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| About Wimbledon
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Chair Umpires & Line Umpires |
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There are 335 officials at The Championships working as chair
umpires, line umpires or off-court staff. These officials
cover more than 650 matches played during the fortnight.
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| Umpires
at Wimbledon |
There are 275 British officials, all members of ABTO
(Association of British Tennis Officials) and 60 overseas
officials from all over the world. This group
of officials includes the team of seven ITF/Grand Slam Chair Umpires
that officiate at all four Grand Slams and two ATP Full Time
Officials.
There are around 70 officials who have
come through the Junior Players Programme organised by the
LTA and ABTO. This programme encourages young people to officiate
and provides them with an accelerated training programme to
qualify for Wimbledon selection. Some of these young officials
will be seen line umpiring on show courts and the most qualified
can be seen on the chair as well.
Around 45 chair umpires are assigned each day, with the other
officials working as line umpires. Chair umpires normally
umpire two matches a day, although not necessarily on the
same court. Line umpires work in teams and there are two line
teams per court. These line teams work on a timed rotation
(75 minutes on, 75 minutes off), with 10 line umpires on court
officiating on Centre, No. 1 and No. 2 Courts and seven line
umpires on the other courts.
The Chief Umpire, Les Maddock, is responsible for the organisation of umpires for The Championships. His role is to assign and supervise all of the officials each day. A custom-made computer system and a team of assistants help this process. Chair Umpires now use computers in the chair, the traditional scorecard was replaced for the first time at The Championships in 2001. |
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