Eva Asderaki-Moore:The Greek freak!

Eva in the Us Open Men's Final

This Us Open came to an end two weeks ago with Flavia Pennetta accomplishing to win her maiden Grand Slam title in the most surprising Grand Slam since the 2013 Wimbledon! However,this time my blog will feature something that took place in the men's final!Eva Asderaki of Greece became the 1st woman to rule a men's Grand Slam final,while with Marija Cicak, they became the first all-woman set of umpires in the 2 Grand Slam Singles Finals!!!!In this article,I will focus on Eva and her illustrious career in umpiring.

As a youngster
Eva was born in Chalkis, the biggest city of Euboea,the second biggest island of Greece. From a little girl she loved sports. Till the age of 11 she was practising rhythmic gymnastics  and later on she started liking tennis. She managed to be one of the best 8 Greek players from the age of 16!Her first  experience on tennis court in a role other than a player was in a tournament organised in her hometown in which she was line judge.She then decided she wanted to become an umpire.

Her first years in umpiring

She was awarded the White badge in 2000 and then she was allowed to start her umpiring career. Her first WTA tournament was at Doha in 2001 and her first Grand-Slam was Wimbledon in 2005. She was awarded the Bronze badge in 2002,the Silver in 2005 and the Golden in 2008.After being awarded the Golden badge she entered the elite of the world umpiring(currently there are only 28 umpires with the Golden badge by the ITF).

Eva in a match of the WTA Finals 

Her first Grand Slam final and the argument with Serena Williams
Eva was selected to rule the US Open Women's Singles Final in 2011 between Sam Stosur and Serena Williams.The final was running well until a specific point. Serena hit a powerful serve,Sam answered with a short return and then Serena attacked. The shot was going in and Serena screamed "Come On". However,according to the rules,you aren't allowed to say anything(especially shouting) until the point ends.So,Eva correctly gave the point to Sam who broke Serena's serve to make the score 6-2 2-0.Serena didn't agree with that and asked Eva why she gave the point to Sam and the Greek umpire explained. In the changeover,Serena told Eva some really bad things(don't look at me,you are a looser etc.).Serena took a fine of 2.000 dollars,however she claimed that she mistook Eva for the umpire of her semifinal match in 2009 when she got disqualified. This surely wasn't the Grand Slam final debut that Eva was dreaming for,but she never let down 


Her second Slam Final:Wimbledon 2013
They were needed 2 years for Eva to rule again a Grand Slam Final,this time in the Wimbledon Championships Women's Singles Final between Marion Bartoli and Sabine Lisicki. The final was good, without controversial calls or arguments.There was though a wrong call from a line judge that Eva didn't overrule but it was really far from her so she trusted the judge.

Eva in the Us Open 2015 Men's Final

Writing history...
Eva was selected to umpire the Men's Singles Us Open Final two weeks ago.Eva became the first woman to umpire a men's Grand Slam final,which was her dream come true as she had mentioned in an interview last year.Eva not only ruled the final,but she had absolute success.She did 13(!) overrules,all of them being CORRECT. Everyone praised her in the social media from tennis fans,to journalists,legends and professional players!!!!Even,the bad boy of the tennis world John McEnroe said that she was on fire!



What Eva's success means to me 
Eva made a breakthrough that Sunday when she became the first woman to rule a Men's Grand Slam final. Her selection to rule the final is a proof that women and men are getting more and more equal in sport.Us Open was the first tournament in which men and women got equal prize money and now it becomes the first Grand Slam to select a woman to rule the men's final. Eva,herself,said that she has never faced racism and sexism in her career so far,nor has she ever got treated differently by a male player on court cause of her gender. This is really important about gender equality in our sport.Moreover,this meant a lot to the Greek tennis fans .We have to see success in tennis since Lena's Daniilidou and Marcos Baghdatis prime years,so Eva's success was really important for us. I remember when I first saw Eva umpiring a match in the Brussels Open in 2013 and I was really happy that we had another representative in the sport even without knowing her success.I was thrilled when she ruled the Wimbledon Final and some WTA Finals matches and in general, it means the world to me when I hear good comments about her on social media.



THANKS FOR MAKING GREECE PROUD EVA!!!