The (line) umpire strikes back
An Australian line umpire who officiated when Serena Williams was at a recent Australian Open, says she found it no fun. She asked her name not be used, for professional reasons.
It was my first grand slam event, so of course I was nervous. It was the grand slam after the US Open when Serena Williams had threatened a line umpire. Players don’t tend to talk directly to line umpires; it’s like an unspoken law, I believe.
The chair is the person who speaks to players and resolves issues, yet Serena was directing abuse directly to the line umpire. It was threatening.
A line umpire is meant to say nothing but that puts you in a tough position when you are being harassed in front of millions, just for doing your job.
Yes, umpires are not perfect, they are human just like players and fans, and are professionals who try hard.
In Australia, for example, many umpires are teachers working a second job in their summer holidays, getting paid about $200 a day at the Open, and less for the other local tournaments leading up to it, which you must do.
The days are long, around 12 hours and there are limitations on lifestyle during that time, plus there is the fear of being over-ruled by Hawkeye on the main stadiums or even TV replays on the smaller ones.
Many umpires are tennis enthusiasts, good people who respect the traditions of the sport. Do they deserve to be humiliated by someone earning millions because they don’t like the rules being enforced on them?
Do they deserve to be spoken to like that and then not have a voice to talk back with?
Is this the type of behaviour we want to promote of our champions in society?
I can’t speak for other umpires (around 400 of them at the Australian Open) but I do feel there was a genuine feeling at that time that Serena is a bit more difficult.
Umpires are always in a difficult situation because they aren’t meant to talk or show any bias, so there’s an issue if they propose to go on strike against Serena, as is being raised now.
That would be an extraordinary event, but who would seriously want to umpire her? She won’t shake your hand if she doesn’t like the call, she keeps on blaming the umpire instead of her reactions and she doesn’t apologise for it.
It took me around two years to make the open as an umpire. There’s a pathway, which in Australia involves coming up through local and state tournaments.
Umpire performance is observed at each match and you get feedback. The best umpires go deeper into the tournament to the finals and big courts. Others are released gradually as matches wind down.
Already some commentators are calling for robots to umpire the game. That is a very sad thing if it happens as tennis is meant to be a contest of mind as well as body, and ultimately a test of character.
It’s sad that a certain type of player is able to influence the game like this. On that, I don’t dispute there may be different treatment for men and women but I haven’t looked at the evidence so I don’t know.
Personally, they were just all players to me, she just being a scary one as she crosses the line with her reason and retort.
If she or anyone else is going to play the sexist card then they need to give more evidence than just feelings.
For example, if it is sexist, why were there almost twice as many violations against men as there were against women at the 2018 US Open? The women only had around 12 violations, three of which were attributed to Serena in the finals.
Maybe it’s because the men play longer. Is that sexist? Why don’t women play five-setters too? I’m not suggesting that, I’m just noting the difference.
Carlos Ramos has a history of giving violations to the top men’s players too. The reason they don’t lose games is because they calm themselves down and don’t cross the line. So I think it’s the ‘express your emotions’ card she should be playing instead of the sexist one.
So what’s her point really? It seems like a diversion because at the end of the day, she was feeling a lot of emotion, was desperate to win, and was losing against an unknown.
She let her emotions get the better of her, and is not taking responsibility for her actions.
While players do get emotional on court, they generally know not to go too far. Part of match preparation is knowing who your chair is and being aware of how they interpret the rules. Ramos shouldn’t have been a surprise to Serena; and most top players respect him, including Rafael Nadal, who gets pulled up by him a lot. Tennis is a game based on manners, for that reason everything would be OK if Serena just apologised.
‘‘They were just all players to me, she [Serena Williams] just being a scary one as she crosses the line with her reason and retort.’’