The Italian Championships in Rome always seem to have a flair for the dramatic as the tournament’s history is littered with entertaining tales of controversy and drama. Jan Kodes, the International Tennis Hall of Famer, two-time French Open champion and 1973 Wimbledon champion, was the central figure in incident at the Foro Italico in 1974. The story is told in Kodes’ book JAN KODES: A JOURNEY TO GLORY FROM BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN, a beautiful coffee-table book available for $37.96 on Amazon.com here: http://www.amazon.com/Jan-Kodes-Journey-Behind-Curtain/dp/0942257685/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1305114136&sr=8-1. Autographed copies are available directly from New Chapter Press at NewChapterPress@gmail.com). Kodes, in his words and that of co-author Peter Kolar are excerpted below.
Undoubtedly, the “marble courts” at the Foro Italico have soaked up not only sweat but also many tales. However, Kodes’ 1974 extempore during the Italian Open topped them all. The Wimbledon champion was seeded second. In the second round, he was to play the second or third best player of Italy, Antonio Zugarelli, on Centre Court. That year the first two rounds were played best of three sets. Kodes lost the first set 6:7, and won the second 6:3. In the third set, serving at 4:5 and 30:30, he hit a winning volley that bounced squarely on the line…
I visually checked and saw that the line-judge indicated with both hands that the ball was good. At that, I turned around and walked to the baseline to serve for the next point, when I heard: “Advantage Zugarelli!” That gave him a match-point! I stopped short and walked over to the umpire asking:“Beg your pardon? That is incorrect! Advantage Kodes, eh? It bounced on the line!”
He shrugged his shoulders: “The referee claims that it was out.”
“What referee?”
In that instant a man got up in a box and walked over to us saying: “Kodes, Kodes; that was out and it is advantage Zugarelli.”
“What advantage Zugarelli; the line-judge clearly indicated it as an in shot.
“No, no, no, no! I saw it and it was out, resulting in advantage Zuragelli!”
That was the referee of the tournament, Michele Brunetti.
I walked around the net and pointed at the imprint. It was beautifully clear and right on the line; the ball was obviously good. I said: “You can order the point to be played over; you can’t just give him a point that he did not win! A match-point is in the works here. I won that point, not he.”
“I am the tournament referee!” he said.
Slowly, I started seeing blood: “Mr. Brunetti, you are confused with Davis Cup! Only there a referee is permitted to change the line-judge’s call; not in a tournament like this one! Here the referee is the Umpire.
With a frozen expression in his face he responded: “I am the referee here and I can do as I want!”
That was too much for me! I pushed him and he staggered. The crowd hummed. “Go away!” I yelled. “You have nothing to do here! This is not a Davis Cup match!” I pushed him again. The crowd roared. At that moment another chap got up from the box, Gianfranco Cameli, the tournament director, and announced: “Game, set, match, Zugarelli!”
The audience whistled and hollered, the whole place broke into crazy chaos. People wanted to see tennis; they wanted the outcome to be decided on the court. I was afraid that the ITF was going to punish me with a suspension but during press conference journalists stood up for me! They did not defend my unsportsmanlike actions and the fact that I pushed the referee twice but they accentuated the whole egregious situation.
After this unprecedented event the ATP enforced a rule that a domestic national cannot occupy the post of a referee at any tournament and they created a new position of a “Tournament Supervisor.” After many years I became a member of the Davis Cup commission. Brunetti represented Italy in the same commission! Ten years had gone by since the incident and we came face to face at one of the meetings. At first we just gaped at each other and did not converse but in time the ice was broken; we just laugh about it by now.
One day, Panatta and Bertolucci told me: “Do you know what is really paradoxical? – The fact that the guy Brunetti is, fundamentally, a terribly nice and just person. We have no idea what prompted him to come out with that ridiculous call in his capacity of a tournament referee. Most likely he confused the Davis Cup rules with the tournament rules; he is a bit of a moron. Since he worked as a Davis Cup referee for so many years he must have gotten mixed-up and applied the same rules to a tournament.”