A Wimbledon ball boy has been blamed, as Wimbledon’s new AI-powered line-calling system suffered yet another error, prompting calls to “stop the machines.” Taylor Fritz and Karen Khachanov’s quarter-final clash was halted when the process called out a phantom “fault” — despite the ball being about 3 feet inside the baseline. This is the latest gaffe the technology has made since coming in for this summer’s tournament to replace the 147-year-old tradition of line judges calling the shots. On this occasion, the technology failed because a ball boy was not off the court surface when Fritz began his serve, so it failed to recognize that play had begun. Umpire Louis Azemar-Engzell had to suspend play and make a call to the referee’s office. It was determined that the first game of the fourth set had to be replayed. While some called for the ball boy to face blame for the mishap, Russia’s Khachanov, who went on to lose the match by 3 sets to 1, has called for traditional line judges to be brought back.
