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Tim Henman has described as ‘complete garbage’ the complaints from players such as Emma Raducanu, Jack Draper and Carlos Alcaraz about the accuracy of the electronic line calling system.
Wimbledon have dispensed with the services of line judges this year in favour of a fully automated, Hawkeye-powered calling system.
Several players have expressed a view that some of the calls are wrong, and on Sunday the system was switched off, causing chaos in Sonay Kartal’s match against Anastasiya Pavlyuchenkova.
But Henman insisted the latter was down to human error and fully backed the system.
‘There are two very separate stories,’ said the former British No1, a board member of the All England Club. ‘The narrative around players questioning the accuracy of the calling is just utter garbage.’
Raducanu protested one call during her defeat to Aryna Sabalenka on Friday and afterwards said: ‘That call was for sure out. It's kind of disappointing that the calls can be so wrong.’ Earlier in the week, Draper said: ‘A couple of the ones today, it showed a mark on the court. I guess it cannot be 100 per cent accurate. It’s a shame the umpires aren’t involved.’
Tim Henman has described as ‘complete garbage’ the complaints from players about the accuracy of the electronic line calling system
Raducanu protested one call during her defeat to Aryna Sabalenka on Friday and afterwards said: ‘That call was for sure out.'
This ball from Sonay Kartal was not called out as HawkEye line judge malfunctioned on Sunday
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova couldn't believe the decision and made her feelings known
On those incidents, Henman added: ‘I was commentating on some of those matches and when you see it in real time, you sort of think, oh, did that look out? And then when you go back, as I've done, and look at them in slow motion. They are on the outside edge of the line, they hit the line.
‘This narrative that the technology is inaccurate, that's garbage. The Kartal incident, that is someone that has un-clicked a box, and so the system is deactivated - it’s human error and the timing of the human area just adds fuel to the fire. Unfortunately, the said individual made a mistake yesterday and we can't turn the clock back. We suffer the consequences of that. But I can't stress enough that the technology is brilliant.
‘This is technology that's been around for a long, long time. Is it accurate? Absolutely, 100 per cent. When you move to the Kartal element, that's human error, that is someone that has un-clicked a box, and so the system is deactivated. So if it's not activated, it's not going to work. So they're two totally separate situations.’
