Women Who Serve: French Federation of Tennis

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Sad news for tennis fans: de Jenken retires

If you are a tennis fan, the news that Sandra de Jenken is retiring may hit you as hard as hearing that a top player has retired. We haven't seen that much of de Jenken lately, so it certainly appeared that a change was in the works. She has been appointed Deputy Director of the French Federation of Tennis, and head of the Sports Management Open Tournament.

de Jenken has officiated at thirteen Grand Slam finals and two Olympic events. She was the first woman to umpire a men's Grand Slam final, the 2007 Australian Open final, and she also umpired the 2007 men's Roland Garros final.

I wanted to get a photograph of de Jenken at this year's Family Circle Cup, but just as I went to take it, she descended from the umpire's chair. Now we will be lucky to get a glimpse of her when we watch the French Open on television, for she will be the person in charge.

About the blog author

Diane Elayne Dees is a writer, a retired psychotherapist, a former speech communication instructor, and a former public relations specialist. She is also a life-long fan of women's professional tennis.

For several years, Diane published the progressive blog, The Dees Diversion, and she also contributed regularly to the Mother Jones MoJo Blog. Diane has published political essays, short fiction and creative nonfiction. For the past several years, she has concentrated on writing poetry.

A nine-time Pushcart Prize nominee, Diane has published four poetry chapbooks, Coronary Truth (Kelsay Books), The Last Time I Saw You, (Finishing Line Press), The Wild Parrots of Marigny (Querencia Press), and I Can't Recall Exactly When I Died (Kelsay Books). (See ordering information at the top of the page.)

She has also published four microchaps with the Origami Poems Project: Beach Days, Pandemic Times, Missing Amy, and Yogic Truth. Her nature poetry was read on Martha Stewart Living Radio's "The Naturalist's Datebook."