After 147 years, line judges were replaced at Wimbledon in 2025, as the tournament looked to modernize.
Joining the other Grand Slam events, Wimbledon replaced line judges with the ‘Electronic Line Calling’ system ahead of the 2025 tournament.
The move, according to All England Club Chief Executive Sally Bolton, was made in a bid to achieve ‘maximum accuracy’ and to ‘offer players the same conditions’ they experience elsewhere on the ATP and WTA Tour.
For the most part, the change worked well, as players trusted the calls, although there was one significant moment of controversy.
During the fourth round of the women’s singles tournament, the system was ‘accidentally deactivated’ for a game.
When the system wasn’t working, it made automated calls to ‘stop’, which led to one player losing a game, she very clearly should have won.
Furious with the decision at the time, she has now publicly called out the tournament for the incident.
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova told Wimbledon to ‘keep an eye on their judges’ after controversy
During her fourth-round match with Sonay Kartal, Pavlyuchenkova thought she had taken a 5-4 lead as the Brit sent a forehand long.
However, it soon transpired that the system hadn’t been tracking the ball, and the umpire ordered Kartal and Pavlyuchenkova to replay the point.
The decision didn’t go down well with the Russian, who had fairly won the point and the game.
Replaying the point, Pavlyuchenkova lost, as Kartal held serve to lead 5-4.
Composing herself, the world number 30 eventually came through to win 7-6, 6-4, booking her place in the quarterfinals.
During her post-match press conference, Pavlyuchenkova claimed the umpire was ‘scared’ to overrule the decision, as she has now clarified her thoughts, appearing as a guest on Bolshe!
“Well, I said at the press conference that I think we’ve lost our charm,” she said.
“If we’re removing lines people, let’s just remove the referee from the chair and replace him with a robot. What’s the point? They are physically sitting there, but they do nothing.”
Pavlyuchenkova proceeded to suggest what the umpire, Nico Helwerth, should have done and revealed what he said to her after the match.
“In the moment [against Sonay Kartal] if it was purely his decision, he should have just overruled it and said that the ball was out,” she said.
“He told me after the match that yes, you’re right, it was out. Well done, you coped with your emotions well.”
The acknowledgement didn’t provide much comfort to the 34-year-old, who has told Wimbledon what she thinks of their officials.
“They [Wimbledon] write to me constantly, they’ve already given me two penalties for Wimbledon, to which I replied, please keep an eye on your judges,” said Pavlyuchenkova.
“Why do you only monitor the players. What we are wearing, the color of our dresses, but the judges, nothing.”
Pavlyuchenkova was frustrated by the decision and understandably so, according to 2022 Wimbledon finalist Nick Kyrgios.
Nick Kyrgios ‘completely understood’ Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova’s frustrations after controversial call
Reacting to the controversial call in Pavlyuchenkova’s fourth-round match, Kyrgios shared his thoughts on TalkSport.
“It’s not good enough in my opinion,” he said.
“This is the greatest tournament that we have in the world, and this is exactly why I thought that Wimbledon should not be trying to incorporate the electronic line calls.
“For Wimbledon to come out and say the electronic line call machine was turned off is just not good enough.
“So I can completely understand the frustrations from [Anastasia] Pavlyuchenkova, but what happens if she does not win that first set and ends up losing the match? This is where the problems can really start happening. They should have just kept the line umpires.”
The likelihood is that the electronic line calling system is here to stay, but after such a significant error, the Wimbledon tournament organizers will be under real pressure to make sure everything goes smoothly next time around.
Next year’s Wimbledon tournament is scheduled to begin on Monday, June 29.
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