The All-England Club has revealed a change to it's controversial AI ball tracking system halfway through the tournament after multiple errors.
Wimbledon has urgently overhauled its Hawk-Eye software following a human error that disrupted a crucial fourth-round match between Britain's Sonay Kartal and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova on Sunday.
The technology has been modified to prevent operators from accidentally deactivating the ball-tracking cameras, after an incident where cameras monitoring one side of the court were switched off with a single click without the operator realising.
The All England Club confirmed on Monday afternoon that "we have conducted a thorough review of our systems and processes" and have "removed the ability for Hawk-Eye operators to manually deactivate the ball tracking."
Sally Bolton has defended the new technology despite it's issues
PA
The embarrassing failure occurred during Wimbledon's first year using electronic line-calling technology instead of traditional line judges, breaking a 147-year tradition. The error left officials "deeply disappointed" and prompted immediate action to ensure such mistakes cannot be repeated.
The system uses 50 operators and 12 cameras per court, with one operator managing two courts whilst a review official maintains communication with the umpire. During Sunday's incident, this coordination failed when the technology was inadvertently "unticked" - an error that has never occurred before.
Prior to this mistake, the new system had already faced criticism from Emma Raducanu and Jack Draper. However, an audit by Wimbledon found no additional errors beyond Sunday's incident.
"While the source of the issue was human error, this error cannot now be repeated due to the system changes we have made," an All England Club spokesman stated.
The incident has raised questions about why Wimbledon, unlike the Australian Open, US Open and Masters tour events, lacks a video-review system as a backup measure.
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Jack Draper and Emma Raducanu have both criticised the new technology
PAThe incident occurred at a pivotal moment when Pavlyuchenkova would have moved 5-4 ahead had the call been made correctly. After no intervention from the automated system, play continued before umpire Nico Helwerth halted the match, calling "stop, stop" mid-rally.
The match was suspended for approximately four minutes whilst officials checked whether the system was functioning properly. No replay was shown on screen by Hawk-Eye, as typically occurs for points deemed "close calls".
Pavlyuchenkova was furious with Helwerth for ordering the point to be replayed, accusing him of stealing the game and alleging tournament bias towards the home player. Kartal, who said she didn't know whether the ball was in or out, defended Helwerth's handling of the situation.
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Helwerth was not assigned any matches on Monday, though the All England Club stated this was a pre-arranged day off.
Wimbledon chief executive Sally Bolton explained that the error involved both an individual switching off the cameras and another official failing to alert the umpire.
"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," she said.
Bolton emphasised that "the ball-tracking technology has been working optimally during the Championships" and that "it was a human error."
Nico Helwerth has been excluded from fixtures on Monday
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The All England Club apologised to both players following the incident. "We're deeply disappointed that this has happened in the Championships," Bolton stated.
Wimbledon maintains full confidence in the accuracy of the ball-tracking technology, noting that "the live ELC system relies on the Hawk-Eye operators, the review official and the technology to work in harmony. This did not happen."
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