Any tennis official’s dream is to officiate in the Olympics tennis events and also be part of the Olympic Games. Our city’s Sagar S. Kashyap is in Rio De Jeneiro as a Tennis official and is officiating in the ongoing Tennis events in the Olympic Games-2016. Twenty eight-year-old Sagar achieved a milestone in 2015, when he officiated as a line umpire in the men’s singles final between Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer at the Wimbledon Grand Slam Tennis Championships at the all England Club’s Courts on July 12, 2015. Sagar became the youngest Indian to officiate in the Wimbledon Championships final. Today, he is officiating in the Rio Olympics as part of the ITF Tennis Officials’ team. He is our ‘Star This Week.’
He is the only Mysurean official other than Mysuru-born US-based athlete Vikas Gowda who are doing our city and nation proud at the Olympic Games in Rio.
In Wimbledon Championships-2015, Sagar served as a line umpire along with another Indian referee Abhishek Mukherjee from Kolkata. This was the first time that two Indian officials were selected to officiate in a Wimbledon Championships men’s final. He is the first official from Karnataka to officiate in the Wimbledon final and the third Indian to be selected to officiate in the final of the Wimbledon Championships.
Sagar, a former national ranked tennis player and an Engineering graduate from Mysuru, fascinated by the game, took up officiating in smaller tourneys in Mysuru and Bengaluru in 2007. Sagar passed the International Tennis Federation’s Level-1 Exams in 2008. Later, he passed the ITF Level-2 exams and became the youngest White Badge official in the country, making him eligible to officiate at the highest level.
Sagar started officiating in ITF Tournaments and gradually was chosen for bigger tournaments. He got an opportunity to officiate in the ATP Chennai Open, WTA Sunfeast Open and ATP Kingfisher Open Tennis Championships.
In 2009, he got an opportunity to officiate as a line umpire in the Wimbledon championships qualifying rounds. In 2010, the British Lawn Tennis Association invited him to officiate in the main draw of the Championships. Since then he has been a regular in the Wimbledon Championships.
He was awarded as the Best performing Tennis Official by the ITF in 2015-16.
Sagar, after being in the circuit for seven years travelling to officiate from one championship to another, intends to climb greater heights in officiating various tournaments across the globe.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Sports News / August 07th, 2016