Swiss tennis maestro Roger Federer on Tuesday made it to the semi-finals of the ongoing Australian Open.
He defeated Tennys Sandgren of USA 6-3, 2-6, 2-6, 7-6, 6-3 in the quarter-finals at the Rod Laver Arena. The entire match lasted for more than three hours.
Though, a shocking escape from the 38-year-old, what grabbed everyone's attention is not the man himself but the chair umpire Marijana Veljovic.
Search terms related to the chair umpire on Google Trends has seen a massive rise as people wonder, who is Marijana Veljovic?
The Serbian national is a highly regarded chair umpire and is known for her unwavering decisions which is why she has been selected to officiate several high-profile matches at the age of 33.
Veljovic received her gold-badge for umpiring in 2015 and has officiated many big games ever since, including the 2018 Australia Open Women’s Singles final, the 2019 Wimbledon Championships and the 2019 Fed Cup final.
Previously, she talked about how tennis has given women a chance to succeed as officials and also pointed out how more female officials should be a part of the sport. In a video uploaded by International Tennis Federation (ITF) in 2018, she said, “Whether you are a girl or a guy, if you do well and they think you are good enough to do the biggest matches, it feels amazing that our sport is allowing us that.”
Coming back to the match, Veljovic proved to be up to the task when chance called upon her.
At one point during the game, Federer uncharacteristically swore after dropping points against Sandgren. Veljovic faced no qualms about calling out Federer for a code violation for swearing. Even after complaints from Federer, she maintained her control and did not move away from her decision.
After this incident, Twitter did not waste much time in praising the Serbian for her officiating.
