NEW YORK — The electronic voice sounded almost embarrassed as it made the call that everyone on the tennis court could see was wrong.Monday at the U.S. Open, No. 21 seed Anna Kalinskaya led Russian compatriot Anna Blinkova 6-4, 2-2, 40-15 on Court 5.After a short rally, Kalinskaya sent a forehand crosscourt that bounced comfortably inside the singles sideline. As it rose off the blue acrylic, Kalinskaya turned for the end of the game — before an almost plaintive shout of “out” echoed across the court.Kalinskaya looked like she had seen a ghost, and immediately requested a replay. The chair umpire made the announcement, but nothing came up. Eventually, the screen showed a ball bouncing several feet away from the nearest line, but it was a replay of a serve that had nothing to do with the point in question.In a statement sent to The Athletic, a USTA spokesperson said: “At 40-15 in the fifth game of the second set, a malfunction with the ELC Live system caused a shot hit by Kalinskaya to be inaccurately called out.
“At this point, complete protocols were not followed by the officials involved in the match, which led to video review not being utilized. In this case, video review should have been applicable.”Video review is available for all courts at the U.S. Open for the first time this year. The spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for clarification on whether the chair umpire should have offered Kalinskaya a request for the video review, or whether they should have made one themselves.After an awkward pause, Kalinskaya approached the umpire.In the interim, television coverage showed a replay of the ball clearly landing in, which the people on the court could not see.“It was like this (as she indicated a large gap with her hands) in,” Kalinskaya said to the umpire.“It was very close to the line. I don’t know whether it was in or out, so we have to go with the call,” the umpire said.“You are here to watch!” Kalinskaya said in frustration.With electronic line calling having been adopted across the ATP and WTA Tours and three of the four Grand Slams (the French Open is the outlier), chair umpires cannot overrule live calls. On clay, there is a rationale behind this: the ball marks left on the clay and the electronic line calling system will sometimes not align because of the way balls interact with the moving, “live” particles when they bounce. On hard courts, this is not an issue.Why the French Open hasn’t replaced line judgesAva Wallace and Rachael TindeKalinskaya continued to dispute the call and asked for a supervisor to come to the court, but the chair umpire did not allow it.“Why would I listen to this crazy call?” Kalinskaya said.After accepting her fate, Kalinskaya lost the game from 40-15 up, but it did not affect the result. She defeated Blinkova 6-4, 6-3 to move into the second round.Aug 31, 2026Connections: Sports EditionSpot the pattern. Connect the termsFind the hidden link between sports terms
