Umpire has 'rest day' after line-call controversy

BBC News

6 days ago

The umpire who officiated the match at the centre of Sunday's electronic line-calling controversy at Wimbledon is "having a rest day", the All England Club's chief executive said.An "operator error" meant the ball-tracking technology was accidentally deactivated for one game in the fourth-round match between Britain's Sonay Kartal and Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova on Centre Court.Kartal sent a backhand long when game point down at 4-4, but this was not detected by the line-call system, which instead made two automated calls of "stop".Umpire Nico Helwerth opted to replay the point - which Kartal won - but was criticised by Pavlyuchenkova and some pundits for not using his authority to overrule and call the ball out.The All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) said he had "followed the established process".Asked about Helwerth's absence from the umpire rota on Monday, AELTC chief executive Sally Bolton said: "We have rotation of our umpires regularly. A little bit like the players, the umpires also need rest days throughout the tournament. "So he's having a rest day today."He's fine. Look, it's really important to say that the umpire followed the protocols in place. He did what he needed to do on court and acted entirely correctly."
On Sunday evening, Pavlyuchenkova told BBC Sport that Helwerth had acknowledged to her after the match that he should have taken the initiative to overrule and call it out."I think the chair umpire should be able to take the initiative, that's what he's there for," she said."That's why he's sitting on that chair. Otherwise, I think we could have also had a match without the umpires. "They have no problem giving us fines and code violations for any reason so I would like them to be a bit more attentive to this sort of situation when the ball is very close to him."The rulebook states that if the electronic line-calling system fails to make a call, "the call shall be made by the chair umpire".It adds: "If the chair umpire is unable to determine if the ball was in or out, then the point shall be replayed. This protocol applies only to point-ending shots or in the case when a player stops play."
The electronic system was introduced at this year's Championships, replacing line judges, who had been a staple on court for 147 years.The technology is an "enhanced" version of the previous Hawk-Eye system, which was used when players challenged calls made by line judges.There is a line-calling hub inside Wimbledon's grounds, where 50 operators use 144 screens to monitor the ball-tracking footage from 12 cameras on each court. The AELTC added: "We continue to have full confidence in the accuracy of the ball-tracking technology. The live ELC [electronic line calling] system relies on the Hawk-Eye operators, the review official and the technology to work in harmony. This did not happen."In this instance there was a human error and as a consequence we have fully reviewed our processes and made the appropriate changes."