Mohamed Lahyani, one of the most popular chair umpires on the ATP Tour, will feature at the Indian Wells 2024. He had an eventful time at last year’s edition of the Masters tournament, bearing the brunt of Daniil Medvedev’s rant.
Born in Morocco in June 1966, Lahyani is a Swedish citizen. He is a Gold Badge umpire, the highest tier of chair umpires who officiate top events and Grand Slams. His CV boasts three ATP Finals finals, the iconic 2013 Wimbledon final, and more. He most famously officiated the longest tennis match in history between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut. He was in the chair when the duo battled for over 11 hours across three days.
Speaking to Tennis Panorama, Mohamed Lahyani revealed he got into officiating when working for a tennis club in Uppsala, Sweden. He said he worked in many national championships, standing in games that featured the likes of Stefan Edberg and Mats Wilander. He then officially began working for his country’s federation and featured in Davis Cup ties as a line official.
Lahyani began his chair umpire career in 1991, obtaining his White Badge. He gradually worked his way up and achieved the Gold Badge in 1997. He is most famous for his voice modulation when calling scores, especially 40s and 15s. This distinct style sets him apart from other umpires on the tour.
The Swede will return the umpire’s chair in Indian Wells 2024 and will hope not to be on the receiving end of a tirade from Daniil Medvedev. During the Russian’s third-round match last year, he lashed out at Lahyani, ranting about how sluggish the courts were. He said he would be as slow during his bathroom break as the surface is and hence will take 25 minutes (Tennis.com).
Medvedev continued his diatribe, refusing to accept that the Indian Wells was a hard court tournament. He said the organisers were ‘lying’ since that is how slow the courts were. Lahyani tried his best to calm the 2021 US Open champion, a task he wouldn’t want to do again in 2024.
Mohamed Lahyani is no stranger to controversies as a chair umpire
His run-in with Medvedev was not Lahyani’s first tryst with controversy by any means. The Morocco-born chair official was infamously slapped with a two-tournament ban after the 2018 US Open for allegedly giving Nick Kyrgios a pep talk. The Aussie maverick was trailing by a set in his second-round match in New York.
Lahyani got off his chair and went up to him and was heard saying ‘I want to help you’ (BBC), among other things. Kyrgios found his mojo and won the match in four sets. Following this, the ATP punished the umpire for violating the impartiality rules.
It is rare to see both players in a match gang up on the umpire. However, that is exactly what happened in the quarter-final of the 2023 Italian Open between Holger Rune and Novak Djokovic. Both stars slammed Mohamed Lahyani on separate occasions during the tie. Rune called him an ‘absolute joke’ while Djokovic said he was ‘acting’.
With all these superstars featuring at the Indian Wells 2024, fans could witness another run-in with Lahyani.
