WIMBLEDON’S UNDER-FIRE line technology system suffered another embarrassing malfunction during Taylor Fritz’s quarter-final win over Karen Khachanov today.

Swedish umpire Louise Azemar Engzell had to stop a point in the opening game of the fourth set on Court One when “fault” was incorrectly called after a Fritz forehand landed well inside the baseline.

The call of “fault”, rather than “out”, and positioning of the ball suggested the system was still tracking Fritz’s serve as opposed to a rally and the point had to be replayed.

Tournament organisers claimed the system had failed to reset because the ball from Fritz’s first serve was still being retrieved when he started lining up his second.

“The player’s service motion began while the BBG (ball boy or girl) was still crossing the net and therefore the system didn’t recognise the start of the point,” an All England Club statement said.

“As such the chair umpire instructed the point be replayed.”

Wimbledon chiefs said earlier this week that they were confident of avoiding further issues with the technology after a major error in Sonay Kartal’s fourth-round defeat to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the women’s draw.

On that occasion, the new system failed to call out when a shot by Kartal landed well behind the baseline.

A fully automated system has replaced human line judges at Wimbledon for the first time this year, in line with the Australian Open and the US Open.

But there have been a number of glitches and concerns raised by other players about the technology, including British stars Emma Raducanu and Jack Draper.

The controversy did not stop Fritz reaching his first Wimbledon semi-final as the American won 6-3, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (7/4).

Khachanov was unhappy with the latest technological glitch and criticised the way the system has been used this year.

“Look, to be honest, I’m more for line umpires. Electronic line calls have to be very precise and no mistakes, but we’ve seen a couple. That’s questionable why this is happening,” he said.

“Today I think there were a few calls. I don’t know, very questionable if it’s really touching the line or not.

“At the same time during one point, the machine call it just out during the rally. Sometimes it’s scary to let machine do what they want, you know.

“What can I do? I can argue, and be angry on it or just continue playing. It’s not in my power. It’s already happened. I need to kind of accept it, and that’s it.”

Fritz will face the winner of defending champion Carlos Alcaraz’s clash with Britain’s Cameron Norrie in the last four. 

– © AFP 2025

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