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Wimbledon’s line technology system, already under scrutiny, faced another setback during Taylor Fritz’s quarter-final triumph over Karen Khachanov on Tuesday. Swedish umpire Louise Azemar Engzell had to halt a point in the first game of the fourth set on Court One after a “fault” was mistakenly called when a Fritz forehand landed well within the baseline.
The “fault” call, rather than “out,” along with the ball’s positioning, indicated that the system was still monitoring Fritz’s serve instead of an ongoing rally, necessitating a replay of the point.
Tournament officials expressed their confidence on Sunday about preventing further malfunctions with the technology after a major error during Sonay Kartal’s fourth-round loss to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the women’s draw.
In that instance, the newly implemented system failed to register an “out” call when a shot from Kartal landed far behind the baseline.
For the first time this year, a fully automated system has replaced human line judges at Wimbledon, following the lead of the Australian Open and the US Open.
However, several issues and concerns have been voiced by other players regarding the technology, including those of British players Emma Raducanu and Jack Draper.
Despite the controversy, Fritz advanced to his first Wimbledon semi-final after another tough match, winning 6-3, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (7/4).
The fifth seed nearly faced a first-round exit, having gone down two sets to Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard and also needing five sets to defeat Gabriel Diallo in the second round.
Fritz was somewhat aided by Jordan Thompson’s premature retirement in the fourth round, allowing him to muster his energy to fend off Khachanov’s comeback. Just one break of serve sufficed for the American to clinch the first two sets.
Khachanov, who had emerged victorious in their two previous encounters, retaliated at the start of the third set with a double break of Fritz’s powerful serve. The Russian seemed poised to push Fritz to the limit again after breaking early in the fourth.
Nevertheless, the world number five responded by breaking back in the fourth game and concluded his victory in just over two and a half hours via a tiebreak. Fritz is set to compete against the winner of the defending champion Carlos Alcaraz’s match with Britain’s Cameron Norrie in the semi-finals.
