WIMBLEDON has made major changes to its Electronic Line Calling system and are confident there will be NO further cock-ups.
Sonay Kartal’s Last-16 exit to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova on Sunday was overshadowed by an “operator error” that meant ball-tracking technology was accidentally “deactivated” for a key point.
Though Kartal’s return was clearly out, the Hawk-Eye cameras did not pick it up – and umpire Nico Helwerth decided to replay the point.
Wimbledon – who apologised for the error – say their live ELC system “relies on the cameras and technology working in harmony with the operators and Review Officials”.
Following a “thorough review”, the All England Club have “removed the ability for Hawk-Eye operators to manually deactivate the ball tracking”.
Though the source of the issue was a human mistake, tennis bosses say “this error cannot now be repeated due to the system changes we have made”.
German official Helwerth was not involved in any matches on Monday but the AELTC say he was simply “having a rest day”.
Hawk-Eye cameras have replaced line judges on all 18 courts for this year’s Championships.
CEO Sally Bolton said: “In between matches, the system is deactivated, so it’s not functioning when there isn’t a match on court.
“So, there is a process in place for activating and deactivating the system, and the humans are the people that need to do the activating and deactivating.
“Why was it turned off mid-match? Well, I don’t know. It was a mistake, obviously.
“It had been deactivated. We didn’t need to put line judges back on the court again. We needed the system to be active.
“The chair umpire wasn’t informed that the system had been deactivated in error.
“So I can be confident that our system is in the best shape it can possibly be at this stage.”
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