Who is Australian Open umpire Marijana Veljovic?
MARIJANA VELJOVIC is a tennis umpire who has drawn huge attention from the crowd for her stunning beauty.
Veljovic, who has been umpiring for seven years, has overseen a variety of Grand Slam matches.
Tennis icon Boris Becker recently landed himself in hot water for making a comment about Veljovic’s appearance while working as a commentator for a US Open match in 2022.
Who is Marijana Veljovic?
Marijana Veljovic is a Serbian tennis umpire who has officiated several Grand Slam matches.
Veljovic’s stunning beauty captured viewers’ attention after Roger Federer’s match against Tennys Sandgren at the Australian Open in 2020.
Veljovic has openly expressed how she wants to encourage more women to get into tennis umpiring.
She said: “We don’t have enough female officials. We have three-and-a-half times fewer female officials than male.
“We talked about the ideas to bring more females into officiating.
“We want to make it more equal because tennis is a sport that’s already quite equal.
“If you’re good enough you should be there no matter the gender.”
Veljovic has hit the headlines over the years for enforcing the rules of the game.
At last year’s Wimbledon, Jannik Sinner was left frustrated by some of Veljovic’s decisions.
World No 8 Holger Rune was also hit with a violation at the Australian Open for smashing a microphone at the back of the official’s chair.
How long has she been a tennis umpire?
Veljovic, 36, received her gold badge for umpiring in 2015 and has swiftly risen up the ranks ever since.
Veljovic was in charge of the 2018 Australian Open women’s singles final.
In 2019, she was called up for the Wimbledon‘s women’s singles final before she umpired the Fed Cup final.
What did Boris Becker say about her at the US Open q0q0?
Becker recently came under fire for making a ‘creepy comment’ about Veljovic while he was serving as a commentator for Alexander Zverev’s US Open 2020 semi-final victory.
“I have to say, the umpire is extremely pretty. You eat with your eyes.”
Sports journalist Petra Philippsen translated Becker’s comments and posted them to Twitter, where they were met with outrage by tennis fans.
“You cannot be serious!! Please tell him it is 2020,” one user wrote.
“Keep your thoughts to yourself, Boris,” another added.
“He always was gross, he’s staying on his (off) brand,” one agreed.
Female tennis star Eugenie Bouchard made similar comments about Veljovi’s appearance earlier this year.
“the umpire in this roger/tennys match is super pretty,” she wrote alongside a heart-eyed emoji.
Bouchard’s comment was not met with the same outrage.