Artificial Intelligence at Australian Open randomly starts shouting ‘foot fault, foot fault, foot fault’ before Dominik Koepfer begins his serve | Tennis News

The time violation called in home player Jordan Thompson’s first round win at the Australian Open was supposed to be the chief drama of the match. “You could just say ‘hurry up’ … you didn’t give me one warning,” Thompson kept arguing with the chair, early in his 7-6 (3), 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 victory against German qualifier Dominik Koepfer. But it was the eerie faceless voice screaming “foot fault, foot fault, foot fault” before Koepfer even begun his serve in the fourth set, that sent a round of laughter, in the tense match.
‘Thommo’ as the Aussie is known, post a win against Djokovic in the past, is popular for his high intensity dramatic matches. He had taken the first two sets 7-6 (7-3), 6-4 against the countering German who was fighting back. Koepfer broke Thompson right away at the start of the 4th. And what followed was a bizarre erupting of machine pre-recorded voice, chanting “foot faultx3…”
Koepfer went on to lose the game, his momentum, set and match thereafter as the video surfaced on theroar.com.
ABC reported in its live blog, “Jordan Thompson suffered an early scare at the beginning of the fourth set, getting broken immediately Koepfer.
But he was able to break back — not before the AI technology decided to shout out “foot fault, foot fault, foot fault” before Koepfer had even begun his serve. It sounded like a remix of sorts. Thompson’s showing plenty of fight, so let’s hope he continues to bring it.”
The reported malfunction was a direct result of AI Umpiring which has waded into AI-powered foot-fault detection since 2024. “It utilizes skeletal tracking technology to improve match accuracy and reduce human error. This innovation reflects the Open’s proactive adoption of cutting-edge technologies,” according to theupside.us podcast.
The Australian Open was among the first tournaments to take up Hawk-Eye technology, providing line-calling to challenge umpire decisions. But completely doing away with lines persons was justified with the arguments for technology being: “AI doesn’t tire, doesn’t feel pressure, and doesn’t have personal biases.”
The AO adoption of tech has been greatly publicized Machar Reid, the head of Innovation of Tennis Australia who owns the Australian Open Tennis, and his own tech venture. Reid had said on the podcast that it was the “only tennis work to have landed the data analytics prize at the MIT Sloan conference.”
While rooting for the tech, Reid added, “part of their product roadmap is to actually build out a line calling solution on a single mobile device…Andy Roddick and James Blake are also equally some of the early investors in the group that I mentioned earlier, Swing Vision. So now we’re co-invested with those two.”
However nobody was prepared for the AI to start screaming “foot fault” even before Koepfer had served. The ‘foot fault’ violation, if you ask any tennis player, is potentially a confidence-shaking call, that often shifts momentum in matches because of how it can throw a player off and mess with concentration. Remember, the 2009 US Open semifinal between Serena Williams and Kim Clijsters which will forever be remembered for Williams’ outburst against a line judge who called a foot fault at a critical juncture?
Having just picked up the third set and looking to level breaking in the 4th, Koepfer would’ve been thrown, though the shrill AI voice caused much merriment in the crowd.
Later the 27th seeded Thompson accepted there was added pressure on Australian players, competing at the home Slam. It had oozed out when the 30-year-old got into ab regiment either the chair umpire early in the third set, getting into a time violation warning. He was draction people walking around, he said.
“You could have said something to me,” he yelled at the official. “Have I been close once? No. People are just walking everywhere and I’m waiting for them half the time. I’m a little bit late and you give me a time violation, it’s a joke.” He would keep erupting in-between games. The experienced chair umpire Marija Cicak told the irritated Thommo, “It started it when you had six balls on this side.”

The German Koepfer, however, had no human to argue against. He hadn’t even served when the “foot fault” chants rung out.

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