Saturday 18 June F ew people have had the satisfaction of facing down John McEnroe during one of his rages — not once, but twice, in a tournament.

For Matt Porsz, the first confrontation came on a Friday night four years ago as he was umpiring a match between McEnroe and his old foe Bjorn Borg before 5, fans in an indoor arena in Belfast. This was not Wimbledon, but an exhibition match between two ageing ex-champions on the veterans' circuit.

Yet the man in the chair soon found that McEnroe had lost none of his disdainful attitude towards officials. Sure enough, he felt the lash of the seven-time grand slam singles champion turned TV commentator's tongue on a disputed point, having overruled a linesman to give Borg a point in the third and final set. At the end of the match, which McEnroe won, Borg smiled and shook hands with Porsz, but there was no such gesture from the American. McEnroe was even more bratty the following day, when he played Jeremy Bates, a former British No 1, who was around in the late s and early s.

He called one line umpire 'an effing old man', then swore at me during a tirade. He said 'I don't want to hear another effing thing out of your mouth except the score. Porsz, 28, is a mild-mannered and unassuming character, so it's hard to imagine him dishing out punishment to a tennis legend such as McEnroe, but it comes with the territory when you sit in that high chair, master of all you survey, and he will be at Wimbledon next week, immaculately turned out in his Ralph Lauren Polo jacket, either as a linesman or chair umpire.

Lording it over Borg and McEnroe or umpiring Davis cup ties — including a five-setter match in Britain's match with Tunisia — sounds glamorous, but getting there has been a hard slog.

Chair umpiring in the four grand slam tournaments, especially in the latter stages, is a highly sought after affair. There is a strict hierarchy in tennis umpiring, overseen by the International Tennis Federation ITF , going from white badges, to bronze, silver and finally gold. In the UK there are 20 umpires with white badges, seven bronzes, four silvers and just three golds. Porsz has reached bronze, where more often than not, he will find himself working as a line judge in the later stages of the tournament, at which point the job of chair umpire naturally goes to the more senior officials.

With that goal in mind, he has been particularly busy this year, trying to get as many tournaments under his belt in order to build up the experience needed to move through the ranks. This has seen him officiate at events in New Zealand, Thailand, Spain Barcelona and Madrid , Portugal and France. In the run-up to Wimbledon there was the women's tournament in Eastbourne last week and the men's event at Queen's Club the week before.

Advancing a career as a tennis official is a surprisingly tactical business. As Porsz is particularly keen on sitting in the umpire's chair, he has to pick tournaments where he thinks he will be called upon to act as chair umpire rather than line judge. It's a bit hit and miss, depending on who's available, so his strategy is to work the ATP Challenger circuit , where lesser-known players try to break through to the first tier, the ATP World Tour.

There isn't much glamour on the Challenger circuit. Earlier this year, he was in the chair in Bangkok, where the ball boys and girls were street children, and where players' frustrations are never far from the surface. The players do not stay in top-flight hotels and the relatively untrained match staff lack that attention to detail players take for granted in major tournaments — the ball boys or ball girls won't necessarily proffer a towel between points, for example.

Yet, these events can be the launching pad for the elite tournaments for players and umpires alike.

Progress for promising umpires depends on evaluations from other, more senior, officials that are then assessed by the game's authorities - the ITF, the Association of Tennis Players and the Women's Tennis Association. For Porsz — whose father arrived in the UK from Poland after the second world war and whose mother came from Canada — umpiring grew out of a love of tennis. He started playing at nine and enjoyed it, but realised he would never reach an advanced level.

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His sister, a successful junior player, went to the US on a sports scholarship and played at college, but the family's involvement in tennis ended when she gave up. While he studied marketing management at Oxford Brookes University, Porsz decided he wanted a role in tennis, but not as a coach.

After reading a feature about jobs in tennis, he wrote off applying for a job as a tennis official. He did not hear back for a while but was eventually invited to a seminar where he and others went through the basic skills, such as calling the ball out. Only since the start of this year has Porsz has been able to make a full-time living from tennis umpiring, a job that takes up 25 weeks of the year.

Before, he would supplement his tennis earnings by temping in offices and finding jobs through agencies. Run by the Lawn Tennis Association , the glitzy, six-year-old complex — incorporating 22 courts — is supposed to act as an incubator of future tennis champions. As he shows me around the impressive facilities, some junior players are doing sprint exercises on one of the six indoor acrylic surface courts. On an outside clay court, Pippa Horn, the British under national champion from Norfolk, is practising her serve and hitting ferocious forehands under the gaze of a rather pudgy eastern European coach.

Later as we chat outside the centre's decent canteen, the distinctive twang of Greg Rusedski's voice is clearly audible from a nearby court, where he is coaching a trio of promising youngsters belting the ball back and forth. Just watching these young players practising gives you a good idea of how hard it can be to track the ball when it flashes by. When I ask Porsz about close calls he has had to make, he mentions a moment in a memorable fourth-round match at the French Open two years ago, in which Sweden's Robin Soderling astounded the tennis world by beating Spain's Rafael Nadal, a player who had previously seemed unassailable on the red clay courts of Roland Garros.

You have to sell it well and I was pleased that I had got it right, as you could see the mark it had left. Although the Soderling-Nadal clash was a great match from a spectator's point of view and tennis fans may envy Porsz for being so close to the action , he points out that umpires are too busy concentrating on their jobs to appreciate the spectacle.

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You're there to do a job and you are aware that your decisions can affect a match. On the big points you've got to concentrate even more. You get the sense of the quality of the match through the reaction of the crowd.

Assuming he makes it into the umpire's chair, though, one thing he will always have is the final say. On that score, interestingly, his views are as black and white as McEnroe's. Hours At a qualifying match, he can be done by On other days, he can be at a tournament all day. Work-life balance "The time on site can be long. We may only do one or two matches, but there can be a lot of waiting around. We can also be on standby in case a replacement chair umpire is needed.

If I finish at a decent time I try and make the most of the evening, especially in a city with lots to see. Best thing On court for a big match with a large crowd. Also travelling round the world, submerging yourself in different cultures. Worst thing "Missing out on a home life and not being there for close friends' birthdays. And I was stuck at Madrid airport for eight hours earlier this year, but haven't lost my luggage yet, probably one of the few tennis officials not to, so far.

Matt likes playing other sports including five-a-side football and cricket on Clapham Common. It'll be an exhilarating high-speed boat trip that lasts approximately 50 minutes, passing some of the most well-known landmarks along the Thames. Please choose your username under which you would like all your comments to show up.

You can only set your username once. International edition switch to the UK edition switch to the US edition switch to the Australia edition. The Guardian - Back to home. Matt Porsz has the power to make big match calls, but he needs nerves of steel to cope with the on-court tantrums. Order by newest oldest recommendations. Show 25 25 50 All. Threads collapsed expanded unthreaded. Loading comments… Trouble loading? Signed in as Show comment Hide comment. Your comments are currently being pre-moderated why?

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