Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova says she 'gets Jelena Ostapenko's point' after Wimbledon electronic line-calling failure

The rise of the machines hit a speedbump at Wimbledon on Sunday, as the fourth-round match between Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Sonay Kartal was interrupted due to a bizarre scene on Centre Court involving the automated line-calling system.

Pavlyuchenkova was serving with game point at 5-5 in the first set when Kartal, the last British woman in the tournament, hit a backhand that landed well beyond the baseline, TV replays later showed. But no call came from the automated line-calling system, who has replaced human line umpires at Wimbledon this year for the first time in its 148-year history. As Pavlyuchenkova paused waiting for a call, German chair umpire Nico Helwerth stopped the point before an automated voice saying “stop, stop” was heard.

Helwerth delayed play while he made a phone call to review officials to determine the situation, and after a lengthy conversation, explained to the players and the Centre Court crowd that because technology had not been working during the point, it would be replayed. Pavlyuchenkova lost the replayed point, and later the game to trail 6-5.

"You took the game away from me," the 2021 Roland Garros runner-up later told Helwerth at the changeover.

"Because she's local, they can say whatever," she continued. "They stole a game from me. They stole it."

Despite that, Pavlyuchenkova reset herself admirably after the incident. She saved a set point on Kartal's serve in the next game, and went on to win 7-6(3), 6-4 to reach her 10th career Grand Slam quarterfinal, and first at Wimbledon in nine years.

The explanation later offered by an All England Club spokesman was that the system was "deactivated on the point in question" due to "operator error."

"The chair umpire followed the established process," the statement added, making the situation markedly different that two viral instances last summer at ATP events in Montreal and Cincinnati where the system was functioning properly but an out call was missed earlier in the rally; that led to the ATP issuing an addendum to its rules. (There is no such rule printed in the 2025 edition of the ITF Grand Slam Rulebook, which governs Wimbledon as well as the Australian Open, Roland Garros and the US Open, and if, how and when chair umpires have the authority from their superiors to overrule the technology as they would a human line umpire remains unclear.)

Read more: ATP issues "common sense" rule change after electronic line-calling controversy in Cincinnati, Montreal

Meeting reporters afterwards, the 34-year-old said that those established processes still need some fine-tuning, though she offered a more measured response than how she felt in the moment.

"I think it's good to erase this subject for the future because if anything like that happens in the very important moment of the match, I think we should have a wire system like in football they have or something, so then it's clear for everybody and we can move on right away instead of just guessing," she said, adding that she got an explanation from the tournament and also spoke to Helwerth after the match.

"I expected different decision. I just thought also chair umpire could take initiative. That's why he's there for sitting on the chair. He also saw it out, he told me after the match. I thought he would do that, but he didn't," she continued.

"It's such a big match, big event. I think since we have already automatic line calling and so much invested into this, we should probably look into something else to have better decisions on it."

And while she did not full-heartedly agree with some of the criticisms from other high-profile players, including Jack Draper and Emma Raducanu at this tournament and, famously, Jelena Ostapenko, that the technology isn't foolproof, she said in today's Tennis.com Quote of the Day that she "gets [Ostapenko's] point."

Read more: Jelena Ostapenko gives serious side-eye to electronic line calling after Australian Open win

Q. Something that some players have suggested is that umpires have almost become de-skilled because they're not doing quite a lot and that they have become quite passive. Do you think that factored in today, that he didn't want to get involved rather than overruling?

ANASTASIA PAVLYUCHENKOVA: Yeah, I don't know. It's hard to say. During the match, I don't think about it at all because obviously I'm, like, focused on things. Yeah, I think it's also difficult for him. He probably was scared to take such a big decision.

I think they should. That's why they're there for sitting on the chair. That's why we have a chair umpire. Otherwise, I think soon let's just play without them, right, and then we're going to have everything automatic.

I think we losing a little bit of the charm of actually having human being, ballboys. Like during COVID, we didn't have ballboys. It just becomes a little bit weird and, like, robot sort of orientated.

Yeah, it's hard. They're very good at giving fines, though, and code violations. This they don't miss because every time any little thing, they are just right there on it. Yeah, I would prefer they looked at the lines and call in the errors, mistakes better.

Q. Human elements on court... something I guess tennis is losing. There used to be seven, eight people more on court when there were line judges. Is that something you would like to have back to make it feel like a more human place on court?

ANASTASIA PAVLYUCHENKOVA: Yeah, but as you can ask Jelena Ostapenko, she's fighting with the electronic calls. At the beginning it was funny, but then after I was getting her point a little bit. Sometimes when we play, I don't know, I'm thinking, Am I crazy, or I just feel like the ball is long? Then nothing is happening. There is no automatic line calling.

Then I was thinking of Jelena many times because I'm like, Okay, maybe she's right. I've seen couple of matches in Miami, I think, Kasatkina and Cirstea, something happened where literally the ball was this out in the corridor of the court. There was no call of the automatic line calling.

Again, chair umpire was so confused. I think they just need to -- chair umpire needs to maybe have a clear plan if that happens, okay, what I'm going to do in this situation. I think they a little bit lost. They start calling everybody. They don't know what to do, instead of maybe have clear decision, right?

If the system is down, then I'm going to take initiative and call this maybe. We probably should have this system like in football to review.

Kartal took the opposite stance, saying that replaying the point was fair as the rarity of the situation put officials in a strange position.

"It's tough luck. What can you do? The umpire is trying his best in that situation. I think he handled it fine," the Brit said in her own post-match press conference. She added that, at 5-foot-4, it was difficult for her to see where the ball landed on Pavlyuchenkova's side over the net strap.

"I think the fairest way was what he did, to replay the point," Kartal added. "But no, [it] was just a bit unlucky that happened."

Ultimately, Pavlyuchenkova said all was well as she won the match, though she joked she'd be singing a different tune if she hadn't.

"I would just say that I hate Wimbledon and never come back here," she laughed. "I would just say, I hate grass and Wimbledon, like usually we always do when we lose.

"No, of course, I would be very disappointed. But again, as I said, I try to look at it as I'm working on my mental toughness lately. OK, it was a crucial moment, but it's just one game in the first set. So as I said, the match is long. It's like a marathon. You got to play every point."

"I won the match, I didn't want to go into this or, like, create bad vibes because I just wanted to have a nice moment," she added. "I won. I'm in the quarterfinal here. So all good now."

Later, an All England Club spokesperson said that the line-calling setup "was deactivated in error on part of the server's side of the court for one game by those operating the system."

"We continue to have full confidence in the accuracy of the ball-tracking technology," they said.

The spokesperson also said Pavlyuchenkova and Kartal received apologies from the club.