, saying: “I don’t think it’s 100% accurate.”
Speaking after her third-round exit to Aryna Sabalenka last Friday, Raducanu, 22, also queried the system’s correctness.
She said: “It’s kind of disappointing, the tournament here, that the calls can be so wrong, but for the most part they’ve been okay.
“I’ve had a few in my other matches, too, that have been very wrong.”
Yet All England Club board member Henman, 50 has watched back the disputed calls in their matches on slow-motion replays.
And the four-time Wimbledon semi-finalist, who works on BBC TV, said: “The narrative around players questioning the accuracy of the calling – that, to me, is just utter garbage.
“I was commentating on some of those matches and when you see it in real time, you sort of think: ‘Did that look out?’
“Then, when you go back, as I’ve done, and look at them in slow motion, they are on the outside edge of the line, they hit the line.
“You can sometimes see even that little puff of white chalk, whatever it is.
“This is technology that’s been around for a long, long time. It’s a Hawk-Eye version when we had line judges.
“So, this is an enhanced version. Is the technology accurate? Absolutely, 100%.
“The system, when it is activated, is working 100%.
“I get it from a player’s point of view because you’re out there, it’s happening quickly.
“You don’t get the opportunity to see the replay, and you’re hoping the ball is going to be out to win the point.
“It’s garbage that the players say it’s garbage, then that the story evolves.”
The narrative around players questioning the accuracy of the calling – that, to me, is just utter garbage
Tim Henman
Sonay Kartal’s Last 16 defeat to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova on Sunday was overshadowed by a dodgy Hawk-Eye call in set one where the tech failed due to “human error”.
Wimbledon apologised for the mistake which saw the referee forced to replay the point – even though Kartal’s backhand, on Pavlyuchenkova’s advantage point, was clearly OUT.
The Club say that following a review, they have removed the ability for Hawk-Eye operators to “manually deactivate the ball tracking”.
Though the source of the issue was human error, the mistake cannot now be repeated due to system changes made overnight.
Wimbledon continues across BBC Sport on TV, radio, BBC iPlayer, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website/app and social platforms.
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