Travelling far to make the calls

HOME AND AWAY - TENNIS UMPIRE FERGUS MURPHY:As an ATP umpire Dubliner Fergus Murphy rubs shoulders with the tennis greats. He tells Johnny Wattersonabout his glamorous occupation.

THREE WEEKS ago it was Miami. This week it is on to the clay in Munich and then the dirt of Rome and Hamburg before the run-in to the grass season at Queens and Wimbledon, the real start of the summer. Fergus Murphy moves through the year in a global migration, following the men's tennis circuit. Wherever it goes, he follows or, more accurately, gets there before it starts. He is one of just nine professional officials that work full-time for the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), the body that runs men's tennis around the world. The Women's Tennis Association (WTA), who run the women's game, also have their own officials as do the governing body of the sport, the International Tennis Federation.

In all, it's a tough scene to crack and a lifestyle that requires constant movement and, up to a point, a fair bit of glamour.

Murphy, who started his umpiring around Dublin in the domestic leagues during the 1980s, eventually left a career in Dublin's King's Inns for one in the locker room. He was given the opportunity to pursue the game and the life and he took it. Now he is on first-name terms with some of the biggest figures in sport, like Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

"When I worked as an umpire on the domestic scene I asked what it took to do Wimbledon. Every man and dog wants to do Wimbledon. So I did more umpiring and worked as a line umpire in the US. But 1995 was my big year. That's when I did the Australian Open for the first time. It was very exciting. Once you get into one Slam, it is easier to get into others and from there it snowballed. I ended up working three Slams that year. I really burst into the scene.

"I was studying law at the time but decided to take a year out. One year turned to two and two became 14. To do this job you need to be a particular type. I'd say you'd want to be in your mid-20s and be prepared to travel a lot. It really is a serious job and you have to invest in it to get something back out of it."

What Murphy was sure about was that when he got the opportunity to become a full-time professional tennis umpire, he had to take it. The chance would not come around again so quickly.

"As the US has more ATP events than any other country, much of his time is spent there. America has 15 ATP tournaments every year, while most other countries have only one.

"In 1999 the ATP approached me and asked me to join a training programme," he says. "They came to me and said we have six spots, would you like one? Three years ago it turned into a full-time position. Prior to that it was full-time but what has really changed is my status. Up until then you wouldn't have done Federer on Centre Court or a semi-final or a Wimbledon. Now it would be more of a heavier diet of big matches. There is only enough work for that top group of nine. There is not really a lot of flow in the system."

Like the players, umpires are treated to the courtesy cars at the airport and stay in the same hotels as the players. Their life is one of some pampering but it is all geared toward providing them with the best conditions to deal with what is a stressful job. The modern player is not averse to taking on the umpire if he sees a call differently and in recent years a challenge to line calls has, through the invention of the precision camera Hawkeye, been built into the rules. Now more than ever umpires are being asked to make the big call and they even have to compete with technology.

"Most times we get treated very well, decent hotels, decent food. I travel for about 25 to 30 weeks a year so you need those things to keep you going. That is your life for that week. The ATP has 68 tournaments in 30 countries and the group of nine travel with the players all the time. There is a lot of respect there in a working-relationship sort of way.

"But yes it can be stressful. You never know what you are going to get and in the really busy season of May, June and July you might end up doing a high-profile match every day."

The Dubliner's next schedule will take him to Munich, where he will stay until the tournament ends. He will then move on to Rome on the Monday of the following week, dump his bags in the hotel and probably umpire on Monday afternoon. That full-on schedule continues for four weeks before he has a week off and travels to the Queens event in London for the grass season.

"I used to live in Sydney, Australia . . . for two-and-a-half years. I just moved back to Ireland recently. But there are definitely things that make the job enjoyable. You get life experience out of it. I'm sure I'd have earned more money if I'd graduated as a barrister. But it's a happiness thing. It's exciting. I get a kick out of it. It's a passion, an adrenalin rush. What we do get paid is enough to keep me interested."

At 37 Murphy is still young but the lifestyle can be tiring and next year in tennis they are restructuring the calendar to make it more streamlined. They are removing Hamburg and Monte Carlo from the schedule and as a result Hamburg is suing.

They are going to rename all the events so people know what is going on and they are moving one of the bigger ones, the ATP Masters, from Shanghai to London.

In all they hope to have a prize fund of $100 million for the year.

"I don't know how many years I have left," he says. "I've been thinking five to seven years and see how I feel. The age profile is changing. We've one guy over 60. But I can't see myself umpiring in 23 years' time. The glamour of the lifestyle just wears off. It's just too much travelling."