LONDON — A tennis ball that clearly landed long in a match at Centre Court wasn’t called out Sunday because the electronic system that replaced line judges at Wimbledon this year accidentally was shut off for three points.
And because the replay review procedure that used to be in place also has been scrapped, the chair umpire called for a do-over on the point at 4-all in the first set — much to the dismay of Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the player who would have won the game if the proper call had been made originally.
Pavlyuchenkova wound up getting broken there to trail British opponent Sonay Kartal, but she eventually did manage to come back to win the match 7-6 (3), 6-4 and reach the quarterfinals at the All England Club for the first time since 2016.
“You took the game away from me,” 2021 French Open runner-up Pavlyuchenkova told chair umpire Nico Helwerth at the changeover after the game ended.
Pavlyuchenkova, who is Russian, also said in the moment that the decision-making there went in Kartal’s favor because she is a local player.