Wimbledon’s new automated system for line-calling glitched during Sunday’s tennis match, just days after the system replaced the tournament’s human line judges.
Hawk-Eye is a system that uses a network cameras with computer vision in order to track tennis ball in real-time. If the ball lands outside, a prerecorded voice says loudly, “Out.” If the ball is inside, there is no call, and play continues.
The software went dark temporarily during a women’s singles match on Centre Court between Brit Sonay Kartal and Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
At a 4-4 tie in the first set, Pavlyuchenkova was on game point when Kartal fired an obvious out-of-bounds shot. Hawk-Eye, however remained silent. The umpire, who had not received a call from the system but was convinced by video replays, ordered a replay despite the error being confirmed. Pavlyuchenkova,
was furious. “You stole my game,” she said to her umpire.
Reuters reports . The Russian lost the game but rallied to win it.
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A story from our wise old founder Boris and some questionable AI artwork. Every week, it’s in your inbox. Sign up today! Sally Bolton, Wimbledon’s CEO attributed the malfunction to human error. Bolton told Ubitennis that the electronic line-calling system was operating optimally on Monday morning.
The issue we had was a human error, in that the tracking system had been inadvertently turned off, and the chair umpire did not know about it. The technology has been criticizedand
but it is also a common sight in sports. In February 2024
Hawk-Eye accuracy in cricket was questioned following a call made in an England-India game that raised concerns about its ball tracking precision. In 2022, Hawk-Eye was suspended by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) after it incorrectly disallowed an obvious point for Galway during the All-Ireland Football Semi-Final, raising questions regarding the system’s accuracy.
However, most people would agree that the automated systems is more accurate than humans line umpires. In () one study it was found that Hawk-Eye made mistakes in 27% cases when Hawk-Eye reviewed a decision. This means that an umpire made a mistake every 17.4 games. Jamie Baker, the Wimbledon tournament director, defended last week the system after British player Jack Draper questioned its accuracy.
Baker stated that “the concept of live line calls is absolutely standard across tour — mandatory across the ATP Tour,” “Two other grand slams have had it [US Open and Australian Open] for four or five year.”
. We’ve contacted Hawk-Eye to get their comment on this case.
