Umpire stops play in first minute of doubles match as confusion reigns over rogue line call

MELBOURNE: Day seven was off to an inauspicious start when a doubles match involving Australian pair Tristan Schoolkate and Adam Walton had to be stopped by the umpire in the first minute of play.

Facing American pair Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek, the Aussies may have briefly thought they'd got out of jail after Krajicek rifled a forehand down the line for what appeared to be a clear winner that landed about a metre inside the tram lines. Despite the ball clearly landing in, the electronic line caller gave a clear call of 'out', causing all four players to turn to the umpire in confusion.

"This must be a technical error, the ball is clearly inside," German umpire Nico Helwerth said before a protest from the American pair could get under way.

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"I think they are probably on singles, let me just check because it's clearly inside."

The umpire's theory, that the line calling settings had mistakenly been set up for a singles match, rather than a doubles match, turned out to be correct, with the match stopped while the problem was corrected.

It's a very modern problem, given that the Australian Open had human line judges only two years ago.

"Ladies and gentlemen, there's been a technical issue with the system, as you can see," Helwerth announced over the PA after getting off the radio to tournament control.

"When the system is ready to continue, I'll let you know in a second, please hold on."

Commentating for the world feed, Geoff Masters pointed out that the problem could have been more serious had it occurred during a pivotal moment in the match.

"Better to happen I guess in the first point than on match point or set point or break point or something else," Masters said.

In the end it took several minutes before the system was rebooted and Walton was given the all clear to resume his service game, only to be told he needed to halt yet again when it became clear the line calling system still wasn't working effectively.

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"It's not as if they can substitute line judges either," commentator David Basheer said.

"They're not around anymore Geoff, they're redundant. So frustration here for the players."

"Yeah, a little moreso for the Aussie duo frankly, because they're serving and pressure's on them to serve, and another delay makes it a little bit more awkward."

Walton and Schoolkate lost both points while the system errors persisted, so were serving at 0/30 in the first game of the match when normal service resumed.

They seemingly never truly recovered, losing the match convincingly, 6-2, 6-4.