The tennis world is full of surprises. When we wrote the articles on How Tennis Got Its Mysterious 15, 30, 40 Scoring? and The Reason Why Tennis Players Have To Wear White At Wimbledon we thought we covered all things weird regarding the 4th most popular sport in the world.
But the more we dig, the more surprising stories seem to emerge.
We recently stumbled upon a very interesting interview of Bernadette Halton given at The Guardian. In it, Wimbledon’s umpire talks about the strict protocol one has to follow when becoming a chair or line judge. Here are the 3 most strange ones: (the article continues after the ad)
3. Learn swear words in every language
Tennis players are not allowed to swear at Wimbledon and umpires should know when to report abuse. Even though a lot of the judges know a few foreign languages, when it comes to profanities, their lexical field may be limited. That’s why, they are given a list of curses in every language so they know when a player has violated the rules and they are instructed to report abuse to the tournament’s officials.
2. Inanimate objects are protected
Just because they are inanimate objects, it doesn’t mean that there are not protected by the rules. For example, if a player throws his racket, that’s considered a rules violation that results in fines. In 2016, Serena Williams and Viktor Troicki were each fined $10,000 for smashing their rackets after losing a set.
1. The badge on the jacket should be visible at all times
Umpires need to walk on in a line with their jackets on and with the middle button done up. But because Wimbledon takes place on July, when it gets really really hot, they are allowed to take off their jacket but they should carry it on their left arm so the Wimbledon badge in clearly visible at all times.
If you like what you read, then you will definitely love this one: The Reason Why Tennis Players Have To Wear White At Wimbledon
Photo: Bo Mertz / Flickr,
Photoshop: I’m A Useless Info Junkie
Sources: How do I become … a Wimbledon umpire | Serena Williams fined $10K for smashing, throwing racket at Wimbledon