John McEnroe was famous for his tirades against chair umpires calling them the pits of the world.  Maybe his steady drumbeat of complaints lead tennis to increased professionalism in umpiring.  Back when Mac was playing, umpires were local, and so they didn’t call matches all that often, which meant they weren’t always that good.

By having a traveling troupe of chair umpires, the quality of chair umpiring was bound to improve.  With all the money involved, paying the judges to travel made sense.  And as time passes, people pay attention to the chair umpires.  So, all that yelling by Superbrat seems to have paid off.

At the end of the year, the top 8 singles players and doubles players play at the O2 arena in London.  In addition, the top 4 chair umpires are brought to the event.  This year, they were the ever-amusing, Mohamed Lahyani, Steve Ullrich, Damian Steiner, and Lars Graff.  Graff has been a full-tie umpire for 15 years and has been held in high regard.  He was the chair umpire in 2009 when Roger Federer faced Andy Roddick.

This year marked the retirement of many players: Andy Roddick, Ivan Ljubicic, and Juan Carlos Ferrero to name a few.  To join those ranks of those seeking a life after their life goes Lars Graff.  In his last stint as umpire, he umpired the finals between Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.

Although Federer lost and seemed genuinely sad that he couldn’t play to his high standards more consistently, he was classy and gracious enough to tell the audience that Lars Graff was retiring.  He’ll not retire from tennis permanently.  He’ll focus his attention at the ATP office in Florida.

In the meanwhile, let’s credit Johnny Mac with the professionalism of tennis that makes people care that a person like Lars Graff has called it a career as chair umpire.