Sonay Kartal suffers defeat in rainy Australian Open debut amid automated line calling controversy as Brits get off to losing start in Melbourne
Not a great deal went right for Sonay Kartal on her Australian Open debut. First she had to wait four hours for her match to start, then another 15 minutes for water to stop seeping through holes in the court.
She lost a point after a ball was called out from a different court and finally was soundly beaten by Spaniard Jessica Bouzas Maneiro.
Melbourne was drenched in rain yesterday so the British No3’s match started in the evening rather than the afternoon. Once court staff had finished mopping up water that bubbled through the tiny pinholes in the surface they got underway.
There was a curious incident in the second game of the match which illustrated one disadvantage of fully automated line calling. Bouzas Maneiro hit a serve close to the line and both she and Kartal thought it had been called out – before realising the call had actually come from the disembodied voice on the adjacent court, rather than their own.
‘It is one of the harder things I find with not having line judges,’ said Kartal. ‘(The automatic calls) all sound the same.’
Kartal was outclassed here by the world No54, losing 6-1, 7-6. ‘Disappointed with the result and pretty disappointed with the performance as well,’ said Kartal. ‘It was definitely far from how I expected myself to play.
Sonay Kartal was defeated by Spaniard Jessica Bouzas Maneiro in her Australian Open debut
The first round clash included a curious incident that occurred as a result of fully automated line calling
‘But credit to her she came out guns blazing in that first set. It was tricky, she in some aspects plays very similar to me: spinny forehand, gets good whip off the ball. It was tough playing someone like myself.’
Kartal said before the tournament that she is looking to add a more aggressive gear to her game – which is built on looping, spinny groundstrokes.
If she wanted an example of how she is looking to play, she could do much worse than re-watching Bouzas Maneiro’s performance in the first set, full of fire and power.
‘When you play someone like that, if you stand that far behind the baseline you give them all the angles,’ she said. ‘So looking back now, I definitely could have been closer to the line and I would have given myself a better chance.
‘I need to get better at just flickering between the two: the more aggressive and the spinner kind of forehand.’
A losing start to the Australian Open for the British contingent, then, but there were six raiders left to run: Jodie Burrage and Jack Draper overnight, Jacob Fearnley in the morning; Emma Raducanu, Katie Boulter and Cam Norrie on Tuesday.
