logo
Kartal proud in defeat at Wimbledon women's singles

Kartal proud in defeat at Wimbledon women's singles

Leader Live20 hours ago
Kartal is rightly keen to accentuate the positives from a week to remember, which saw her reach the last 16 of a Grand Slam for the first time.
Her 7–6, 6–4 defeat to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova will mainly be remembered for a high-profile failure of the new automatic line-calling system, but that should be only a footnote to Kartal's achievements in recent days.
Taking down the seeded Jelena Ostapenko, making a first appearance on Centre Court, leaving the All England Club with a ranking inside the world's top 50 and swelling her bank account by £240,000 — it has been an honest week's work in SW19.
'I've proved to myself I can go deep into Slams and beat some of the best players on tour,' said Kartal, who took to the court with her knee heavily strapped but insisted it was not a major issue.
'I'll take a little rest for a week or two, but this gives me a lot of motivation. It's not easy coming out on Centre Court as a British player, but I think I handled that well.
'I'm pretty devastated not to get the win. People were saying the draw had opened up, but she played like a seed from the very first point. I made a few mistakes at not ideal times and that was the only difference.
'It's my first fourth round at a Slam, so I can be super proud about that when I take some time to reflect — because I'm playing some of my best tennis.'
The mentality that fuels Sonay Kartal 👊#BackTheBrits 🇬🇧 | #Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/9QcJugb9EJ
Wimbledon's decision to scrap the 147-year-old tradition of line judges in favour of Hawk-Eye technology has raised plenty of eyebrows, with British number ones Jack Draper and Emma Raducanu both questioning its reliability.
Pavlyuchenkova was serving at 4–4, advantage, when a Kartal shot landed well beyond the baseline. However, umpire Nico Helwerth refused to overrule the clearly incorrect call, insisting the point be replayed as the technology had failed.
Kartal went on to break her opponent's serve.
'You took the game away from me,' fumed the former French Open finalist at the changeover. 'You've stolen it.'
How's that for a first time Centre Court entrance?! 🌩️
A thunderous atmosphere for Sonay Kartal's fourth round showdown
🎥 @Wimbledonpic.twitter.com/WUhd0d2tMD
To her credit, Pavlyuchenkova showed remarkable restraint, ultimately winning the set — rightly hers — on a tie-break, her British rival paying the price for converting only three of ten break-point opportunities.
There are certainly questions to answer about how Hawk-Eye is being implemented. If an umpire cannot overrule a clearly bad call, they might as well be replaced too.
'I just thought also the chair umpire could take initiative. That's why he's sitting on the chair. He also saw it out — he told me after the match.
'They said the system was down, it was a human error and I understand that. It's such a big match, a big event. I think since we already have automatic line calling and so much invested into this, we should probably look into something else to make it better.'
In the end, it was all immaterial. Pavlyuchenkova, a former world No 11 who has slipped outside the top 50, drew on her decade-plus of experience to end the home women's singles challenge for another year.
For the latest action on the British summer grass court season, check out the LTA website.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Wimbledon 2025 order of play: Day nine schedule including Carlos Alcaraz, Cam Norrie and Aryna Sabalenka
Wimbledon 2025 order of play: Day nine schedule including Carlos Alcaraz, Cam Norrie and Aryna Sabalenka

The Independent

time14 minutes ago

  • The Independent

Wimbledon 2025 order of play: Day nine schedule including Carlos Alcaraz, Cam Norrie and Aryna Sabalenka

The second Tuesday at Wimbledon brings the arrival of the quarter-finals, where back-to-back champion Carlos Alcaraz takes on home hopeful Cam Norrie. After Alcaraz saw off a spirited Andrey Rublev on Sunday, fighting from a set down to win in four, the 2023 and 2024 champion set up a mouthwatering showdown. It will be a clash with Britain's Norrie – the last home player standing – who overcame Nicolas Jarry in five nail-biting sets on Sunday. Norrie in fact had a two-set lead before Jarry fought back, but the Briton eventually downed the big-serving Chilean to reach his second Wimbledon quarter-final. Also on Tuesday, women's world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka aims to build on wins over Emma Raducanu and Elise Mertens, as she plays Laura Siegemund on Centre Court. Here is the order of play for day nine at Wimbledon: Day nine order of play - Tuesday 8 July Centre Court - 1.30pm Aryna Sabalenka [1] vs Laura Siegemund (GER) Cam Norrie (GBR) vs Carlos Alcaraz (ESP) [2] No. 1 Court - 1.00pm Taylor Fritz (USA) [5] vs Karen Kachanov [17] Amanda Anisimova (USA) vs Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova How to watch Wimbledon on TV Wimbledon will be shown live on the BBC in the UK, with full coverage of the tournament available to watch on BBC One, BBC Two and across BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website. TNT Sports will air a daily 90-minute highlights show and will also have live coverage of both singles finals. If you're travelling abroad and want to watch Wimbledon, then you might need a VPN to unblock your streaming app. Our VPN roundup is here to help: get the best VPN deals on the market. Viewers using a VPN need to make sure that they comply with any local regulations where they are and also with the terms of their service provider.

Umpire given a rest while Wimbledon officials insist tech fail can't be repeated
Umpire given a rest while Wimbledon officials insist tech fail can't be repeated

Leader Live

time29 minutes ago

  • Leader Live

Umpire given a rest while Wimbledon officials insist tech fail can't be repeated

Officials blamed human error for the incident at a crucial stage of the fourth-round match between Sonay Kartal and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, with the system inadvertently turned off and not flagging that a shot from the British player was out. Pavlyuchenkova, who would have moved 5-4 ahead, was furious with umpire Nico Helwerth for ordering the point to be replayed rather than making the call himself, accusing him of stealing the game and the tournament of home bias. German Helwerth, who had officiated at matches on each of the first seven days and is one of the sport's leading umpires, was notably absent on Monday, although organisers insisted it was a regular day off rather than a reaction to Sunday's events. Wimbledon officials apologised to both players, and chief executive Sally Bolton said: 'It was important for us to to explain as much as we could at that point in time what we believed had happened, and to apologise to the players for it happening in the first place. 'We're deeply disappointed that this has happened in the Championships. It was a human error. The ball-tracking technology is working effectively.' The system has replaced line judges for the first time this year and such a high-profile malfunction is hugely embarrassing for the All England Club. Bolton refused to go into the details of how the error had happened, or to explain what safeguards had been put in place during a briefing with reporters on Monday morning. 'They stole the game from me' 😠 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova wasn't happy when #Wimbledon's electronic line-calling system failed ❌ — BBC Sport (@BBCSport) July 6, 2025 'I wasn't sat there, so I don't know what happened,' she said. 'It was clearly deactivated in error, because you wouldn't ordinarily deactivate a set of cameras mid-match intentionally. 'Once this happened, we did a full review of all of our systems and processes to check all of those kinds of things and to make sure that, both historically and moving forward, we have made the appropriate changes that we needed to make. So we're absolutely confident in the system.' Organisers later clarified the changes that have been made, with a spokesman saying: 'Following our review, we have removed the ability for Hawk-Eye operators to manually deactivate the ball tracking. This error cannot now be repeated.' Pavlyuchenkova, who went on to lose the game in question but won the match, was critical of Helwerth in her post-match press conference. 'I just thought also the chair umpire could take initiative,' said the Russian. 'That's why he's there sitting on the chair. He also saw it out, he told me after the match. He probably was scared to take such a big decision.' Bolton cited a breakdown in communication between the review official and the umpire, with Helwerth unaware the system had not been working previously during the game. It is also a big week in a different type of court for the All England Club, with a judicial review into the decision to grant planning permission for its expansion into neighbouring Wimbledon Park taking place at the High Court on Tuesday and Wednesday. There has been vehement local opposition to the scheme, which will see 39 new courts, including an 8,000-seat show court, built on the site of a former golf club. Wimbledon chair Debbie Jevans will be at the High Court on Tuesday, and Bolton said: 'We remain really confident that we'll make the progress we need to make.'

Cameron Norrie vows to stay vocal as Carlos Alcaraz awaits at Wimbledon
Cameron Norrie vows to stay vocal as Carlos Alcaraz awaits at Wimbledon

The Guardian

time33 minutes ago

  • The Guardian

Cameron Norrie vows to stay vocal as Carlos Alcaraz awaits at Wimbledon

Cameron Norrie said he relishes playing Carlos Alcaraz in the Wimbledon quarter-finals on Tuesday and will continue to compete with the competitive energy that has driven his success, regardless of what other people think. 'I'm excited to play against him and I'm going to have to play my best level, and even better, to have a chance because he's got such a diverse game,' Norrie said. 'I'm going to have to be tough and bring more energy to have a chance.' Norrie reached the quarter-finals by holding his nerve in a bruising five-set battle with the Chilean qualifier Nicolás Jarry on Sunday. Jarry complained afterwards to Norrie about his tendency to cheer loudly after most points. 'He said I was a little bit vocal and I think: 'That's my energy,'' Norrie said. The competitive drive and relentless positivity that the left‑hander displays have been key factors in his success over the years. Some players, however, are less enthused by opponents who cheer their unforced errors or after less important points. Asked last week about the impact of the crowd on their second-round match, Frances Tiafoe focused immediately on Norrie's cheering: 'He was super‑amped,' Tiafoe said. 'He was saying 'c'mon' from the first game, which is definitely annoying, but that part bothered me more than the crowd.' Norrie also tends to encourage himself in French and Spanish, which led to a tense moment with the Spaniard Roberto Carballés Baena in Metz last November after the British player recovered to seal a three-set win: 'You say 'vamos!' all the time, looking right in my face,' Carballes Baena said. Norrie then offered a self-deprecating response: 'A couple of 'vamoses' and you get pissed off?' he said. 'I'm playing so bad, so I had to fire myself up.' As he looked to his upcoming match against Alcaraz, Norrie, 29, took these criticisms in his stride: '[When] a couple of people have not been too happy with it, I think it's been in a big match. I think they want to win the match as well, so it's understandable to maybe take it personally. But for me, I'm just aiming it at my team and aiming it at some people and some friends in the crowd. 'I think [against Jarry] it was a match where there's some moments with not a lot happening. I think some of the points are maybe not worthy of saying 'vamos' or saying 'c'mon' but it was a match that I really had to do that, because those points that don't mean a lot, if you lose those ones, you can get broken, and the match can go away from you very quickly.' To his credit, Norrie keeps the same energy regardless of his opposition. After their match at the Italian Open in 2023, Novak Djokovic also took issue with Norrie's frequent fist‑pumping. As he faces off against Alcaraz, the two-time defending champion and French Open champion who is on a 22‑match winning run, Norrie vowed that he will not shy away from the occasion. 'There's a lot of big matches, and we're playing and we're competing for [our] livelihood out there. So I want to compete as hard as I can, and I'm not going to tank matches and roll over matches for someone else. I'm doing it for myself, I'm not doing it to make someone else feel bad, or not doing it for that. If they take it personally, it's nothing to do with me.' Sign up to The Recap The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend's action after newsletter promotion Despite the gulf between their achievements, tennis is a game of match-ups and Norrie has at least caused Alcaraz trouble. The Spaniard has won four and lost two against Norrie but the Briton has won two of their past three meetings. At times, Norrie has been able to wear the world No 2 down with his shot tolerance and physicality, luring him into lengthy rallies and exposing Alcaraz's lack of patience. The pair have a great relationship and train together frequently at tournaments. 'Facing Cam is always really, really difficult,' Alcaraz said. 'We have really difficult battles. For me facing him is almost a nightmare, to be honest. Really tough from the baseline. I'm not surprised he's in the quarter-final playing great tennis because I've seen him practising. When he lost at Queen's [Club], he stayed for five days practising morning, afternoon and night. I saw him. So I'm not surprised at all seeing his level.' Alcaraz, though, has improved dramatically since Norrie won their most recent meeting, in the 2023 Rio Open final. He presents a completely different challenge across best-of-five-sets at grand slams and the grass courts only accentuate his complete game. The Spaniard will enter Centre Court as the clear favourite in his pursuit of a third Wimbledon title .

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store