Emma Raducanu spoke to the media at Wimbledon after her third-round defeat to Aryna Sabalenka and wasn’t happy about one facet of here loss to the world No.1 – nor her victories in the previous rounds either
Emma Raducanu left Wimbledon taking aim at SW19 chiefs over their decision to replace line judges and install the Electronic Line Calling system.
The ELC has been brought in at SW19 for the first time this year. But Raducanu is not a fan and made her feelings very clear on the subject after her third round defeat to Aryna Sabalenka on Friday night.
Raducanu insisted the ELC had been “very wrong” numerous times on her run to the third round, adding her voice to the likes of Jack Draper and Carlos Alcaraz – both of whom have also been very sceptical about the system’s reliability.
Raducanu queried a line call with the chair umpire midway through the first set of her clash with Sabalenka before succumbing to a 7-6 6-4 defeat against the world No.1. And that isn’t the only decision the Brit felt was incorrectly given against her this week.
“Yeah, I mean, that call [against Sabalenka] was, like, for sure out,” Raducanu said in her post-match press conference. “It’s kind of disappointing, the tournament here, that the calls can be so wrong.
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“For the most part they’ve been okay. It’s just, like, I’ve had a few in my other matches, too, that have been very wrong. So yeah, I don’t know.
“Hopefully they can kind of fix that.”
Draper had felt that the system caused issues during his loss to Marin Cilic. The British men’s No.1 said: “I don’t think it’s 100 per cent accurate, in all honesty. A couple of the ones today, it showed a mark on the court. There’s no way the chalk would have showed.
During his third round win over Jan-Lennard Struff, world No.2 Alcaraz told the umpire: “I’m not sure about it. I would have asked for a challenge. It’s not the first time I’ve seen the machine… it’s not the first time. I’m not sure about some calls.”
On Friday, Wimbledon tournament director Jamie Baker spoke out in defence of the system. “The concept of live line calling is absolutely standard across the tour now,” he said. “Two of the other grand slams have had it for four or five years.
“The accuracy and the reliability and the robustness of the system and the process as a whole, in terms of officiating, is in as good a place as it has been for tennis.”
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