Tennis : Umpire Who Walked Out During Match Is Suspended

The umpire who left the chair during Ivan Lendl’s first-round match in the $1.8-million Lipton International Players Championships was suspended Wednesday.

Ken Farrar, chief of supervisors for the Men’s International Professional Tennis Council, said Luigi Brambilla of Pomezia, Italy, will work as a linesman instead of an umpire for the rest of the tournament.

Farrar also said that after investigating the circumstances, “there will be no disciplinary action taken against the players.”

When Lendl completed his 6-2, 6-0 victory over Larry Stefanki Tuesday night, there was no umpire in the chair.

“Brambilla is a good official. He works all over the world,” Farrar said. “Every official must make snap judgments, and he had a bad day. He lost control and told the supervisor that he thought he should be replaced. But it shouldn’t affect him in the future when he gets to another site with new players and different conditions.”

Asked if he had ever seen a chair umpire walk out in the middle of a tennis match, Farrar said: “Never.”

The uproar began at 6-2, 3-0, 40-15. Lendl hit a serve that both players thought was long. No call was made, and it brought the second-set score to 4-0.

“I was getting ready to serve at 4-0, and I just asked him (Brambilla) one simple question,” Stefanki said.

Brambilla didn’t answer him, and Stefanki waited. Brambilla then assessed Stefanki a point penalty for delay of game. Then, while the umpire was talking with supervisor Thomas Karlberg, Lendl and Stefanki continued to play.

“After we had played six points, he (Brambilla) said, ‘Let’s start over again.’ We said we would play from deuce,” Stefanki said.

When Lendl wrapped up the fifth game, Brambilla got down from his chair and left the stadium court. Lendl and Stefanki then played the final game.

“It was an officiating problem,” Farrar said. “The match was not conducted in the highest standards of officiating. He should have answered the player’s question,” Farrar said.

Brambilla refused to answer questions Wednesday, saying: “Speak to the supervisor. I cannot talk to the press.”

In Wednesday’s matches, Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert Lloyd started their march toward another showdown.

Navratilova, seeded No. 1, routed Molly Van Nostrand, 6-0, 6-1, in 45 minutes, while Lloyd, seeded No. 2, eliminated Corinne Vanier of France, 6-0, 6-2, in 50 minutes.

“I don’t know how well I played,” Navratilova said. “She was going for broke and missed a lot. I was getting a lot of my first serves in.”

Lloyd: “I played all right, but it’s hard to tell. She made a lot of errors. I won because she played badly.

“I’d like to have a tougher opening match. I had to go three sets to beat Gigi Fernandez in the first round (two weeks ago), and then I was ready to play. There was no sweat today.”

Among other seeded players advancing were No. 3 Wendy Turnbull of Australia, who struggled to a 7-6, 7-5 victory over Masako Yanagi of Japan, and the men’s No. 2, Mats Wilander of Sweden, who ousted Mike DePalmer, 6-2, 6-3.

In a major upset, however, No. 5-seeded Claudia Kohde-Kilsch of West Germany lost to Elise Burgin, 7-5, 6-3.