LONDON: Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova has reached her first Wimbledon quarter-final for nine years after ending the fairytale run of home player Sonay Kartal.
The 34-year-old battled her way to a 7-6(3), 6-4, victory over Kartal, who was the last home player remaining in the women’s draw. Throughout the clash there were plenty of changes in momentum with nine breaks of serve occuring. However, the main talking point of Pavlyuchenkova’s match involved the malfunction of the Hawk-Eye system on a key point.
“It’s incredible because I always thought I was not good on grass. That’s just incredible, especially with me getting older and coming here,” said Pavlyuchenkova.
“I’m so impressed and proud of myself for competing with the young girls at this stage and at this level. It is just incredible.“
The opening set was a roller-coaster encounter between the two, with each of them dropping serve three times. However, controversy occurred at 4-4 when Pavlyuchenkova had an advantage. A shot from Kartal landed beyond the baseline, with video replay showing it was also out, but there was no call from the electronic line-calling system. This was because the system failed to track the point and resulted in the point being replayed. If the system were working, Pavlyuchenkova would have won the game. However, instead, she ended up getting broken.
“I don’t know if it’s in or it’s out. How do I know? How can you prove it?” she complained to umpire Nico Helwerth.
“Because she is local, they can say whatever. You took the game away from me.”
This year is the first time electronic line calling is being used at SW19 instead of line judges. Despite the system being a regular occurrence in the sport, some players, such as Emma Raducanu and Carlos Alcaraz, have voiced their concerns at Wimbledon.
Despite being furious with the outcome, Pavlyuchenkova regained her focus to break back in the following game, in which she saved a set point. Heading into the tiebreaker, she claimed four out of the first five points played, which gave her enough of a margin to seal the first set after 78 minutes of play.
The trading of breaks continued into the second frame with the world No.50 narrowly edging ahead of Kartal, who was seeking to reach her first Grand Slam quarter-final at the age of 23. Working her way to a game away from victory at 5-4, a Kartal shot landing her granted her match point. She then closed out the match with a clean winner down the line.
“I think my mental toughness is getting better,” she said of her improvements.
“I think I was always a very good player; everybody knows that on Tour. But I was just crazy in my head. Now it’s getting better and I’m fighting point-by-point.
“It was tough conditions today, and I think I managed really well and stayed focused.” She added.
Pavlyuchenkova is the player with the biggest gap (nine years) between their first two Wimbledon quarter-final appearances in the Open Era.
