Wimbledon's electronic line calling system suffered another embarrassing malfunction during Taylor Fritz's quarter-final victory over Karen Khachanov on Tuesday, prompting boos from the Court One crowd.
Officials blamed a ball boy for the error, claiming the system failed to recognise the start of the point because the ball boy was still crossing the net when Fritz began his service motion.
The incident occurred in the first game of the fourth set, with Fritz leading 2-1 in sets.
The system inexplicably declared "fault" during the middle of a rally, forcing umpire Louise Azemar-Engzell to halt play and order a replay of the point due to the malfunction.
Taylor Fritz and Karen Khachanov saw their match halted by more tech problems, prompting boos from the crowd
Reuters
The malfunction occurred as Fritz served at 15-0 in the opening game of the fourth set.
His first serve was correctly called "fault" after missing the centre line, but during the subsequent rally following his second serve, the system boomed "fault" over the tannoy as Khachanov struck his forehand - the fourth shot of the exchange.
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"Stop," called umpire Louise Azemar-Engzell, immediately halting proceedings. BBC commentator John Lloyd asked: "What was that?"
His colleague responded: "That was the electronic line calling system, it has jumped the gun."
After consulting her tablet and making a phone call, Azemar-Engzell announced: "Ladies and gentlemen, we will replay the last point due to a malfunction. The system is now working."
A Wimbledon spokesperson explained: "The player's service motion began while the BBG (ball boy/girl) was still crossing the net and therefore the system didn't recognise the start of the point. As such the Chair Umpire instructed the point be replayed."
This latest failure follows Sunday's controversial incident during Sonay Kartal's fourth-round match against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, when the Hawk-Eye system was accidentally deactivated by human error.
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A ball kid had not yet returned to their post before the game resumed, prompting an error from the line calling system
BBC
A ball that was clearly out was not called because cameras at Kartal's end had been switched off by an operator unticking a box.
Following that weekend controversy, Wimbledon officials conducted a thorough review and removed the ability for Hawk-Eye operators to manually deactivate ball tracking.
Chief executive Sally Bolton said: "We're deeply disappointed that this has happened in the Championships."
Several high-profile players have questioned the reliability of the electronic line calling system throughout the tournament.
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Emma Raducanu was asked if she trusted the electronic line calls and said: "No, I don't - I think the other players would say the same thing, there were some pretty dodgy ones but what can you do?"
Jack Draper claimed: "I don't think it's 100% accurate." Swiss player Belinda Bencic said she was usually a fan of electronic line calling but that at Wimbledon "it's not correct", adding: "We players talk about it and I think most of us have the same opinion."
Khachanov said: "I'm more for line umpires, to be honest. The electronic line calls have to be very precise and no mistakes, but we've seen a couple."
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