Wimbledon line technology fails again as Taylor Fritz reaches semifinals

Wimbledon’s under-fire line technology system suffered another embarrassing malfunction during Taylor Fritz’s quarter-final win over Karen Khachanov this morning.

Swedish umpire Louise Azemar Engzell had to stop a point in the opening game of the fourth set on Court One when “fault” was incorrectly called after a Fritz forehand landed well inside the baseline.

The call of “fault”, rather than “out”, and positioning of the ball suggested the system was still tracking Fritz’s serve as opposed to a rally and the point had to be replayed.

Tournament organisers claimed the system had failed to reset because the ball from Fritz’s first serve was still being retrieved when he started lining up his second.

“The player’s service motion began while the BBG [ball boy or girl] was still crossing the net and therefore the system didn’t recognise the start of the point,” an All England Club statement said.

“As such the chair umpire instructed the point be replayed.”

Wimbledon chiefs said earlier this week that they were confident of avoiding further issues with the technology after a major error in Sonay Kartal’s fourth-round defeat to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the women’s draw.

On that occasion, the new system failed to call out when a shot by Kartal landed well behind the baseline.

A fully automated system has replaced human line judges at Wimbledon for the first time this year, in line with the Australian Open and the US Open.

But there have been a number of glitches and concerns raised by other players about the technology, including British stars Emma Raducanu and Jack Draper.

The controversy did not stop Fritz reaching his first Wimbledon semifinal, as the American won 6-3, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (4).

‘It’s a better system’

Fritz defended the line system despite the latest technological glitch.

“It happens sometimes. In that situation I think I lost the point anyway, but it helped me because I got a first serve out of it,” he said.

“There’s going to be some issues here and there. To be honest, I still think it’s much better to just have the electronic line calling the lines as opposed to the umpires.

“I said it earlier in the week, I do like not having to think about challenging calls in the middle of points. I do like that we don’t have to argue about calls and all this stuff.

“The ball gets called, and we know, and that’s it. I think it’s a better system.”

Khachanov was less happy with the system, criticising the way it has been used this year.

“Look, to be honest, I’m more for line umpires. Electronic line calls have to be very precise and no mistakes, but we’ve seen a couple. That’s questionable why this is happening,” he said.

“Today I think there were a few calls. I don’t know, very questionable if it’s really touching the line or not.

“At the same time during one point, the machine call it just out during the rally. Sometimes it’s scary to let machine do what they want, you know.

“What can I do? I can argue, and be angry on it or just continue playing. It’s not in my power. It’s already happened. I need to kind of accept it, and that’s it.”

Fritz will face defending champion Carlos Alcaraz for a spot in the final, with Alcaraz dispatching New Zealand-raised Cameron Norrie in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3, 6-3.

In the women’s tournament, top seed Aryna Sabalenka had to come back from a set down to see off Germany’s Laura Siegemund.

It was the first time in the tournament that Sabalenka had dropped a set, however she was able to shake that off and bounce back to claim a 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 win.

That sets up a semifinal meeting with 13th seed Amanda Anisimova, with the American beating Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in straight sets, 6-1, 7-6 (9).