2010 U.S. Open Chief Umpires Report
August 5, 2010

Courtesy of USATT View from the Chief Umpire’s Chair (Chief Umpire’s Report) 1. The 2010 US Open was held at the De Vos Place Convention Center, Grand Rapids, MI, from June 30 – July 3, 2010. The official hotel was Amway Grand Plaza Hotel, a block from the venue. USATT guests. From the hotel to the venue was a 5-minute scenic walk along the Grand River.

2. In addition to the US Open, three other tournaments were also held during this period: Junior Teams on Tuesday, June 29, 2010, International Veterans Championships (IVC) and the North American Championships (NAC). The Referee for the Open was Wendell Dillon, with Linda Hsing as the Deputy Referee. Larry Kesler was the Referee of the IVC, and Karol Ziduliak, the Referee of NAC. Joseph Lee was the Chief Umpire and Ruben Kairy was the Deputy Chief Umpire. Delano La Fatt, Canada, and Cyril Sen, Malaysia, were the evaluators.

3. A total of 39 US and foreign umpires supported the three tournaments and umpired over 630 matches during the four-day competition. Of the foreign umpires, 12 came from Japan, four from Canada, two from Nigeria, one from India and one from Taiwan. Several foreign umpires, though initially committed to come, had to withdraw at the last minute due to illness or visa problems.

There were 17 IU BB, seven IU BIP, 13 IU WB, and two NU. Four volunteer Club and Regional Umpires also provided valuable services in being assistant or “solo” umpires in 46 matches.

4. The approach for this Open in designing shift and teams was to conform to the number of matches requiring umpiring during each 45-minute time slot. The guidance as to which events and rounds were to have umpires was provided by the Referees of the Open and the IVC in advance of the competitions. Partial guidance for the NAC was also provided by the Open Referee.

Additional guidance was provided in advance on evaluation: Which umpires were to be evaluated and how many evaluations.

Eight teams of five umpires each were formed. This was a departure from two- or three-shift format used in previous Open and Nationals. The shift of each teams attempted to match the maximum number of umpired-matches for a set period. For example, if a time slot had a max of 16 umpired-matches, four teams of 20 umpires would be assigned with four in on-call status. This approach minimized the downtime of idling umpires.

Based on the Master Match Time Schedule provided by NATT and the Referees’ guidance, the number of umpired-matches for each time slot was determined. Finals in all events were umpired. Umpiring earlier rounds (SF, QF, 8th, 16th, etc.) depended on events as specifically stipulated in the guidance. All matches on the arena tables (Tables 1 & 2) had two umpires.

5. During the Open, 22 BB or BIP umpires received evaluations, most of who were evaluated twice. They were evaluated only on the two arena tables in compliance with the Referee’s guidance.

6. The major problems encountered were match delays that affected the umpire schedule and, more importantly, the evaluation schedule. The delays were caused by insufficient time per match allocated to the major events where even preliminary matches required best of seven games. Another cause was too many separate tournaments at the same time with many players entering all of them.

7. The majority of the umpires performed most admirably. A few, however, could not be depended to be available when needed.

Respectfully submitted,
Joseph C. H. Lee, IU
Chief Umpire, 2010 US Open