A “human error” led to the automatic arbitration system to be “deactivated” on Sunday during a tennis game in Wimbledondetailed on Monday the general director of the Sally Bolton tournament, “deeply disappointed” After this isolated but controversial incident.
The incident in question occurred during the party that faced the British Sonay Kartal and the Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the central track.
With 4-4 on the first set, Kartal sent a ball behind the background, which would have allowed the Russian to take the game and advance 5-4. However, the electronic system did not work and the chair judge preferred to repeat the point, instead of giving it to the Russian.
“They stole that game, they have stolen it to me,” Pavlyuchenkova loaded from the track. Finally the Russian ended up winning that set and then the game.
The electronic system, deactivated between each game, was also “accidentally” in the middle of the game, Bolton explained, without offering more details. “I don’t know why, it was a mistake.”
“The problem we have found is due to a human error: the monitoring system was accidentally deactivated and the chair judge was not informed,” he explained to various media, including AFP.
The director of the All England Club, headquarters of Wimbledon, indirectly responded to Pavlyuchenkova who requested that “a clear plan” be established in case of computer ruling, since the chair judges “are a bit lost and do not know what to do” according to the Russian tennis player.
According to the protocol, the referee must make a decision if the electronic system does not work, “but he or she must have clearly seen” if the ball comes out or not, what was surely not the case on Sunday, Bolton suggested.
“We are deeply disappointed by what happened during Wimbledon,” but the automatic arbitration system, first launched this year “works optimally and efficiently,” he insisted.
This system works with cameras and detects in real time if the ball has entered or is missing, “It is not artificial intelligencethere are humans involved and in this case, it is a human error, “he concluded.
