'That's questionable why this is happening'—More line-call controversies at Wimbledon spark debate over accuracy of AI systems
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Wimbledon's electronic line-calling system malfunctioned and caused a point to be replayed during the quarter-final match between Taylor Fritz and Karen Khachanov.
This season, the new AI technology was considered reliable enough to replace traditional line judges. However, due to errors that were occurring at a few matches, some athletes have raised doubts about the system’s accuracy.
During the match between Fritz and Khachanov, a "fault" arose in the middle of a rally during the fourth set. Umpire Louise Azemar-Engzell halted the play and it surprised the crowd. The umpire then made a phone call to fix the issue and then told everyone on Court One that the point would be replayed.
The umpire stated: “Ladies and gentlemen, we will replay the point due to a malfunction… The system is now working.”
Since the incident happened in the middle of a rally and no player was holding on to any advantage, Fritz nor Khachanov did not raise any complaints.
Athlete’s opinions on the line-calling system
Khachanov, who lost the match in four sets, admitted that he had to accept the fault. However, he also said that he does not support the new system. The athlete stated: “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?” He added: “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.” On the other hand, Fritz agrees that the electronic line calling system is an improved method compared to relying on line judges. He said: “There's going to be some issues here and there… 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 athlete added. The biggest mistake happened when the AI was accidentally turned off for one game during Sonay Kartal’s match against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. During this match, the Hawk-Eye system failed to track the ball, and the point needed to be replayed despite the TV footage clearly showing the ball was far out. Former British No. 1 Tim Henman, a member of the AELTC committee, said the technology performs well when it is functioning properly. He also said that the mistake in the Kartal vs. Pavlyuchenkova's match was completely unrelated to players raising concerns about the accuracy of the calls. Henman stated: “This is technology that's been around for a long, long time… 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,” he said.Enjoying this article?
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Aiah Bathan
Contributing writer at The Independent Singapore