British-built Hawk-Eye software goes dark during Wimbledon match

Wimbledon’s new automated line-calling system glitched during a tennis match Sunday, just days after it replaced the tournament’s human line judges for the first time. 

The system, called Hawk-Eye, uses a network of cameras equipped with computer vision to track tennis balls in real-time. If the ball lands out, a pre-recorded voice loudly says, “Out.” If the ball is in, there’s no call and play continues.

However, the software temporarily went dark during a women’s singles match between Brit Sonay Kartal and Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova on Centre Court. 

At 4-4 in the opening set, Pavlyuchenkova reached game point when Kartal fired a shot that landed clearly out — but Hawk-Eye stayed silent. With no call from the system, the umpire ordered a replay of the point, despite video replays confirming the error. 

Pavlyuchenkova was fuming. “You stole the game from me,” she said to the umpire, Reuters ...