Emotions and Frustrations from a Non Player Perspective

Everyone has pent-up emotions which sometimes get the better of them. Tennis players, many of them we see blowing their lid off either directed to themselves, to the linesmen, or the chair umpire.

Its always good to release your anguish and frustration, but I actually wonder how the chair umpire and the linesmen cope with such temper tantrums displayed by the players?

It must be an excruciating job to get. The players in the heat of the moment shout, rant, swear, and probably even forget about it. But at that heat of the moment, it must be so difficult for the [verbally] attacked person to stomach it.

After all, to err is human. Can't he or she make a mistake? There is always the electronic challenge, if a particular point is to be contested. Why then unnecessarily to create a furore?

Take for example Andy Roddick: In his Semi-Final match against Federer in the recently concluded Australian Open; against a particular call by the chair umpire; he wasted no time in telling the umpire, "Cut some slack...mate!"

Or to point out Marat Safin in the third round against Federer where he was [almost] arguing with a linesman for calling out foot fault. The linesman was careful not to stare at Safin directly and it appeared to me as if he was defending his decision to call out so.

A list can be compiled of all such scenes both in the men's as well as in the women's world some of which, lead to a ruckus.

But its not about compilation...Its about another person's emotions at the same time; the umpire is doing his duty there and has no animosity, no personal bias, no personal vendetta against the player.

Even the umpire may feel frustrated, he can't show it because that would be an offence against his profession, to his position at that point of time or for that matter even the linesmen and women can't afford to do that.

They have 20/20 vision, not any X-ray vision like Superman, for them to make every call right and like I mentioned before, the electronic challenge system is there to be used.

After the match is over, a player may say that there were no hard feelings, but by saying that, will the words that poured out be retracted back? And as much as the umpire may want to forget the episode, it will linger in some corner of the mind.

But I guess, it doesn't matter what the people apart from the players on court feel. As fans, we become troubled and wrecked with sadness and ache when Roger Federer cries, but has anyone [including me] wondered what happens to an umpire after a match? There may be an amount of cheerfulness in the face, but will there be relief that the match has finally concluded and he is, in a way free?