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Tough calls, big egos and even danger: yes, top-level tennis needs a firm hand

TONY CHO IS nearly unflappable. Having worked as a chair umpire at the highest levels in tennis, he’s probably heard every expletive known to humankind, in all possible combinations, in scores of different languages on most of the planet’s continents. He’s been cursed out by teenage girls, celebrities, wannabes and nobodies alike.

But no matter what the situation, he remains calm, gracious and unfazed. That’s his job.

Today, Cho, 43, is one of a handful of globetrotting tour supervisors for the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA). “As the tour supervisor, I am the authority at a tournament,” he says, relaxing upstairs at the Waterloo Tennis Club. “I work full time for the WTA. We are the largest professional women’s athletics organization in the world and we offer close to $100 million in prize money. We run 53 events in roughly 33 countries.”

That means if it starts raining during the women’s final at Wimbledon, Cho makes the call to postpone or continue. If Serena Williams is having issues with her hotel in Rome, Cho is the person she calls to sort it out. If Maria Sharapova is locked in a close match with Li Na and there is a dispute over a ruling on a certain play, Cho is on the scene to make the final decision.

Working where the buck stops means lots of travelling, late night phone calls, and managing of egos. But truthfully, in all of the chaos, Cho isn’t sworn at too much anymore. He’s earned far too much respect (and power) for that. Plus, what would be the point? In his rise from teenage line judge, to chair umpire to one of seven current WTA tour supervisors, he has weathered it all.

“I started in 1986 as a line umpire in Toronto at the Players International Tournament up at York,” he explains. “That was in high school. I was working as a hobby.”

Soon that hobby grew into something bigger. Proving himself an accurate and knowledgeable umpire, Cho began travelling with the ATP Tour to Grand Slam events such as the U.S. Open and Australian Open. By 1992, at the tender age of 22, he found himself at the Olympic Games in Barcelona working as an umpire. >>