Emma Raducanu joins Jack Draper in questioning automated Wimbledon line calling
The 22-year-old believes the system made errors during her loss to Aryna Sabalenka.
Emma Raducanu has urged Wimbledon to improve electronic line calling after saying she was disappointed by the technology during her defeat against Aryna Sabalenka.
A fully automated system has replaced human line judges – whose calls could be challenged using electronic reviews – for the first time at the Championships this year.
The two most vocal critics so far have been Britain’s leading players, with Raducanu going even further than Jack Draper after feeling one call in particular, when a Sabalenka shot was ruled to have clipped the line, was wrong.
“That call was for sure out,” said Raducanu after her intense 7-6 (6) 6-4 defeat by the world number one.
“It’s kind of disappointing, the tournament here, that the calls can be so wrong, but for the most part they’ve been OK. I’ve had a few in my other matches, too, that have been very wrong. Hopefully they can fix that.”
The technology has become standard across the tour, with all ATP Tour events and a lot of WTA ones no longer using line judges.
The same system operates at the Australian Open and the US Open but the French Open remains an outlier, so far eschewing any form of electronic system.
Draper queried one serve from Marin Cilic during his second-round loss on Thursday, and he said: “I don’t think it’s 100 per cent accurate, in all honesty. A couple of the ones today it showed a mark on the court. There’s no way the chalk would have showed.”
Wimbledon organisers defended the system, with a spokesman telling the PA news agency: “Live electronic line calling technology is now widely used week in and week out on tour.
“The technology goes through a rigorous certification process and meets the standards set by the joint certification panel so we can provide maximum accuracy in our officiating.”
