Wimbledon Line Technology Fails Again As Fritz Reaches Semis
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Wimbledon\u2019s under-fire line technology system suffered another embarrassing malfunction during Taylor Fritz\u2019s quarter-final win over Karen Khachanov on Tuesday.<\/strong><\/p>\n Swedish umpire Louise Azemar Engzell had to stop a point in the opening game of the fourth set on Court One when \u201cfault\u201d was incorrectly called after a Fritz forehand landed well inside the baseline.<\/p>\n The call of \u201cfault\u201d, rather than \u201cout\u201d, and positioning of the Ball <\/a>suggested the system was still tracking Fritz\u2019s serve as opposed to a rally and the point had to be replayed.<\/p>\n Tournament organisers claimed the system had failed to reset because the Ball <\/a>from Fritz\u2019s first serve was still being retrieved when he started lining up his second.<\/p>\n \u201cThe player\u2019s service motion began while the BBG (Ball <\/a>boy or girl) was still crossing the net and therefore the system didn\u2019t recognise the start of the point,\u201d an All England Club statement said.<\/p>\n \u201cAs such the chair umpire instructed the point be replayed.\u201d<\/p>\n Wimbledon chiefs said earlier this week that they were confident of avoiding further issues with the technology after a major error in Sonay Kartal\u2019s fourth-round defeat to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the women\u2019s draw.<\/p>\n On that occasion, the new system failed to call out when a shot by Kartal landed well behind the baseline.<\/p>\n A fully automated system has replaced human line judges at Wimbledon for the first time this year, in line with the Australian Open and the US Open.<\/p>\n But there have been a number of glitches and concerns raised by other players about the technology, including British stars Emma Raducanu and Jack Draper.<\/p>\n The controversy did not stop Fritz reaching his first Wimbledon semi-final as the American won 6-3, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (7\/4).<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Fritz defended the line system despite the latest technological glitch.<\/p>\n \u201cIt happens sometimes. In that situation I think I lost the point anyway, but it helped me because I got a first serve out of it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s going to be some issues here and there. To be honest, I still think it\u2019s much better to just have the electronic line calling calling the lines as opposed to the umpires.<\/p>\n \u201cI said it earlier in the week, I do like not having to think about challenging calls in the middle of points. I do like that we don\u2019t have to argue about calls and all this stuff.<\/p>\n\u2018It\u2019s a better system\u2019<\/h2>\n