I worked an ATP tournament in Long Island as a line umpire for five days during August 2003. It was a great experience working outside the state where I met officials from all over the world. The event started off interestingly on the day after the big power outage on the East Coast. It was uncertain whether matches would commence on schedule, but The Hamlet Club in Commack did get its electricity back in time for the first match.

The tournament picked up officials from airports all over New York City. Because of the black out and all the chaos, they were combining pickups of officials and players. Much to my surprise, when I got in the car at LaGuardia, James Blake was in the back seat. That was a real highlight talking with him for the hour ride to our hotel.

The level of play was amazing, with the speed of the shots and closeness to lines incredible. However, all the line calling I’ve done during the last couple of years at Challengers and Satellites served me well. I think of these Challenger events as my “home work” in preparing for higher level events. I worked some memorable matches, like the Alex Corretja vs Paradorn Srichaphan (the eventual winner) match, but the best one was a 5 setter between Jonas Bjorkman vs James Blake.

This event provided me an opportunity to pick up valuable tips from observing and talking to world class officials. It certainly whetted my appetite for doing more.



Richard Soukup
September, 2003

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                Wimbledon – Half A Dream Come True

It was unbelievable when I finally got the confirmation that I’ve been selected to work the 2003 Wimbledon Qualies. I was excited but at the same time apprehensive as I’ve never worked on grass before.

It’s been 20 years since I last visited London. I was fortunate that I have a friend who lives conveniently on the bus route – 30 minutes to the site at ROEHAMPTON.

We had wonderful weather. Roehampton grass courts all in a row with a narrow walkway in between courts. The most noticeable sight was that all the chair umpires’ chairs (12 of them) are in a straight line.

I was told to look for chalk to ‘fly’ up but the lines were so faint and thinly painted that most times there was no chalk even when the ball lands on the line. The rare times I saw chalk was when the ball was hit where the serve and side lines intersect (seems the paint was thicker there).

It was great that we had a fairly large contingent of American umpires (16 in the special group that were selected to work the Qualies only) who were there for the first time. We got to meet umpires from all over the world.  The event went well and all the matches finished on Thursday (we got paid for Friday even though we didn’t have to work – helps to offset some of the airfare – we had to pay our own way there). The weekend was spent sightseeing and pub-crawling.  If any of you gets a chance to go to Wimbledon (either as a spectator or a working umpire) I recommend plonking yourself down at an outside patio of a bar on High Street in Wimbledon village – great place to people watch – players, coaches, media people etc.

Then at Wimbledon opening day, opening match on Centrecourt and  we were there watching the match. Rich Kaufman got us tickets to Centrecourt and Court 1 – that was a great treat as the ITF gave us only grounds passes.

Yes, I’d love to go back to London and work Wimbledon and hopefully at some time, be able to work main draw. That would be a dream come true!

Story contributed by Margaret Smith, resident of The Woodlands, member of HTUA since 1996

October, 2003

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            FIJI – 2003 SOUTH PACIFIC GAMES IN SUVA

I was one of 7 overseas chair umpires. Susan Burns was the other chair umpire from the U.S.  Starting during the last week of June, it was a BIG event for the islanders (it’s like the Olympics for them). It takes place once every 4 years.  There were about 4,000 athletes participating in 27 events including tennis.

Work wise, it was a great opportunity to improve my chair skills and gaining much experience and learning from some of the very experienced chair umpires.

Accommodation – it was the most basic that any of us had ever experienced.  We should have guessed but never expected it.  We were housed in dorm rooms at the Fiji Institute of Technology. No air-conditioning, mosquito netting over the bed, no towels, no hangers, no hairdryers. The most shocking – no hot water – it was freezing cold showers!!

The tennis was played on 5 courts – astro-turf/synthetic grass. As expected the line umpires and ball kids are volunteers and inexperienced. It was very challenging to say the least but it taught me a whole lot about broadening my court awareness.

Suva is located on the wetter part of the island and true to its reputation, it rained quite a bit.  It was cold and miserable – at one point we were so backed up with matches that the only way we were going to finish was to proceed with play even though the courts were sodden. Eventually all the matches got played and yes, we were all glad to get out of there.

We spent the next 4 days at a beautiful resort but the rainy weather followed us and we were quite disappointed and miserable. I did go diving and went out on a day of sailing on a 100-ft schooner – I had a wonderful time. The weather did clear on the last day but it was time to say goodbye.

Fiji was an experience, but not one I had expected.

Story contributed by Margaret Smith.

October, 2003