Line technology fails again, Fritz enters semis

Wimbledon’s underfire line technology system suf fered another embarrassing malfunction during Taylor Fritz’s quarterfinal win over Karen Khachanov on Tuesday.

- Agencies

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.