In what could be the first time ever in ATP history, all Centre court matches were chaired by women umpires at the Sofia Open
Day 3 of the Sofia Open 2022 had a pleasant surprise in store for fans across the globe. All matches on the centre court were supervised by women umpires – Isabell Seefried, Morgane Lara, Yuliya Ignatchenko, Raluca Andrei and Aurelie Tourte. A number of top professional stars like Holger Rune, Oscar Otte and Fabio Fognini were in action on centre court on the third day of the Sofia Open.
This is quite a rare sight and is certainly a progressive step towards promoting equality. For women umpires there have very few active ones over the years but the numbers are certainly increasing both in the ATP and WTA circuit.
Among the female umpires who officiated yesterday at the Sofia Open, Aurelie Tourte is one of the most well-known names. She was the chair umpire for the singles match between Aleksander Vukic and Fabio Fognini.
Aurelie Tourte has officiated in both the ATP and WTA circuit. Presently, Tourte is one of the permanent chair umpires for ATP. She is a French national and is famously recognised in the tennis community for her ‘hindrance’ call at the 2021 National Bank Open in Toronto. What followed the call was a bizarre altercation between Tourte and Medvedev, the player against whom the call was taken. The incident was viral in no time and fans, pundits had divided opinions over the call.
Tourte is a part of an exclusive list of female umpire to have officiated a men’s singles final in a Grand Slam. She became only the fifth woman to achieve this feat at the 2021 Roland Garros. In her illustrious career, Tourte has officiated numerous top level matches and has a history of being involved in altercations with Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams.
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