Wimbledon suffered an embarrassing ‘technical error’ on Centre Court during home favourite Sonay Kartal’s clash with Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
At a crucial moment in the first set, a confused Pavlyuchenkova gestured to the chair umpire after believing a shot from Great Britain’s Kartal had sailed long.
Electronic line calling has replaced traditional line judges for the first time at this year’s Championships but an automatic call of ‘out’ was not forthcoming, much to the surprise of Pavlyuchenkova.
Seconds later an ‘error’ code was called out by the ELC system and replays showed the ball clearly bounced past the baseline.
The chair umpire made a call in which it was confirmed that ELC had gone down during the point and announced that it would be replayed.
That felt hugely unfair to Pavlyuchenkova, given replays showed the ball was clearly long, but the umpire said he had no choice but to call a let.
Pavlyuchenkova would have held serve had she won that point but instead Kartal was given another chance to break and the 23-year-old did just that, much to the enjoyment of a partisan Centre Court crowd.
Former world number 11 Pavlyuchenkova was understandably still angry at the changeover and told the umpire the glitch ‘stole the game’.
‘It took the game away from me,’ she said as she tried to compose herself. ‘They stole the game from me.’
BBC pundits Anne Keothavong and Tracy Austin feared for Pavlyuchenkova following the mishap and said it would be difficult to come back mentally.
But Pavlyuchenkova showed admirable resolve to break straight back and went on to win a tie-break to clinch the first set against Britain’s Kartal.
‘I agreed with what she said at the changeover, she was right,’ two-time US Open champion Austin said.
‘That is rough. It was a mountain to overcome mentally but that shows she’s pretty strong mentally.
‘I don’t know how she did that. She’s stronger than I am. She handled that beautifully.’
Former British number one Keothavong added: ‘I am full of admiration for Pavlyuchenkova and how she is handling this situation.
‘She is staying calm and focused out here. Most people would not have been able to handle it as well as she is. Pavlyuchenkova getting that first set under her belt is justice.’
More to follow…