Wimbledon 2025 was a turning point in tennis refereeing, with the tournament banning all human line judges in favor of permanent Hawk-Eye Live technology. The AI system relies on high-speed cameras and real-time computer vision algorithms to determine line calls immediately, removing the antiquated calls of "out" in favor of computer precision.
The change brought Wimbledon into line with the U.S. Open and Australian Open, which had already adopted the same tech-savvy strategy. But during a Centre Court match between British wildcard Sonay Kartal and Russian veteran Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the technology failed miserably.
Hawk-Eye System Malfunctions in Centre Court Match
The match had been going along well until a critical moment near the end of the first set. With a game point for Pavlyuchenkova, Kartal hit a shot that clearly was over a foot beyond the baseline. But Hawk-Eye did not make an "out" call, according to Digital Trends.
Pavlyuchenkova barely let the ball back into play but, rather than winning the game, was forced to replay the point. She lost the replay and ultimately the game.
The 34-year-old Russian was angry at the changeover and claimed that the Hawk-Eye tech stole the game from her. While she maintained her poise and managed to win the match afterward, the tennis fans thought that she had the right to complain about the mishap.
All England Club Blames 'Operator Error'
At first, Wimbledon officials claimed the Hawk-Eye system had been "deactivated on the point in question" because of an operator mistake. During the day, a spokesperson clarified via BBC that a server-side technical error had disabled Hawk-Eye for just one segment of the court — for that particular game.
"We have apologized to the players involved. We continue to have full confidence in the accuracy of the ball-tracking technology. In this instance, there was a human error and as a consequence, we have fully reviewed our processes and made the appropriate changes."
Umpire Declines to Overrule
What bewildered most of the tennis fans and analysts was why the chair umpire, who can overrule Hawk-Eye or make decisions when it is not working properly, did not reverse the mistake. Pavlyuchenkova later explained that the umpire acknowledged seeing the ball out but did not take action.
Pavlyuchenkova was expecting the umpire to overrule, but he did not comply. She added that it was because she [Kartal] is a local and the umpire was afraid to make a major decision.
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