Mohamed Lahyani- Tennis' smiling assassin

The period of the first five minutes, when the players head for the coin toss, is probably the only time viewers look at the chair umpire in tennis. Unless, of course, there is an altercation between the player and umpire. It takes an Andy Roddick rant or indecisiveness over suspension of play due to rain for us viewers to shift our attention from the match to the person sitting atop the high chair.

But it was the longest match in the tennis history at Wimbledon that brought Mohamed Lahyani in the news. He officiated the match between Nicolas Mahut and John Isner without taking a break even once. In one of the interviews he said, “After Isner had won, the first thing he said to me was: ‘How did you do that, sitting there in the chair all that time? What’s your secret?’ I replied, ‘I travel Economy. Seven hours sitting still on court is nothing.’”(Source: on twitter @piersnewbery posted on vamosbrigade.com).

Sweden has produced quite a few tennis greats in the form of Bjorn Borg, Stefan Edberg and Mats Wilander. From the same country hails Mohamed Lahyani, who can be easily considered one of the best umpires on the tennis circuit. Equipped with a charming smile, he is also one of the friendliest umpires out there. He is prominently known for his booming voice and emphasis on the scores ,especially when he announces 15-30.

Neil Harman, the famous tennis journalist, had once tweeted while at Indian Wells: “It doesn’t matter which court you’re on here, you can hear Mohamed Lahyani calling score somewhere”. A member of vamosbrigade.com, Juanita, posts a story about the time when Lahyani was umpiring a match at St. Petersburg on an outside court. Apparently one of his overrules was so loud that it stopped play on the center court as the players there thought it was a call from their umpire!

His off-court demeanor reflects as much calm and confidence as it does on-court. Humor and humility are two of the traits that distinguish him from the rest. Juanita posts another incident showcasing his humor. In a match between Mardy Fish and Rafael Nadal, Lahyani said to the players after the coin toss, “If you have any questions, you know where to find me“ and pointed to the chair!

Mohamed Lahyani was born to Moroccan parents who emigrated to Sweden. While he played many sports at a young age, he never wanted to turn professional. He got into culinary studies and also worked in a gym for women before turning to tennis as a linesman. Slowly, he obtained a white badge, which is the official recognition of the profession of umpiring. He worked his way up through bronze and silver badges. It wasn’t easy obtaining these badges as it requires intensive training, not to mention the long weeks that an umpire is required to stay away from family. After officiating about 500 matches per year, his good vision, character, and good communication with players – the primary skills for this profession – helped Lahyani achieve the gold badge, the most prestigious one of them all.

Lahyani’s biggest strength is how he diffuses the tension between players with a smile, a small chat or a nod, all of which help the players keep their calm in close matches. While he has been on the circuit for more than 15 years, the only chink in his armor is that he has never officiated a Grand Slam final due to the ITF/ATP rules. He comes under the list of ATP umpires whereas the Grand Slams come under the ITF. This is despite there being a single certification for both the ITF and the ATP. He does, however, officiate in the early rounds of the Grand Slams due to the small number of ITF umpires.

Lahyani is arguably the only umpire who has a fan following akin to that of a player. In one of the interviews on Teledeporte where the interviewer commented on his popularity with young fans in Barcelona which almost rivaled ‘Nadalmania’, he said that he didn’t mind it (source: nou.amic from vamosbrigade.com). Google his name and you will find a number of forums dedicated to him and a lot of interesting encounters that people have had with him.

After doing a little more research on him, I found that the longest match of Wimbledon is not his only credit. He was also the chair umpire when the Wimbledon maestros Pete Sampras and Federer came face to face at Wimbledon in 2001. He was also part of the Hewitt-Nalbandian war at the Australian Open in 2005 which ended at 2 a.m., and he was the chair umpire of the 4-hour epic duel between Nadal and Djokovic at the Madrid Masters in 2009.

Being a tennis umpire is never easy because of the huge amount of pressure lurking on your head. For being an ever smiling person, and a great umpire who never seems bored on court, Mohamed Lahyani deserves a round of applause. All his fans hope that he gets to officiate a Grand Slam final soon (there’s hope as Steve Ulrich, another ATP umpire, was an exception who got to officiate a US Open final).

Note: Permission has been sought from the respective sources and the site mentioned.