From an interview with chair umpire James Keothavong conducted by B92’s Saša Ozmo during the first round of Davis Cup in Serbia. Brit Keothavong earned the ITF’s “gold badge” rating in 2010.
On officiating the 2014 Wimbledon final between Djoković and Federer.
“You know what, it was my first Wimbledon men’s singles final. To be given that assignment is a great honor. That the All England Club and the Grand Slam committee believe in my performance as a chair umpire—it’s great to have that feeling walking out on that court. It was fantastic: a classic five-set match between the two best players in the world, Novak and Roger. It was about four hours and ended up being one of the greatest finals of all time. For me to be part of that was a great feeling and an honor.”
On his impressions of Serbia.
“This is probably my fifth time here, all for tennis: Fed Cup and Davis Cup. It’s great to be back. The previous ties have been in Belgrade, so this is the first time we’ve actually experienced life outside the capital. It’s slightly different, slightly smaller, Kraljevo [laughs; the city’s population is 70,000]. But it’s great for the federation to bring the tie here and promote tennis in this part of the country as well. As you could see, it was a capacity crowd—everybody wanted to see Novak, of course, Viktor, and the Serbian team. Overall, it was a great atmosphere.”
“Unfortunately, we haven’t had that much time to go on a tour—we’re here for four days and three of those days are for work. But what we’ve seen so far has been really nice. . . . The people, above all, have been really warm and friendly to us, which makes our job worthwhile. As you know, we get to see quite a bit of the world, we travel to many different countries, meet lots of different people; so, it’s great to come back to Serbia and have good memories.”
On working with “Hawk-Eye” & the challenge system.
“When it initially came out [in 2006], the chair umpires didn’t know what to expect. But, over the years, we’ve all found a way of umpiring on a ‘Hawk-Eye’ court. How I deal with it is that I pretend it’s not there; so, I step in when I have to, I overrule when I have to. I think that’s the way officiating is going at the moment—all the top chair umpires are doing that. It’s not just about calling the score or sitting there and not seeing anything. I think it’s important that we still do our job, and we use ‘Hawk-Eye’ as a tool for officiating. The players appreciate that and we appreciate it; but, at the same time, we still have to do what we have to do and not just rely on technology.”
“Obviously, when you sit up in that chair and things are going right, it can be the best seat in the house. But when things start going wrong, it’s a lonely place. There’s only you sitting up there. Occasionally, you have players on your back—or, in Fed Cup and Davis Cup situations, captains on your back. You know, that’s part and parcel of what we do. If we make a wrong overrule, then we have to deal with it. We’re human, just like the players—they make mistakes; umpires make mistakes. But we try to keep those mistakes to a minimum. The majority of the players now, they don’t really mind when we step in; and if we get it wrong by one or two millimeters, it’s not the end of the world. I think they prefer us to officiate the match like that than not do anything. I don’t think there are many mistakes made by the top chair umpires, but it’s a good officiating tool and we’re glad to have it.”
Did he refuse to shake Xavier Malisse’s hand in 2013?
“No, I have to say on record that it’s not true. It was a misunderstanding. It was a long match, and I shook the opponent’s hand, Garcia-Lopez, to the right-hand side and I didn’t realize that Xavier had offered his hand. Somebody got hold of it and made it news. . . . Touch wood, there hasn’t been too much controversy [in my matches].
On match fixing
“No, I haven’t had any connection, any communication, or noticed any players doing anything out of the ordinary. So, I can’t comment on that…. You know more than I do. To be honest, we have to do what we do—we concentrate on our matches—and whatever happens outside the matches is up to whoever decides [those matters]. But I’ve never been approached and I don’t know of any players who’ve been approached. I haven’t umpired a match that’s had any sort of suspicion.”
On relations with players
“Let’s face it, we travel with the players week in, week out, and we see them at the tournament hotels. As I said before, we’re human as well: it’s not us versus them. But they have their teams, their entourage, and we have our colleagues. It’s all civil: “Hello, how are you?” The only thing we don’t do is go out for breakfast, lunch, or dinner with them. It’s a professional set-up, as you would expect from organizations such as ITF, ATP, WTA. We do our job, they do their job, and we like to keep it that way…. We don’t have friends or favorites—we treat the players equally.”
On his favorite tour destination
“I love Australia… You know, it’s winter over here in Europe during that time—the end of December, January—and it’s always cold. Then you go to Australia and it’s right in the middle of their summer-time—it’s just great. Straight after Christmas for us, we go over there and there’s sunshine, everyone’s happy, everyone’s wearing shorts and t-shirts, you can play tennis outside. I couldn’t think of anything better.”
On officials’ salaries
“That’s the million-dollar question. All I can say is that we don’t get paid enough. You can write that” [laughs].
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