'It's a bit like an electric shock going through you' - Meet the only Irishman at Wimbledon

The 42

a day ago

THE MEN'S AND women's draws at Wimbledon will again be untroubled by Irish players this year, but that's not to say the iconic tournament is entirely free of Irish influence.
Fergus Murphy is one of just seven chair umpires given that, er, elevated status by the ATP, and has been in the high chair at Grand Slam events since 1995. In that time he has overseen the 2023 Wimbledon men's final and has had several tempestuous run-ins with some of the greats of the game.
Novak Djokovic questions Fergus Murphy during the 2023 men's Wimbledon final, won by Carlos Alcaraz. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo
The Slams, though, are extracurricular events, as they are not run by the ATP. Throw in the Davis and Laver Cups and Murphy spends around eight months a year on the road, and away from his Dublin home.
'I still remember it like it was yesterday', Murphy tells The 42. 'When I started, one lady said to me, 'Oh, is that a job?' So that was a complete putdown.'
It certainly is a job, and Murphy, now 54, has been doing it for more than 30 years. He describes him as an 'okay player' in his youth, and the sport's gravitational pull drew him into the Irish umpires' association, which he joined in the late 1980s.
He officiated open events at the likes of Carrickmines, Donnybrook, and Lansdowne, along with Davis Cup ties. He noticed colleagues travelling to England each summer to work at Queen's and Wimbledon, and eventually followed their path too, after a few initial rejections.
Officials' performances were constantly evaluated, and so one's record eventually speaks for itself. Murphy had started a law degree by the time his made noise among the right people, and he decided to put his studies on brief pause to commit full-time to umpiring. 'I said I'll do it for a year,' says Murphy, 'and then it became 30.'
He is speaking to me from his hotel in Stuttgart, where he is officiating an ATP event ahead of Wimbledon. Murphy's lifestyle is analogous to the elite players: whereas the lower-ranked players are chasing ranking points wherever they can be found, the best generally follow a familiar circuit. Hence, says Murphy, he is constantly on the road, but constantly returning to the same places. 'It's like going home every week,' he says, 'but to a different type of home.'
'If you want a 9 to 5 and and sleep in your own bed every night, this isn't for you,' he says. 'But it's nice to go back to places. You nearly always know the staff that are there, there's obviously your co-workers that you know, and you get to know the cities pretty well.'
And just as camaraderie is the luxury of the elite players on tour, Murphy's exclusive band of chair umpires often find themselves travelling together, which makes for a dinner gathering that can pass the time but also provide a measure of emotional support.
'In terms of longevity, it helps to just look after yourself if you're having a tough time, and talk to other colleagues about it,' he says. 'Maybe don't overemphasise something, like, if there's a small error that you make, don't blow it out of proportion into a big thing. Everybody makes mistakes.
Advertisement
'If you have a good group of people around you, especially when you're traveling, you can say, 'This happened to me today', and then someone will say, 'Oh, that happened to me last week', and you just feel like you're not the only one. But I think the nature of the job is where we're always driven for the 100%.'
Murphy still gets a rush of adrenaline a couple of hours before every match, which he says helps focus the mind and ward off arguably the job's biggest challenge: keeping concentration.
'Most of the time,' he says, 'nothing happens.'
So while there can be hours in which nothing happens, there can be seconds in which everything happens. Tennis matches can be stressful, tempestuous worlds, and those at its core usually like to reserve their lashings for those in near-orbit.
A condition of our interview is that Murphy would not talk about individual players, but he has had several high-profile run-ins with some of the sport's biggest stars.
At the Madrid Open, for instance, Murphy courted the scorn of Rafa Nadal and the jeers of a partisan crowd when he denied the Spaniard a challenge, saying his gesture was not sufficiently clear. An affronted Nadal called for the court supervisor.
Stefanos Tsitsipas last year went on strike mid-match in response to a time violation handed down by Murphy, saying he would not budge until the court supervisor arrived.
'You have never played tennis in your life, you have no clue about tennis it seems, you are probably playing serve and volley every single time,' ranted Tsitsipas. 'Tennis is a physical sport and we need some time over here, you have to show some compassion. We are not throwing darts out here.'
Nick Kyrgios – an equal-opportunity scorner of officials – has had a couple of ugly episodes with Murphy, and in 2019 called him 'a potato with legs and arms' and 'the worst ref in the game.' The ATP fined Kyrgios $113,000.
'I'm human just like everybody else,' says Murphy on the general issue of player abuse, though not in specific reference to any of the above.
'I don't think anybody likes being the target of something. Unfortunately for us, that is part of our job. We're the one making the decisions and most of the time when you make a decision, 50% of your clients won't be happy.
'Sometimes they accept it. But when the temperature rises, I think you have to look at it in a kind of a matter of fact way, that it's part of the job. But it does affect you. You have to learn to just push it to the side and really not see it as a personal attack. Quite often, you know, you'll see the player later that day in the hotel.'
Among Kyrgios' rants at other officials includes a warning to Carlos Bernardes of his imminent obsolesence.
'It's all electronically done now, so you're actually doing nothing apart from calling the score, by the way, which any tennis fan could do right now,' raved Kyrgios, 'Sit in the chair and just say, 15-Love, Game Kyrgios, Game Sinner. Do you know what I mean? Like that's really all he has to do.'
The reality is the chair umpire does a lot more than that, and the advance in technology has not automatically brought an end to players' venting their fury at officials. While line calls have become automised and less contentious, the umpire is still in charge of enforcing rules around challenges, a shot clock, and sportsmanlike behaviour. The policing of these, along with the need to manage players' tantrums, shows the job remains an art as much as a science.
Technology continues to encroach, however, and this edition of Wimbledon will be the first in its 147-year history to proceed without line judges, with all of the calls now ruled by technology. It also means players' won't need to call for challenges anymore: everything has been automated.
'The obvious plus about the technology is the accuracy,' says Murphy. 'It's extremely accurate. It's very reliable and it doesn't get tired.
'The accuracy of the system is very important. What you might lose is more of the ups and downs in a game, because when you have more human involvement, there's bound to be a mistake, or a perceived mistake. Then the player would challenge it, and we'd show it on the board.
'That was a bit exciting for the crowd, the whole moment of 'I thought it was in, I thought it was out.' So that was good for showbiz.
'I would say now that things are more on an even keel because the system is reliable, accurate, and then you can maybe focus more on the tennis. So it just depends on your point of view. Sometimes the ups and downs of tennis are what make it exciting.'
Across his long career, Murphy has seen the beginning, middle, and ends of some of the greatest careers in the sport's history, and can appreciate the quality of tennis to which the crowd has been treated.
'Sitting there in the middle of it and seeing shot after shot – some that you've never seen before at that level – plus you throw in the crowd and the atmosphere, it's hard to describe, but it goes right through you,' he says,
'It's a bit like an electric shock going through you when you're in the chair. We don't stand up and cheer and let off fireworks after a good shot, as you are in the middle of it and you are working. Maybe at the earlier stages of my career, I might have been a bit more nervous and a bit more focused on getting the basics right.
'But like anything, if you practice it, then they become a little bit more automatic, which means you have to give less of your brain power to do it because you just do it automatically, or you might see things around the court and stop problems before they happen.
'Having seen so many matches, we know that was a good shot, or you don't see that very often.
'It's a great seat.'