LONDON: Wimbledon chiefs on Monday blamed human error for an embarrassing failure of the tournament’s electronic line-calling system.

Officials apologized to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Sonay Kartal after the malfunction during their fourth-round match on Center Court on Sunday, which Pavlyuchenkova won in straight sets.

After an investigation, organizers 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.

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.

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 apologized 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 apologized 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.

But the glitch in Sunday’s fourth-round match follows concerns raised by other players about the technology, including British stars Emma Raducanu and Jack Draper.

Around 80 former line judges are employed as match assistants, with two on each court offering support to the umpire.

But Bolton said there was no need to put them back on the courts.

“The system was functional,” she said. “It had been deactivated. We didn’t need to put line judges back on the court again, we needed the system to be active.”

Automated line-calling technology has become standard across tennis, with all events on the men’s ATP Tour and many WTA tournaments using it.

LONDON: Imperious Wimbledon top seed Jannik Sinner made short work of Spain’s Pedro Martinez on Saturday to reach the the last 16 without dropping a set.

The Italian three-time Grand Slam champion eased past his 52nd-ranked opponent, who was struggling with a shoulder problem, 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 in less than two hours.

“Obviously very happy but I think we all saw that he was struggling with his shoulder,” said Sinner.

“He couldn’t serve very well. Especially on this surface when you don’t serve well, then it’s not easy to play.”

The Italian said his first week at Wimbledon “couldn’t have gone better.”

“Every time when you reach the second week of a Grand Slam it’s a very special occasion,” he said.

“Even more special here in Wimbledon, so I’m very happy to be in the second week.”

Sinner, a Formula One fan, said he would organize his practice schedule around the British Grand Prix, which takes place at Silverstone on Sunday.

He will face either 19th seed Grigor Dimitrov or Sebastian Ofner in the fourth round at the All England Club.

The 23-year-old took a vice-like grip on the Center Court match from the start, racing into a 5-0 lead.

Martinez was given a time-out at that point and received treatment on his right shoulder before winning the next game to love on his own serve but Sinner wrapped up the set in the following game.

The second set was tighter until Sinner broke in the fifth game, repeating the feat to take the set.

Martinez required further treatment before the third set but it had little impact as Sinner raced into a 5-0 lead.

The Spaniard, 28, held up a finger to the crowd after clawing a game back but that only delayed the inevitable.

Sinner has lost just 17 games in total across his three matches in the first week of Wimbledon, in contrast to defending champion Carlos Alcaraz, who has shown patchy form.

The Italian returned from a doping ban in May, losing the Italian Open final to Alcaraz and squandering three championship points against the same opponent in the French Open final.

His best performance at Wimbledon was a run to the semifinals in 2023 and he reached the quarters last year.