‘What’s the reason?’ – Mid-rally line-call ‘malfunction’ leads to further AI questions in Taylor Fritz’s win over Karen Khachanov

There was more controversy on Tuesday as ‘fault’ was called during the middle of a rally in the fourth set.

Umpire Louise Azemar-Engzell called “stop” to bring an end to the rally, while there were surprised murmurs in the crowd.

Azemar-Engzell quickly got on the phone to attempt to resolve the issue and then announced to the crowd on Court One that the point would be replayed.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we will replay the point due to a malfunction,” said Azemar-Engzell. “The system is now working.”

Given the incident occurred during the middle of a rally when neither player had an advantage, there was no complaint from Fritz or Khachanov.

Khachanov, who lost the match in four sets, said he had to “accept” the error, but is not in favour of the new system.

He said afterwards: “I’m more for line umpires, to be honest. I don’t know. You feel a little bit (like the) court is too big, too alone without line umpires.

“At the same time it looks like AI and electronic line calls has to be very precise and no mistakes, but we’ve seen a couple. That’s questionable why this is happening. Is it just like error of the machine or what’s the reason?

“Like 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 called it just out during the rally. Sometimes it’s scary to let machines do what they want, you know.”

Fritz said he thinks the electronic line calling is a “better system” than having line judges.

“There’s going to be some issues here and there,” said the fifth seed.

“To be honest, I still think it’s much better to just have the electronic line calling calling the lines as opposed to the umpires because I do like not having to think about challenging calls in the middle of points.

“I do like that we don’t have to argue about calls and all this stuff. The ball gets called, and we know, and that’s it. I think it’s a better system.”

The All England Tennis Club said this week they continue to have “full confidence in the accuracy of the ball-tracking technology”.

Former British No. 1 Tim Henman, who is an AELTC committee member, said the technology works “extremely well” when activated.

“When you’re on the court, you’re hoping that it goes out, because if it goes out, you win the point.

“But actually, 100 times out of 100 when you go back and look at it, the human – the player – gets it wrong. The technology doesn’t.”

Henman said the error in the match between Kartal and Pavlyuchenkova was “totally separate” to players questioning the accuracy of calls.

“This is technology that’s been around for a long, long time,” Henman said. “It’s a Hawk Eye version when we had line judges. So this is an enhanced version. So is the technology accurate? Absolutely, 100%.

“So then when you move to the Sonay Kartal element, and there’s been a statement from the club, that’s human error, that is someone that has un-clicked a box, and so therefore, the system is deactivated.

“So if it’s not activated, it’s not going to work, and it didn’t work. So they’re two totally separate situations.”