Play at Wimbledon qualifying suspended as ELC fails in extreme heat

Play at Wimbledon qualifying at Roehampton was suspended for over an hour due to a power outage that caused the tournament’s Electronic Line Calling (ELC) system to fail amid extreme heat.

Players were taken off court shortly after midday on Wednesday, with the temperature in south west London reaching a brutal 33C, before returning at around 1:30pm BST.

ELC replaced replaced line judges at Wimbledon last year, but the system was accidentally deactivated during the match between Anastasia Pavlyuchenkov and Sonay Kartal, due to “human error”.

Speaking ahead of this year’s Wimbledon, chief executive of the All England Club Sally Bolton said there was confidence in the system – but the extreme heat is likely to have played a part in this latest outage.

“There was a temporary loss of power to part of our Qualifying venue, which meant that the electronic line calling system could not function,” a spokesperson for the All England Club said. “Power has now been restored and play is expected to resume shortly.”

The tournament is operating under an extreme heat weather warning, with the first priority being the welfare of players and guests. Although it is understood it is likely the heat was a factor in the outage, a full investigation will be undertaken in due course.

On the BBC, presenter Annabel Croft said it had been a “very challenging day”, with temperatures expected to rise to 37C later in the day.

Britain’s Dan Evans, looking to reach a final Wimbledon before his planned retirement, was one of those impacted by the delay as he lost in the second round of qualifying against Tristan Schoolkate, the Australian 28th seed closing out a 7-5 6-0 win when play resumed.

Schoolkate said of the issues in his post-match interview on the BBC: “It is not usually this hot in London, so it was unexpected – it usually rains a bit.

“I don’t think it was a heat thing, maybe it had something to do with the electronics and all that, but you get time to gather your thoughts. It was a bit strange, but I was just glad I came out of the gates pretty hot there.”

Wimbledon has a heat rule in place for this year’s tournament and players are allowed to request a 10-minute break when the heat stress index is at or above 30.1C.

The heat stress index accounts for air temperature, humidity and surface temperature – creating a ‘feels-like’ reading that is also known as the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature [WGBT].

The heat stress index will be measured 30 minutes before the start of play, then at 2pm and then at 5pm. The 10-minute break would take place between the second and third sets for women’s singles matches and between the third and fourth sets for men’s matches.

A rare red weather warning for extreme heat has come into force across large parts of the county, as Britons have been told to stay out of the sun for a four-hour period.

Record-breaking temperatures of 40C are expected on Wednesday, with the Met Office alert stretching from London across to Somerset and Swansea, and up towards Birmingham, until 9pm on Thursday.

People have been warned to stay out of the sun between 11am and 3pm as the severe heat is expected to cause a danger to life, while Network Rail has advised passengers to only travel if “absolutely necessary”.

Extreme heat has played a part in both of this season’s tennis grand slams, with temperatures of 46C at the Australian Open and a heatwave hitting the French Open, too.

Defending Wimbledon champion Jannik Sinner has at times struggled in the heat, and was knocked out of the French Open during a sweltering second round.

Wimbledon recorded its hottest opening day at last year’s Championship and the heat could be a significant factor once again across the fortnight, which begins on Monday 28 June.