Eva Asderaki-Moore’s unique view of the Wimbledon final

Not only for the competitors left in the whittled-down singles and doubles draws, or the privileged few fortunate enough to have snaffled centre court seats, is Wimbledon finals weekend a marvellous place to be. Even the chair umpires presiding at the sport’s grasscourt cathedral note that the All England Club does things just a little bit differently to everywhere else.

Greece’s Eva Asderaki-Moore was chosen to officiate at her second ladies singles final earlier this month, four years after Marion Bartoli defeated Sabine Lisicki in the first. The only woman ever to umpire a men’s singles decider at the US Open, the 2015 four-setter between Federer and Novak Djokovic, now has a personal grand slam tally of four, split between Flushing Meadows and Wimbledon.

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“It’s very special. Every grand slam final is special but, I don’t know, Wimbledon has something extra. Maybe it’s the way things are done,” says Melbourne-based Asderaki-Moore, sipping a latte in a cafe near her bayside home of two years.

“There’s a protocol. You’re told where to stand. You’re told to have the button done up on your jacket for the photo, even though I didn’t and I was told off afterwards!” she laughs, admitting to the oversight.

“You get to meet the Duke (of Kent) after and get your medal, so there are these little things, these little touches, that happen during the tournament that I think make it special. And then a little bonus is that if you umpire one of the singles finals, you get to go to the Wimbledon Ball. So that’s like a little treat. The other nice thing they do if you do one of the two singles finals is they give you two tickets to invite your family or somebody to come and watch your match.”

There have been plenty of highlights in the 20 years since the then 16-year-old junior player helped out as a line judge at a local Greek tournament – so many more, indeed, than Asderaki-Moore could ever have imagined. As one of eight umpires – four of them women – contracted to the International Tennis Federation, she works 18 weeks a year across the grand slams, Davis and Fed Cup ties, and in a teaching capacity.

Yet Asderaki-Moore is one of the few to have moved away from the sport’s northern hemisphere hub rather than towards it, the relocation adding considerable travel time to her regular “commute”. No complaints, though, for the 35-year-old is settled in Australia, thrilled to sleep in her own bed during the year’s first major, and happy with the lifestyle and family-related trade-off.

She walks anonymously around the streets with the family cocker spaniel, unrecognised despite having held court – Centre Court – at Wimbledon less than a fortnight ago. But such is an umpire’s lot away from a tennis venue, and the understated Asderaki-Moore likes it that way.

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Not that she could stay completely under the radar when there is a Greek family that lives next door. “One day when we first moved in and started saying hello and stuff, one of the brothers said ‘Can I ask you a question? You don’t happen to work in tennis, do you? I said ‘yes, I do’… ‘Ah, you are the referee’.”

Well, umpire, strictly speaking. And, in keeping with her personality, one known for her coolly efficient – she was famously eight from eight on over-rules in that history-making 2015 US Open final – and professional manner rather than any overt flamboyance. Although, as Asderaki-Moore is keen to acknowledge, each to their own.

What is common in most sports, though, is the golden rule of officiating, and tennis is no different: the best umpires are the ones you don’t notice. “Absolutely,” she says with a smile. “When the match finishes and nobody has anything – negative, especially – to say about the umpire, then that’s the best. It means you’ve done a good job.”