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By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Tuesday May 6, 2025
There are myriad things that can go wrong with electronic line-calling on clay.
Today in Rome, we learned of another.
When Peyton Stearns’ backhand return went uncalled by the system early in the first set of her first-round match, the American assumed she had saved a break point. But Nuria Brancaccio appealed to umpire Yuliya Ignatchenko, who got on the headphones and quickly was informed that the ELC had been asleep for the point.
Not a good look for the system, but Ignatchenko knew what to. She sprang out of her chair with the intent of going to check the mark. Rules don’t allow umpires to check ballmarks when ELC is in play on a clay court, but when the system fails, they are permitted to take back the power and do what they are born to do. To be fair, she told both players in her pre-match instructions prior to the coin toss .
Upon seeing Ignatchenko heading over to check the mark, Stearns protested. She, like all other players, had been told that umpires are no longer allowed to check marks.
Stearns lost the game, as the ball was ruled long (very, in fact), and wanted to know why. Why not stop play if you knew the system was down, she wanted to know.
But don't fault Ignatchenko, who didn’t know the system was down until it missed what appeared to be an obvious call. That raises questions about how many points were played with the system asleep, while the players and umpire obliviously were trusting it to do its job.
It’s a new wrinkle in officiating on clay. The system can be trusted to perform within it's margin of error, but can it be trusted to stay on line? Apparently not. We’ve seen electronic line-calling systems go down across the tour time and time again this year, and there may be other times when the system is down and nobody even realizes it. God forbid that happens on championship point, on a very close call, in Rome.
After the match Stearns, who won 6-3, 6-2, talked about the experience.
“She said the line-calling system is down and that’s why she checked it,” Stearns said. “I remember in Madrid there were calls where the ball was in and the machine calls it out. You can’t check the mark – it is what it is, whatever the machine says. They don’t clarify the rules very well when you have circumstances like this.”
We already have players not trusting the calls that the system is making. Now we have players not knowing if the system is even working, and that makes them a little paranoid. Can you blame them?
In this case we must commend Ignatchenko, who was alert, had tracked the mark, and did what was necessary to make the correct call on the point. We won’t praise the ELC system here, because it clearly “dropped the ball.”
For more on this subject, see our video on players taking pictures of ballmarks on the clay.