Marija Cicak is the woman who will sit on the chair and be in charge of refereeing the match between Djokovic and Italian tennis player Matteo Berrettini. So in the Croatian capital, Zagreb, there will be more people watching the Grand Slam in London this season.
The All England Club (AELTC) as the organizer of the Grand Slam in London have confirmed that they will make a breakthrough by placing a female referee in the men’s singles final for the first time.
Cicak has proven that she can take charge of big games at Wimbledon when Petra Kvitova beat Eugenie Bouchard to win the women’s singles title in 2014 and she also refereed the women’s doubles final in 2017.
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This season for the 15th time in a row, Cicak refereed the Grand Slam and the women’s singles Olympic final has also made a name for itself.
Being one of the elite referees in WTA tournaments since the 2012 season, Marija Cicak grew up in Croatia playing a number of sports, from karate, handball, swimming, and eventually became interested in tennis thanks to advice from his uncle.
He started tournaments when he was 12 years old, but there was a shortage of trained referees and linesmen in his country, so he earned his first refereeing qualification when he was just 15 years old.
Cicak chose to give up playing tennis at any tournament level three seasons later and decided to go to college.
“I decided to quit because here (Croatia), it is not easy to pursue a career in the world of sports and stay in college at the same time,” said Cicak in an interview last summer.
“In the US, the system is different and to be honest, I just want to focus on other things than playing tennis. I just want to go to school and enjoy leading a game.” The decision paid off well. The Cicak eventually led the match in the ITF Futures event and became the linesman in a higher-level tournament. At the age of 33, he began to become an elite referee in WTA tournaments. Just two seasons after that she officiated her first Wimbledon final and it was followed by the 2015 US Open women’s singles final.
