By ALAN PERROTT
Georgina Clark appears more like the principal of a girls school than a high-ranking tennis official.
Perched behind a tatty old desk deep inside the Stanley St tennis centre, the 63-year-old Londoner is taking time out from being vice-president of the European women's tennis circuit to oversee the women
competing at the ASB Classic.
Her perfect BBC diction may be constantly interrupted by a international parade of tanned, fit girls looking for assistance or calls to attend one of the sunscorched courts, but Clark appears unflappable.
She was polite as she dashed off to observe the treatment of a player's blister on centre court. "I have to ensure the proper rules governing injury breaks are observed."
Clark played at a junior Wimbledon before ending her career when she had her first child at 19.
She moved into umpiring, where she struggled against the male-dominated administration, but in 1984 was the first woman to umpire a women's final at Wimbledon in a match between Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert Lloyd.
"I quit after that game. I didn't see how I could go any further, and I didn't feel it was right to still be umpiring when I was also looking after the girls for the ATP."
Clark is proud to have been one of the few women to umpire American superbrat John McEnroe.
During one match on Wimbledon's old number one court she became so distracted by a spectator failing to scale a wall separating the courts that she forgot the score.
"So [McEnroe] walked up, grabbed a towel, mumbled, "It's 30-15," and back he went. I always found him extremely well mannered and well behaved. No really."
When you get caught by Clark's steely, unwavering glare, it's quite easy to imagine McEnroe would have known that he had met his match.
Her first visit to New Zealand is a brief stop-off before the Australian Open in Melbourne, but she is happy to have accepted an invitation to work at Auckland's tournament.
"It is attracting good players for a tier four event and the level of interest among the people I've spoken to is enormous. It's well run and the centre is really nice. Well done."
