Silly question, but: who types « Championship Point » onto a stadium screen?
I started wondering on Monday morning, reading what Juan Martín del Potro said on ESPN Argentina after Alexander Zverev’s win. He said he was impressed by Zverev’s concentration right through the match, then he talked about his own final, the 2009 one, the one he won against Roger Federer.
« I remember an anecdote: in the 2009 final, I was leading 5–2 and Roger Federer was serving at 15–40. I looked up and I saw “Championship Point” written there. Automatically I was back at deuce, because I had made the huge mistake of looking at the screen. I think what Zverev did very well today is precisely not knowing, or not really registering, where he was in the score », he said.
So if I’ve got this right: in this sport, the whole point of a player’s afternoon is to not think about the score — and at the same moment the hardest piece of information he will ever have to carry is written out for him. Free of charge. In English. Above his head.
I asked who presses the button. I was told it was automatic, then that it was the operator, then that it was « tournament protocol ». Three people, three answers. I checked, and actually nobody really knows. What I take from it is that somewhere there is a job that consists of informing a player he has a championship point while he is mainly trying not to think about it.
Roland, when I put the question to him: « In 1980, the information came from the umpire. It arrived later. Nobody died of it. Well. It’s the times. »
Del Potro played two US Open finals and won one, in 2009, against Federer. Anyway, I still have a lot to learn.
It’s true, we checked: We Love Tennis.
