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The Citizen
19 hours ago
- Sport
- The Citizen
Sinner downs Alcaraz to win first Wimbledon
Sinner and two-time defending Wimbledon champion Alcaraz have now shared the past seven Grand Slam titles between them, with the Italian winning four of those. Italy's Jannik Sinner celebrates with the winner's trophy as he poses for pictures following his victory against Spain's Carlos Alcaraz at the end of their men's singles final tennis match on the fourteenth day of the 2025 Wimbledon Championships at The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, southwest London, on July 13, 2025. (Photo by HENRY NICHOLLS / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE Jannik Sinner downed Carlos Alcaraz 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 on Sunday to win his first Wimbledon title, gaining sweet revenge for his painful defeat in the French Open final. The world number one is the first Italian to win at the All England Club and now has four Grand Slams to his name at the age of 23. The tennis world has been captivated by the emergence of the new rivalry to follow the storied 'Big Three' era of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. Sinner and two-time defending Wimbledon champion Alcaraz have now shared the past seven Grand Slam titles between them, with the Italian winning four of those. Defeat in Paris last month was a bitter blow for Sinner, who led by two sets and squandered three match points in the final. Prior to Sunday's victory, he had lost five consecutive times against Alcaraz, including the final of the Italian Open in the first tournament he played after returning from a three-month doping ban. But this time he turned the tables in impressive fashion. Both players were solid on serve until the fifth game, when Alcaraz sprayed a forehand long to hand Sinner the first break of the match. But the Spaniard levelled at 4-4 to the delight of the Centre Court crowd, which included Prince William and his wife Catherine, Princess of Wales. Sinner double-faulted to hand Alcaraz a second set point. The Italian laced a searing forehand down the line but Alcaraz produced a magical backhand winner, pointing his finger to his ear as the crowd rose to their feet. – Momentum shift – Sinner, still wearing a protective white sleeve after his nasty fall in his fourth-round match against Grigor Dimitrov, broke in the first game of the second set and led 3-1 after play was briefly halted by a flying cork. Sinner shook his racquet after winning the first point as he served for the set and was rewarded with cheers before levelling the match with a whipped forehand. The third set was a tense affair that went with serve until the ninth game when Sinner broke as Alcaraz slipped over on the baseline and he went 2-1 up. The momentum was now all with Sinner and he broke again in the third game of the fourth set to take the match by the scruff of the neck. The chance was always there that Alcaraz would produce the magic he found at Roland Garros but Sinner stayed ice-cool. The Spaniard had two break points to hit back in the eighth game but Sinner shut the door impressively. Sinner stepped up to serve for the championship amid a cacophony of noise, staying focused to seal the deal on his second championship point. The Italian cruised through the first three rounds at Wimbledon, losing just 17 games — equalling an Open era record set in 1972. But he got lucky in the fourth round against inspired Bulgarian 19th seed Dimitrov, who was leading by two sets when he suffered an injury that forced him to quit. Sinner got back into the groove against 10th seed Ben Shelton in the quarter-finals before demolishing seven-time champion Djokovic in the last four. Alcaraz had been aiming to become just the fifth man in the Open era to win three consecutive Wimbledons after Bjorn Borg, Pete Sampras, Federer and Djokovic.
Hindustan Times
7 days ago
- Sport
- Hindustan Times
The fading human touch in tennis' electronic line-calling system
Mumbai: This was Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova's response when asked how she would have felt if that point, which has since become the talking point of Wimbledon, cost her the match: 'I would just say that I hate Wimbledon and never come back here.' Members of the public watch the a player training on court 16 on the eighth day of the 2025 Wimbledon Championships at The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, southwest London, on July 7, 2025. (Photo by HENRY NICHOLLS / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE (AFP) Pavlyuchenkova could later chuckle about it because she could be human about it (and, well, because it didn't cost her the match). That human touch has, incidentally, gone missing around the on-court officiating system at Wimbledon. At, ironically, a Grand Slam which prides on tradition. After 147 years of existence, Wimbledon has done away with line judges – those crisply-dressed men and women scattered around the green that sprung to life the theatre around line calls and debatable decisions. They've been replaced by 12 cameras per court for an electronic line-calling system beaming on 144 screens in a room operated by 50-odd humans. That's not quite the problem, for, other than the French Open, all Slams and many ATP and WTA tournaments now have this system in place. That this system was absent for practically one full game for calls on half of the Centre Court also wasn't the pressing problem (unless, of course, you're Pavlyuchenkova who had to replay a game point she had won before losing the point and the game). The biggest problem was that no one on that court, including the chair umpire and the players, could do anything about it. That wasn't the case before, even in this modern era of Hawk-Eye technology that added to the human eye and aided players seeking to challenge the latter. That's where tennis as a whole, and specifically this Wimbledon, has drifted away from the human touch of sport. In football's Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system, also much-debated, there's still dialogue between the referee on the pitch and the virtual assistance off it. In cricket's Decision Review System (DRS), the on-field umpire's call still plays a key role in LBW decisions. On the most crucial point of that 4-4 game, in the most obvious 'out' call that the electronic system wasn't up and running to detect, the chair umpire could do little but pause and replay the point. That's in contrast to what umpires and judges have done for years: make calls. World No.5 Taylor Fritz had the most basic question about the incident: 'The chair umpire has to make the call. Why is he there if he's not going to call the ball?' When technology is asleep or misfiring – which, statistically, is a miniscule percentage of the total calls – there has to be a case for the human to take over. Not partially, like it was in this case, but totally. 'That's why we have a chair umpire. Otherwise, I think soon let's just play without them and then we're going to have everything automatic,' Pavlyuchenkova said. 'I think we are losing a little bit of the charm of actually having human beings… it just becomes a little bit weird and robot orientated.' The players themselves don't seem to be big fans of this 'robot oriented' system. The debate, as per Belinda Bencic, is a hot topic in locker rooms. In this Wimbledon alone, multiple players have questioned the accuracy of the electronic system. Britain's Jack Draper reckoned it's not 100% accurate, while Emma Raducanu believed wrong calls were made in her loss to Aryna Sabalenka. 'No, I don't,' Raducanu said when asked if she trusted the system. 'I think the other players would say the same thing. There were some pretty dodgy ones, but what can you do?' The players could do something earlier. After Hawk-Eye's introduction to tennis in 2007, players could challenge calls. Apart from that process also adding to the drama, it effectively blended the best of both worlds while also giving weightage to the other humans on court – the players. With that gone too, even the players are left mechanical in the largely robotic exercise. Fancy another irony in this all? Wimbledon confirmed the electronic system being non-functional was, well, a human error.
IOL News
07-07-2025
- Sport
- IOL News
Wimbledon blames 'human error' for embarrassing line-calling glitch
Italy's Flavio Cobolli plays a backhand return to Croatia's Marin Cilic during their men's singles fourth round tennis match on the eighth day of the 2025 Wimbledon Championships at The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon. Had the call been correct, it would have given Russia's Pavlyuchenkova a 5-4 lead in the first set, but instead umpire Nico Helwerth ruled the point should be replayed, with Kartal going on to win the game. After an investigation, organisers admitted the technology was turned off in error on a section of the court for a game, with the mistake only becoming apparent when a shot from Britain's Kartal that clearly missed the baseline was not called out. Officials apologised to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Sonay Kartal after the malfunction during their fourth-round match on Centre Court on Sunday, which Pavlyuchenkova won in straight sets. Wimbledon chiefs on Monday blamed human error for an embarrassing failure of the tournament's electronic line-calling system. The Russian accused the official of home bias, saying: "Because she is local, they can say whatever. You took the game away from me." Wimbledon issued a statement on Sunday saying the system had been "deactivated in error" for one game by those operating the system. "In that time, there were three calls not picked up by live ELC on the affected part of the court. Two of these were called by the chair umpire, who was not made aware that the system had been deactivated," it said. "Following the third, the chair umpire stopped the match and consulted with the review official. It was determined that the point should be replayed. "The chair umpire followed the established process. We have apologised to the players involved." Sally Bolton, chief executive of the All England Club, told reporters on Monday that the system was "working optimally." "The issue we had was human error in terms of the tracking system having been inadvertently deactivated, and then the chair (umpire) not being made aware of the fact that it had been deactivated," she said. She added: "We've spoken to the players, we've apologised to them, we've very quickly moved into reviewing everything that had happened yesterday afternoon and putting in place the appropriate changes to the processes." A fully automated system has replaced human line judges at Wimbledon in 2025, in line with the Australian Open and the US Open.
Al-Ahram Weekly
06-07-2025
- Sport
- Al-Ahram Weekly
Tennis: Wimbledon's underdogs enjoy their week in the sun - Omni sports
As a series of big names melted under the Wimbledon heatwave, a number of surprise names are looking to make an impact on the second week at the All England club. AFP Sports looks at those who have grabbed their chance to shine. Clara Tauson Denmark's Clara Tauson plays a backhand return to Kazakhstan's Elena Rybakina during their women's singles third round tennis match on the sixth day of the 2025 Wimbledon Championships at The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, southwest London. AFP The world number 22 had never won a match at Wimbledon in three previous attempts prior to this year but shocked a former champion in Elena Rybakina on Saturday. "I never expected it. I've never had very good results on grass," said the Dane, who next faces five-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek. Tauson has enjoyed a breakthrough year on hard courts, winning in Auckland in January before beating world number one Aryna Sabalenka on the way to making the final of the WTA 1000 in Dubai a month later. The niece of former pro Michael Tauson, her big serve is ideally suited to grass court conditions. Her 223 aces this year before Wimbledon was the second highest on the Tour behind only Rybakina. A graduate of the Justine Henin Academy in Belgium, her boyfriend Kasper Elsvad is now her coach. "We're both really perfectionist. It's hard to achieve in tennis, but we're working towards it," added Tauson. Jessica Bouzas Maneiro Spain's Jessica Bouzas Maneiro plays a backhand return to Ukraine's Dayana Yastremska during their women's singles third round tennis match on the sixth day of the 2025 Wimbledon Championships at The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, southwest London. AFP The Spaniard has reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time but does have previous for shining at Wimbledon. The then world number 83 beat defending champion Marketa Vondrousova in the first round last year to register her first Grand Slam win. Now 62 in the rankings, the 22-year-old has seen off Ella Seidel, Sofia Kenin and Dayana Yastremska to set up a fourth round meeting with Liudmila Samsonova. Marin Cilic Croatia's Marin Cilic plays a backhand return to Britain's Jack Draper during their men's singles second round tennis match on the fourth day of the 2025 Wimbledon Championships at The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, southwest London. AFP A former finalist, Cilic has rolled back the years in his first appearance at the All England Club since 2021 after multiple knee surgeries. The 2014 US Open champion had fallen outside the world's top 1,000 but is on the comeback trail and back inside the top 100. Cilic broke British hearts with a shock defeat of world number four Jack Draper in the second round and followed that up with victory over Jaume Munar to reach the last 16. "My emotions are just incredible. Where I was two years ago, I can't even describe. It has been a long journey but I never lost any faith," Cilic said. "It was a long and testing period, plus a huge challenge for me in this part of my career to come back and play at this level." Flavio Cobolli Italy's Flavio Cobolli plays a forehand return to Britain's Jack Pinnington Jones during their men's singles second round tennis match on the fourth day of the 2025 Wimbledon Championships at The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, southwest London. AFP The 23-year-old Italian is yet to drop a set in three matches, including a destruction of Miami Open champion and rising star Jakub Mensik. "I think I played one of the best matches ever of my life. I think almost perfect," said the delighted world number 24. Cobolli has surprised himself with his quick adjustment to a surface he claimed to have "hated" in the past. "Three years ago, as a junior, I really hated playing on grass," added. Coached by his father, Stefano Cobolli, Flavio already has two titles to his name this year in Hamburg and Bucharest on the clay. Alongside world number one Jannik Sinner and Lorenzo Sonego, he has made history this week as three Italians have reached the last 16 of the men's draw for the first time. Follow us on: Facebook Instagram Whatsapp Short link:
Straits Times
06-07-2025
- Business
- Straits Times
Wimbledon line-calling tech malfunctions
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova celebrating after winning a point against Britain's Sonay Kartal during her 7-6 (7-3), 6-4 win in the women's singles fourth round tennis match on the seventh day of the 2025 Wimbledon Championships at The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on July 6, 2025. – Wimbledon's electronic line-calling system failed at a key moment on July 6, prompting an outburst from Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who told the umpire 'you took the game away from me'. The Russian put the controversy behind her to beat Britain's Sonay Kartal 7-6 (7-3), 6-4 in just over two hours on Centre Court. But the glitch in the fourth-round match follows concerns raised by players earlier in the tournament. A fully-automated system has replaced human line judges at Wimbledon in 2025, ending nearly 150 years of history. The automated technology has become standard across tennis, with all events on the men's ATP Tour and many WTA tournaments using it. The Australian Open and the US Open are fully automated but the French Open remains an outlier, sticking to human line judges. On July 6, a tight first set between Pavlyuchenkova and Kartal was marred by a computer failure that could have proved pivotal. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore First BTO project in Sembawang North to be offered in July HDB launch World Tariffs will kick in on Aug 1 barring trade deals: US Treasury Secretary Singapore Woman on SMRT's 190 bus injured after bottle thrown at vehicle leaves hole in window Business Great Eastern says Takeover Code not breached when it shared IFA valuation with OCBC Asia 'Don't be seen in India again': Indian nationals pushed into Bangladesh at gunpoint Asia Thousands evacuated as Typhoon Danas lashes Taiwan Asia Two women fatally stabbed at bar in Japan by man Life Star Awards 2025: Christopher Lee wins big, including Special Achievement Award and Best Actor At 4-4, Pavlyuchenkova, who had saved two break points in the game, held game point when a Kartal backhand landed clearly over the baseline. But no call came and instead of the point being awarded to the Russian, it was replayed and Kartal went on to break. Pavlyuchenkova was clearly fuming at the changeover, telling the umpire: 'Because she is local, they can say whatever. 'You took the game away from me. They stole the game from me. You stole the game from me'. Kartal held set point serving for the opener in the next game but Pavlyuchenkova saved it, breaking back and dominating the tie-break. The world No. 50 maintained her momentum in the second set, breaking immediately and although she was broken back, the Russian broke again in the fifth game and went on to win the match. The All England Club released a short statement. 'Due to operator error the system was deactivated on the point in question,' said an spokesman. 'The chair umpire followed the established process.' Britain's Emma Raducanu said she was unhappy about one call in particular during her defeat by Aryna Sabalenka on July 4. Jack Draper, the men's fourth seed, queried the accuracy of the system after his second-round defeat by Marin Cilic. On her win, the 34-year-old Pavlyuchenkova, appearing at her 16th Wimbledon said: 'I always thought I was not good enough on grass, so this is incredible for me. Especially with me getting older, I am so impressed and proud for competing with the younger girls. 'My mental toughness is getting better. I used to be a little bit crazy in my head! But now I am learning to fight point by point.' She will next face either Amanda Anisimova of the US or Czech Linda Noskova. Also through to the quarter-finals was Germany's Laura Siegemund, who beat Solana Sierra 6-3, 6-2. She will next face top seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus or Belgian Elise Mertens. In men's draw action, Taylor Fritz booked a place in the quarter-finals in double-quick time after Australia's Jordan Thompson retired injured with the score at 6-1, 3-0. The US fifth seed faced gruelling five-set battles in his opening two matches but it was a different story in his fourth-round encounter on Court One. The Eastbourne champion broke Thompson twice to seal the first set in just 21 minutes and led 3-0 in the second set. The Australian then had a medical time-out to deal with an apparent thigh problem. He returned to the court and slipped 40-0 down in the fourth game before deciding he was unable to continue, with the match lasting just 41 minutes. 'He's been playing five-setters,' said Fritz, 27. 'He was out playing a long doubles match yesterday you know, so he's been battling out here and I respected him for coming out. 'Obviously, his body's not right. So, you know, I feel bad for him.' He will next face Russia's Karen Khachanov, who brushed aside Polish player Kamil Majchrzak 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 on Court Two earlier. AFP, REUTERS
