The men's final of the US Open sees the quiet day of the chair umpire

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Sep 9, 2018
ESPN News Services

NEW YORK – The chair umpire for Sunday's US Open Men's Final between Novak Djokovic and Juan Martin del Potro had to repeatedly warn the rowdy, most pro-Del Potro spectators, to calm down between the points, often delaying both players before their respective services.

Djokovic, who won the game 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-3 for his 14th Grand Slam career victory, pushed the bar with US Open time. Alison Hughes, referee of the chair, gave the two players leeway with the shot clock, explaining the delay of the fan / noise out of the control of the players. But once Djokovic passed the time limit for the third time, without much delay from the fans, Hughes committed a code violation. Djokovic smashed his racquet of frustration on a later point but did not receive a code violation for that.

"I think it was a very excited crowd at times," ESPN's Chris Widmaier, USTA's general director of communications, told ESPN about Sunday's final. "The two players were sometimes very noisy and disrupted the pace, and I think the President took that into consideration and we are very comfortable with the way she handled this game.

"The Chair of the Referee Committee has full discretion to make his decision throughout the match, and I thought that Alison had done a good job in refereeing the men's final, which is a strengthened environment: men's final, two very popular players, Djokovic and Juan Martin del Potro. " In the end, we are comfortable with the way the match was handled. "

The non-appeals raised questions the day after Serena Williams was charged with three offenses by chair-umpire Carlos Ramos, the latter having resulted in a penalty in Naomi Osaka's quarter-final defeat. Williams was fined $ 17,000 by tournament officials on Sunday.

Djokovic said during his post-match press conference that he thought the chair umpire had too much interfered in Williams's match, but he stopped to say that men and women were treated differently. Djokovic said Ramos "may have just changed – maybe not, but he changed the course of the match" in Williams' 6-2, 6-4 loss to Osaka.

Djokovic said that he thought that Ramos' involvement was "useless".

"We all live our emotions, especially when you fight for a Grand Slam trophy," he said.

Djokovic disagreed with WTA CEO Steve Simon, who said men and women should be treated equally, but that was not the case on Saturday. "I do not see things like Mr. Simon does," says Djokovic, adding that "it's hard to generalize things, really."

"I really felt for [Serena] yesterday, "Djokovic continued."[It’s] a difficult thing for a chair umpire to deal with too. We must empathize with him. Everyone was in a very difficult situation [Saturday]. Many emotions. Serena was crying. Naomi was crying. It was really very difficult. "

Del Potro also weighed in the debate on a double standard in arbitration.

"I was sad for Serena because she's a great champion," Del Potro told reporters. "She gives a lot to this sport, but Naomi deserves to win, she is a great champion.

"Of course, the final was not the final that everyone was waiting for, but I agree that the girls [have] to be treated [like] men, earn the same money. They make a big effort to play in this kind of tournaments, and they deserve to have the same treatment as us. "

Associated Press contributed to this report.