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- Why is Wimbledon blaming human error for a mistake by its new electronic line-calling system?</p>
<p>HOWARD FENDRICH July 7, 2025 at 8:52 PM</p>
<p>1 / 3Britain Wimbledon TennisUmpire Nico Helwerth checks on a line call as Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova plays Sonay Kartal of Britain during a fourth round women's singles match at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Sunday, July 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)</p>
<p>LONDON (AP) — The All England Club, somewhat ironically, is blaming "human error" for a glaring mistake by the electronic system that replaced human line judges this year at Wimbledon.</p>
<p>The CEO of the club, Sally Bolton, said Monday that the ball-tracking technology was "inadvertently deactivated" by someone for three points at Centre Court during Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova's three-set victory over Sonay Kartal a day earlier in the fourth round. On one point, a shot by Kartal clearly landed past the baseline but wasn't called out by the automated setup — called Hawk-Eye — because it had been shut off.</p>
<p>Bolton declined to say who made the mistake or how, exactly, it occurred or whether that person would face any consequences or be re-trained. She did note that there were other people at fault: the chair umpire, Nico Helwerth, and two who should have let him know the system was temporarily down — the review official and the Hawk-Eye official.</p>
<p>"We didn't need to put line judges back on the court again," Bolton said. "We needed the system to be active."</p>
<p>Is Wimbledon using AI for line calls this year?</p>
<p>Not really. But like most big tennis tournaments nowadays — the French Open is one notable exception — Wimbledon has replaced its line judges with cameras that are supposed to follow the balls on every shot to determine whether they land in or out.</p>
<p>There are those, particularly in the British media, who keep referring to this as part of the ever-increasing creep of AI into day-to-day life, but Bolton objected to the use of that term in this case.</p>
<p>"The point I would want to emphasize — and perhaps contrary to some of the reporting we've seen — is it's not an artificial intelligence system. And it is electronic in the sense that the camera-tracking technology is set up to call the lines automatically, but it requires a human element to ensure that the system is functional," Bolton said. "So it is not AI. There are some humans involved. And in this instance, it was a human error."</p>
<p>What happened on the missed call at Wimbledon?</p>
<p>Russia's Pavlyuchenkova was one point from winning a game for a 5-4 lead in the first set against Britain's Kartal on Sunday when a shot by Kartal landed long. But there was no ruling from Hawk-Eye.</p>
<p>After a delay, Helwerth decided the point should be replayed, which Pavlyuchenkova thought showed bias toward an opponent competing in her home country. With Hawk-Eye back up and running after a delay, Kartal won that game, but Pavlyuchenkova took that set and the match.</p>
<p>The All England Club looked into what happened and found that the line-calling system actually was off for three points before anyone noticed.</p>
<p>The system itself worked "optimally," Bolton said repeatedly.</p>
<p>"In this instance, sadly," she said, "it was the human part of the operation that made a mistake."</p>
<p>Why was the Hawk-Eye system accidentally turned off during a match?</p>
<p>Bolton said the system is shut down between matches — "and the humans are the people that need to do the activating and deactivating" — and someone accidentally did so during Pavlyuchenkova vs. Kartal.</p>
<p>Asked why, Bolton responded: "Well, I don't know. It was a mistake, obviously. ... I wasn't sat there, so I don't know what happened."</p>
<p>She said Helwerth could have made a ruling himself on the controversial non-call, the way he did on the prior pair of points, but instead just decided to pause the match.</p>
<p>"I'm assuming," Bolton said, "he felt he had not seen it properly."</p>
<p>Pavlyuchenkova said after the match the official told her he thought the ball was out.</p>
<p>What do players think about the use of technology at Wimbledon?</p>
<p>Players are divided on whether there even should be electronic rulings during matches — unless it is fool-proof — or whether there should be a return to Wimbledon's old way of doing things.</p>
<p>Since 2007 through last year, there was a combination of the human touch and technology: There were line judges on court to make calls, but players were allowed to challenge and ask for a video reply of a point if they thought there was a mistake.</p>
<p>"It's such a big match, big event," Pavlyuchenkova said. "Since we have already automatic line-calling and so much invested into this, we should probably look into something else to have better decisions."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>writer Mattias Karén contributed to this report.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Howard Fendrich has been the AP's tennis writer since 2002. Find his stories here: https://ift.tt/2ePuKtS. More AP tennis: https://ift.tt/2ScKWJd>
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