Caroline Wozniacki blames "absurd" Hawkeye for Wimbledon exit

Caroline Wozniacki called Hawkeye "crazy" and "absurd" after she crashed out to Shuai Zhang in the third round of Wimbledon.

The former world number one was beaten 6-4 6-2 on Court Two in a match where she felt let down by technology.

Wozniacki was aggrieved at two baseline calls made by Hawkeye in the second set, which ruled the ball in after being called out by the line judge, both handing Zhang the points after the Chinese challenged.

She vented her frustration to umpire Nacho Forcadell, who agreed that the ball looked out, saying: "It's so ridiculous.

China's Shuai Zhang progresses to the fourth round for the first time at #Wimbledon as she beats No.14 seed Caroline Wozniacki pic.twitter.com/X356oNJ9sl

— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 5, 2019

"This is supposed to be a Championships match, this is absurd. It's crazy."

The calls would not have mattered had the Dane been able to build on a start which saw her lead 4-0 in the first set, but the Chinese, who dumped Caroline Garcia out in the opening round, won 12 of the next 14 games.

Wozniacki was more pragmatic in her press conference, saying that the technology was "not in the ideal place".

She said: "I mean, at this point it doesn't matter. It is what it is. Maybe the Hawkeye was right. Maybe I just saw it wrong. I don't know.

"But you trust Hawkeye normally. You trust that it tells you the right thing. Sometimes you do see the balls a little differently than what the Hawkeye is.

"At least you know, OK, you can get it out of your mind. I do believe that it was not in the ideal place today."

Umpire Forcadell said that they would look at it for the next match, but that was of little use to Wozniacki.

She said: "He saw it differently and the linesmen saw it differently (to Hawkeye) as well. But then again, there's nothing you can do about it. It is what it is.

"That's what he said, for the next match. Well, I don't have a next match, so..."

Third seed Karolina Pliskova and eighth seed Elina Svitolina are through to the second week for just the second time in their career.

Pliskova came through a tricky encounter against Su-Wei Hsieh on Court One, 6-3 2-6 6-4.

Ukrainian Svitolina made hard work of it against Greek Maria Sakkari, eventually winning 6-3 6-7 (1) 6-2 on the seventh match point.

Cori Gauff is not the only teenager in town in the women's draw as Dayana Yastremska booked her place in the fourth round by beating Viktorija Golubic 7-5 6-3.

The 19-year-old is having a dream SW19 and will play Zheng next.

Victoria Azarenka called the warning she received in her straight-sets defeat to Simona Halep as "pathetic".

Azarenka received the sanction after bouncing her racket in the first set of her 6-3 6-1 loss on Centre Court.

It is little surprise the Belarussian was frustrated as she was in the midst of a capitulation that saw her lose 11 of 12 games, having been 3-1 up in the first set.

"I think it was pathetic, to be honest," she said.

"I understand the no tolerance, whatever it was, two metres outside of the court. I didn't damage the court and anything like that.

"It's like you have to be with no single emotion on the court, and that's just not tennis. I'm sorry, but it's not."

Halep described the win in the battle of the former world number ones as her best performance of 2019.

"I'm very satisfied," she said. "I think was my best match this year. I played really well. I felt actually very confident."

Karolina Muchova defeated 20th seed Anett Kontaveit and Petra Martic won in three sets over Danielle Collins.

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