This ball was not called out despite clearly bouncing behind the baseline. Photo / BBC
Wimbledon Hawk-Eye software at the centre of the electric line-calling failure has been overhauled after an operator accidentally turned the system off without noticing.
It can be revealed that the urgent technology update will ensure no repeat of the “human error” mistake which saw an operator turn off the camera at a crucial stage of Sonay Kartal and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova’s fourth-round match.
During the incident in question, the cameras that monitor the ball on one side appeared to have been switched off with one click without the operator noticing.
The error has left officials “deeply disappointed”. But as investigations were launched into the situation, the All England Club are convinced the technology has been operating flawlessly when it is in operation.
An All England Club spokesman confirmed on Monday afternoon that “we have conducted a thorough review of our systems and processes”. “What is clear is that the ball-tracking technology has been working optimally during the Championships,” he added. “In this instance, there was a human error which deactivated the ball-tracking cameras on part of the server’s side of the court.
“Following our review, we have removed the ability for Hawk-Eye operators to manually deactivate the ball tracking. While the source of the issue was human error, this error cannot now be repeated due to the system changes we have made.”
Pavlyuchenkova, who would have moved 5-4 ahead had the call been made, was furious with umpire Nico Helwerth for ordering the point to be replayed, accusing him of stealing the game and the tournament of home bias.
Organisers apologised to both players. Wimbledon chief executive Sally Bolton said on Monday: “It was important for us to explain as much as we could at that point in time what we believed had happened, and to apologise to the players for it happening in the first place. We’re deeply disappointed that this has happened in the Championships. It was a human error. The ball-tracking technology is working effectively.”
The system has replaced human line judges this year and such a high-profile error has been hugely embarrassing. Wimbledon is convinced, however, that its technology tweak on Monday has addressed the issue.
Prior to the mistake, the new line-judge technology had already come under fire from Emma Raducanu and Jack Draper. However, following an audit, Wimbledon remains convinced the technology has not made any mistakes in addition to Sunday’s error.
After no intervention from the automated line-calling technology, the point continued before umpire Helwerth told the players to halt play, calling “stop, stop” mid-rally.
The match was paused for about four minutes as the umpire announced there was to be a check on whether the new system was working properly. There was also no replay shown on the screen by Hawk-Eye, as usually happens for points deemed to be a “close call”.
Helwerth was assigned no matches at Wimbledon on Monday, despite having been on the roster of match officials every other day at Wimbledon. The All England club said he was on a pre-arranged day off.
On Monday at a press briefing, Bolton was repeatedly asked how the system could have unintentionally been switched off. She hinted that there had been an error by one individual in switching off the cameras, but also by another official in alerting the umpire.
“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,” she said, before adding: “It requires a human element to ensure that the system is functional, so it is not AI. The camera tracking technology works in tandem with some humans, so the Hawk-Eye operator and the review official and all those things have to function effectively for it to work.
“The job of the Hawk-Eye official and the review official, is to make sure that the system is activated at the beginning of a match and is set up properly, and then to support the chair umpire. And that was not happening.
“The chair umpire was in communication with the review official and he was not being informed that the system had been partially deactivated. The chair umpire was not operating with perhaps the full set of information.”
On the BBC’s coverage, former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash was critical of Helwerth before Wimbledon clarified that the issue had been a mistake in the use of the technology. Kartal, who insisted she did not know if the ball was in or out, defended Helwerth’s handling of the situation.
The ELC system has 50 operators, uses 12 cameras per court, and has one operator working across two courts with each court having a review official who is in communication with the umpire, in this case Helwerth. But at the crucial moment, the technology was not activated.
Unlike the Australian Open, the US Open and Masters tour events, Wimbledon does not have a video-review system, so questions will have to be asked about why that is the case.
Wimbledon added: “We continue to have full confidence in the accuracy of the ball-tracking technology. The live ELC system relies on the Hawk-Eye operators, the review official and the technology to work in harmony. This did not happen. In this instance there was a human error and as a consequence we have fully reviewed our processes and made the appropriate changes.”
Wimbledon broke from its 147-year tradition this year, replacing its impeccably-dressed line judges with the technology that has become commonplace on the tour. The error that led to the technology being “unticked” has never happened before.