By now, every tennis official in the universe has witnessed the event this past week of the chair official getting down out of the chair to speak to Nick Kyrgios about his tanking the match...
What do you think about this??? We will welcome your comments and thoughts on this one.
We will not publish our own opinion of these actions until later on but I'll give you a hint... If an ITA official did this during a dual match it would probably be their last...
EXTRA: Here is the comment from the USTA officials at the Open:
A "comprehensive review conducted by a number of tournament officials" determined that chair umpire Mohamed Lahyani's midmatch chat with Kyrgios went "beyond our protocol," US Tennis Association spokesman Chris Widmaier told the Associated Press on Friday.
But Widmaier said that Lahyani would not be sanctioned because of his "exemplary track record as an international tennis official."
"He now has a better understanding of what our protocols are and was informed that he needs to stick to those protocols for the rest of the tournament," Widmaier said. "Each of his matches will be monitored."
That basically is doublespeak for "we ain't gonna do nothing about it."
3 comments:
Completely unacceptable. His comments, picked up on court side microphone, were coaching. Lahyani went from an impartial judge to a ringside cheerleader when he climbed down out of the chair. What’s even more disappointing was the response from the USTA that he simply, “went beyond our protocol” and because of his “exemplary record as an international tennis official” he was not sanctioned or disciplined by the USTA. If any one of us had performed in a similar fashion in a USTA Junior Tournament or in an ITA match, we would have been escorted to our car and told never to return. It’s this complete lack of consistency in officiating tennis that hurts the sport. We continually see it with their disregard for time violations and medical time outs. It’s been my experience that few of those Officials know the rules of tennis as well as local Officials who do Juniors and ITA events. Referee Brian Earley and Chief Umpire Soeren Frienel were apparently too concerned about hurting Lahyani’s feelings or his reputation than they were of Kyrgios’s opponent Herbert and they missed an opportunity to reinforce what we know the protocol to actually be. Lahyani should have been removed immediately.
Just try to imagine the response of a collegiate coach if he/she were to look out there and see the chair official sitting by their opponent and counseling him on how to play the match. It would be a disaster beyond words.
Pretty clear that it was official interference. A Silver Badge told me last month (while at another tournament) that one of the three most important marks of a good official is consistency. The referee and chief umpires blew it by not sanctioning this chair umpire, regardless of his professional reputation. Unfortunately, this is the kind of 'justice' witnessed far too often these days.
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