Mohamed Lahyani is one of the nicest guys and best umpires on tour, but unfortunately, he went too far with his kindness at the recent US Open.
What happened?
Nick Kyrgios was having one of his weird days, and he was badly losing to Pierre-Hugues Herbert when Mohamed went out of his way to give some encouraging words to Kyrgios. That worked well, and eventually the Australian won the match.
Federer was quite upset by what happened.
The position from the ATP
Lahyani didn’t officiate any important match for the rest of the US Open, but the ATP, Lahyani’ s employer, decided to step in to suspend him for the China Open in Beijing and the Shanghai Masters.
Gayle Bradshaw, ATP executive vice president of rules and competition, commented
“Mohamed is a world-class and highly respected official. However, his actions during the match crossed a line that compromised his own impartiality as a chair umpire.
Although well-intended, his actions were regrettable and cannot go without disciplinary action on our own Tour. We know that he will learn from this experience and we look forward to welcoming him back in October.”
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