Umpires are a joke, spits Testud
By John Hogan
January 9th, 2001
SENIOR French player Sandrine Testud yesterday labelled the umpiring "a joke" before clawing desperately to a stubborn 3-6 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 first-round win against German Jana Kandarr at the Canberra International.
Testud, who had questioned the chair umpire five times during the first two sets when balls were not called out, understandably lost her cool when he overruled a linesman's call of out to a Kandarr serve at 3-2 in the deciding set. It provided Kandarr with a vital game point.
Testud had had enough and with fiery eyes yelled at the umpire: "You cannot do that every game. This is unbelievable. Do you want me to lose? This is a joke."
Kandarr capitalised and held serve to level at 3-3. Soon after Testud held serve to lead 4-3 but she was still angry as she walked towards her chair for the changeover and spoke bluntly to the umpire, wagging her finger at him as she passed.
Kandarr conceded three unforced errors to be broken in the 10th game and consequently lost after two hours and 25 minutes.
A heated Testud made her feelings clear by refusing to shake hands with the umpire.
"It was tough because, first of all, it was very important (stage of the match) and from where he is to overrule the linesman made no sense," Testud said.
