Monday, September 14, 2015

Have We Run Out Of Qualified American Officials At The US Open?


NOVAK DJOKOVIC
2015 Men's Champion--US Open

What an awesome tournament the US Open was this year!  From the drama of Serena's quest for a Grand Slam to the domination of the men's tour by Novak Djokovic, we saw it all.

That was until the men's final last night when we saw Eva Asderaki-Moore from GRE in the chair. The resounding question would have to be:  Have we run out of qualified American officials to chair our own men's national championship match?  Notwithstanding that she was a female doing the men's final (and actually did a good job according to the ever present John McEnroe), you can be sure something like this never would have happened at Wimbledon.  No foreign official (male or female) should ever chair the finals at the US Open.  Its our tournament so let's keep it that way...

It seemed like the only story coming out of the Open was Serena and more Serena--that was until she gave us perhaps the greatest choke in the history of women's tennis.  She won three of the four Grand Slam tournaments this year--but then, so did Novak Djokovic!  And he did it with major competition in every one of the slams and defeated top 5 players with regularity.  Serena couldn't even win against a bunch who never win and certainly aren't in the top 5 of anything.

Its time to give Novak his due.  He is a great champion!

15 comments:

Larry said...

It looks like the pool of Officials is in the same sad shape as the pool of players that the USTA has been developing!!

Robert Durst said...

Looks like we ran out of qualified line umpires for the US Open as well. I can't remember the last time so many obvious mistakes were made. I'm sure they were tired - sounds like a good excuse any way. At least it made the foreign female chair umpire look good. How many overrules did she have, at least SEVEN not counting the one baseline call she missed?

Wow, this was really embarrassing for all those pro line calling wannabes. And what gives with all that crappy gold jewelry some of the female line umpires are wearing while calling center serves? I thought excess jewelry was frowned upon.

Daaylee Abdullah said...

You can blame Brian Earley for selecting the chair umpire for the Men's finals. If you think about it, unlike other countries, the US really doesn't have any qualified chair umpires to orchestrate pro finals, especially on the Men's side. He has no choice but to select a foreign official to chair the match. The same must also hold true for the other matches as well. Maybe it's something about those foreign voices calling out the score - it's kinda sexy.

Anonymous said...

You should put something about Martina Hingis winning the women's doubles and the mixed doubles. She's awesome as a doubles player and plays circles around these young ones that just know how to hit harder and harder.

Anonymous said...

At least they didn't have a fat woman from America doing the finals. Maybe they couldn't find an American woman who would fit in the chair.

Anonymous said...

Rumor has it the front office transposed court assignments for the last day of matches. The A crew was mistakenly sent to Court 17 to work the Junior and Wheelchair finals.

Anonymous said...

The FEMALE Chair did an outstanding job. Most Pro Chairs won't even touch an over rule because of shot spot. If Robert's count is correct, seven correct over rules. WOW. The shot that was missed, was missed by all three, Line, Chair, and player. I'll give that one to her, however the line should have gotten the call. According to Wikipedia, there is only one US gold badge chair.

Anonymous said...

I have to agree - the new gurus in charge of the USTA professional officials have work their work cut out to improve on-court line calling. I can't wait for the email detailing their new approach for making quantum leaps in line calling skills. I guess being the finals, the 'chosen few' line officials weren't being evaluated. The Near Side Line and Left Baseline officials weren't having a good night.

Caesar said...

I have to agree with the September 14, 2015 at 12:00:00 PM CDT Anonymous post. The USTA definitely had the geriatric crew working the Fed/Dojo match. Reminded me of the Bryan Brother's tv commercial where Bob was playing with an old geezer pretending to be Mike.

Hemoptysist said...

One question - Does anybody know why the GOLD badged chair umpire didn't call a bleeding timeout for Djokovic when he fell onto the court resulting in blood laced bodily fluids oozing from his dermis? Was is because she was too concerned about over ruling her incompetent line officials or too concerned about shushing the crowd. She finally did after a couple of games. I thought GOLD badged officials walked on water and fully understand all rules and how to properly apply them.

Larry said...

Re: hemoptysist; I think she was waiting on a walkie-talkie call from Brian, before she stopped play to handle the blood issue. You would think when they let Isner take an 8-minute bathroom break, they could take 2 minutes to clear up a little blood.

Anonymous said...

Interesting to note that a certain Athletic Director for a certain Texas University is no longer employed at said university. What is the world coming to?

Anonymous said...

Wimbledon and the other Slams has had several international Gold Badge Chair Umpires officiate the finals (both men and women) in recent years. Times have changed, countries and associations all amalgamate into the ITF/ATP/WTA team opportunities nowadays where Grand Slam finals are concerned. Many good Chair Umpires are available for the job, often many other logistics and circumstances of what you're not privy to play into the final selection.

RM said...

I still believe that only an American should officiate the finals of the US Open in every division.

Larry said...

Maybe the job of chairing the U.S. Open finals is just a job Americans don't want to do anymore. That's why everyone is coming to the States; to do the jobs Americans don't want to do!

Mark it down, a burqua wearing mooslum will be chairing the finals in the next 2 years. I almost started to say by next year, but it might take a little time for that person to brush up on their Spanish.