Wimbledon 2025 is being marred by a controversial electronic line call system, that for the first time in 147 years replaces human line judges. It should not cause that many problems, as this technology is nothing new, and has been used in other competitions, including the US Open and Australian Open. However, many players have questions its accuracy... and we know of at least two instances where the system malfunctioned and points had to be repeated.
The second time has been in the quarter-final match between Taylor Fritz and Karen Khachanov. A fault was erroneously called during the fourth set. The umpire, Louise Azemar-Engzell, asked players to stop, checked the issued on the phone, and announced that the last point had to be repeated.
"Ladies and gentlemen we will replay the last point because of a malfunction. The system is now working", the Swedish umpire said. The point was repeated, and Fritz ended up winning the match 6-3, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (7-4). The American will face Carlos Alcaraz in the semi-finals on Friday.
What happened? According to an statement, a ball boy was still crossing the net and therefore the system didn't recognise the start of the point. A different issue as the one that happened in the match between Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Sonay Kartal, which happened because the system had been turned off accidentally, without the umpire noticing...
For Khachanov, who lost the match, the system, replacing the line judges, makes him "feel alone in the court, "you feel a little bit the court is too big, too alone without line umpires", while also questioning the electronic service, which needs to be very precise, "but we've seen a couple of mistakes" (via BBC).
However, Fritz thinks it's a good idea. Despite "some issues here and there, "I still think it's much better to just have the electronic line calling, as opposed to the umpires, because I do like not having to think about challenging calls in the middle of points".