HawkEye crash costs Anastasia Pavyluchenkova in win over Sonay Kartel, umpire howler explained

Another significant failure of the HawkEye system introduced at Wimbledon this year has caused uproar, with a Russian star alleging she had been robbed in favour of a hometown heroine.

Anastasia Pavyluchenkova was in a tight battle on Centre Court against English talent Sonay Kartel when a backhand from the local hopeful flew well long on game point at 4-all in the first set.

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The Russian was stunned when the electronic line calling system, which was introduced in place of lines people this year at Wimbledon, failed to pick up what was a clear error.

After deliberating, the decision was made to replay the point and Pavyluchenkova was irate on dropping the game.

“I don’t know if it was in or out. I don’t know. You cannot prove it,” she told the umpire.

“Because she’s local, they can say whatever. You took the game away from me. They stole a game from me. They stole it.”

To her credit, the former Roland Garros finalist recovered to break her rival immediately on the way to a 7-6 (3) 6-4 triumph in 2hr 2min.

After the match, Wimbledon officials told the veteran the system had crashed at a critical moment and that the current rules were that the point should be replayed.

It did appear to miss by a big enough margin for the point to be reviewed, but the Russian believes another safety measure should be introduced to ensure the debacle does not happen on an even bigger moment.

“We were waiting for a decision as the system was down, but I was expecting to hear if they say the ball was in or out,” she said.

“Instead they just said, ‘Replay the point’. It was tricky, especially in that moment. It was very crucial moment in the match.

“They did explain it to me. But again, they said the system was down. It’s a human error. I understand that can happen at any given moment to everybody.

“But again, as I said … it’s such a big match, big event. I think since we already have automatic line calling and so much invested into this, we should probably look into something else to have better decisions on it.”

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Kartal, for her part, described it as “tough luck”.

“That situation is a rarity. I don’t think it’s really ever happened, if it has,” she said.

“What can you do? The umpire is trying his best in that situation. I think he handled it fine.

“I think the system just malfunctioned a little bit (and) I think the fairest way was what he did, to replay the point. But (it) was just a bit unlucky that happened.”

Australian Rinky Hijikata was involved in a controversy in his second round match against Ben Shelton when officials finally postponed their outing just as the American was set to serve for a spot in the third round because it was too dark for HawkEye to accurately pick up the ball.

While both players had wanted to leave the court earlier, officials persisted under the artificial line-calling system could no longer be used.

Pavyluchenkova will play either Amanda Anisimova or Linda Noskova on Tuesday for a spot in the semifinals.

World No.1 and dual-Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka kept alive her hopes of winning a maiden Wimbledon title with a tough win over crafty Belgian rival Elise Mertens.

The No. seed was strongly challenged by Mertens, an accomplished singles and doubles player who has found her best form on grass, but held her nerve to progress 6-4 7-6 (4).

Sabalenka will face German veteran Laura Siegemund, who reached her second major quarterfinal, who was too strong for Argentinian lucky loser Solana Sierra when successful 6-3 6-2.