Elena Rybakina says she has no trust in the electronic line-calling system at the Madrid Open after an incident during her roller-coaster win over China’s Zheng Qinwen on Sunday.
The Kazakh second seed battled past the current Olympic champion 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 to move into the fourth round. At one stage, Rybakina was down a set and a break against Zheng before clawing her way back. She has now won 15 out of 17 matches played since the start of March, with both of those defeats being to world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka.
Rybakina’s frustration with the electronic system occurred during the second set when a Zheng serve was called in, handing the Chinese player an ace to go up 40-0. However, Rybakina complained to the umpire that the ball was out and pointed to a marking on the court. Officials are unable to overrule the system’s decision unless it fails.
“I won’t trust it at all,” Rybakina later said about the incident. “Because there was no mark even close to what the TV showed.”
The second seed went on to compare what happened to her with Alexander Zverev’s incident at the same tournament last year. Zverev was issued a warning after taking a photo of a ball marking he believed was out, but the system concluded it was in.
“It was, I think, similar to what (Alexander) Zverev had last year because it was in front of her (the umpire’s) nose,” she continued.
“You can’t not see it. It was pretty frustrating. It’s kind of a stolen point. I understand it was her serve and she was serving really well, but it’s really frustrating.”
Electronic line-calling was first introduced to the Madrid Open in 2020 and has since replaced line judges at the tournament with a Fully Automated system.
Rybakina will next play Anastasia Potapova, who defeated Jelena Ostapenko in her third round match.
