Officiating

Officiating refers to the jobs performed by on-court tennis officials to ensure that the rules of tennis are followed.

In most tennis matches that we play, we are obliged to officiate our own tennis matches. This means that we have to keep a mental track of the score, call our own lines for balls hit in or out and sort out any disputes that may arise between ourselves. Ninety nine percent of the time this is not a problem, however, on occasion there may be dispute as to whether a ball landed in or out or someone calls into question that actual regulations that apply to a specific scenario.

We should all know the rules of tennis before we enter into a competitive environment and we should always be honest when it comes to making decisions on balls landed on our side of the court. If worst comes to the worst, we always have a tournament referee we can call upon to make the final decision. This is never usually a problem when professional tennis players step out on court as they have a number of officials determining every decision that needs to be made.

So, how many of these officials are actually present during a professional tennis match? It varies but there can be up to eleven looking after a match between only two players and this doesn’t take into account of the tennis boys and girls which are also needed in order to facilitate the smooth running of the match.

Chair Umpire

The chair umpire is the person sitting in the highchair at the side of the court officiating over all decisions made out on court with the power to overrule any judgments made by lines persons or indeed players themselves. They are the ones keeping track of the score and more recently the amount of challenges each player has left to call upon. Basically, out on court, the buck stops with them. They vocalize the score after every point and in between games. They complete the scorecard as the match progresses and they maintain order throughout.

They keep the audience quiet and make sure they follow the rules of spectator etiquette. If a player has any queries then they are the first stop of call and often the final decision maker. They ensure players adhere to time constraints and acceptable behavior on court. They have the ability to award code violations to players amounting to warnings, the loss of points, games and even matches. There is only ever one chair umpire per match played. Some of the larger tournaments have chief umpires who allocate chair umpires to specific matches.

Line Umpires

The line umpires are the officials who have the responsibility of calling the ball in or out during all calls and especially the close ones. They can be over ruled by the chair umpire but this rarely happens. There can be up to nine lines umpires on a court at any one time. Three at either end of the court looking after the side lines and the centre service line, one each judging the baseline and a final line umpire looking after the service line depending on who’s serving at the time. Nine is the maximum amount of line umpires on a court and in reality can vary from anywhere between two and nine.

Net court umpire

Rarely seen today, there used to be an umpire sitting at the net to call any ball that hit the net during service called a “net court” or “let”. If a ball hits the net during a serve then the server is asked to replay that shot again if the ball lands in or to play their next serve if it has landed out. If it was their second serve and the net court serve landed out then it is deemed to be a double fault and the next point is played. Most tournaments today no longer have this umpire as new technology has placed a sensor on the top of the net to detect any ball hitting the net and thus replacing the need for this type of umpire. Either that or the chair umpire will make the decision.

Ball persons

They don’t have an officiating capacity on court but they are essential for the smooth running of operations. Nowadays, we can’t expect a professional tennis player to have to collect the tennis balls themselves in order to be able to start a point. There are usually six ball persons on a court to look after this job. There are two at the back of each side of the court and two more at the net, covering each side of it.

Their job is to ensure that the server always has a choice of tennis balls to choose from before they start to serve. They change the balls after every nine tennis games and ensure that the players want for nothing. This might include new drinks, an umbrella in the sun, taking plastic covers from racquets or ensuring that they always have a towel to hand.

Tournament referee

Not positioned courtside, the tournament referee is the person in charge of making all decisions regarding all the matches. They oversee the schedule of play and is the person assigning matches to specific courts. They make sure that all the ITF’s regulations are enforced including the conduct of all involved and must be present whenever any matches are being played. They can overrule chair umpires and in fact their decision is final.

They are present at the draws and are responsible for allocating the seeding. They are the person who has the say in whether play is suspended on account of rain and must be available to resolve disputes regarding to tennis rules.