Davis Cup: Referee Norbert Peick – “You don’t start from scratch”

Norbert Peick is one of those chief referees in the tennis circus who have been responsible for the orderly conduct of the biggest events for years. This weekend Peick is in Graz for the match between Austria and Australia.

By Jens Huiber from Graz

Tennisnet: Mr. Peick. How does your work as head referee at a Davis Cup match differ from that at an ATP tournament such as in Munich?

Peick: Basically you get to a place where there hasn’t been a tournament yet. Like here. That means we have to be there on Monday night for a match that starts on Friday. At a tournament like Munich, for example, the seats are already there, the grandstands, where we go and check that everything is in order. Here one measures the place at the beginning, looks, how long it is bright, all these preparation stories. Because if something doesn’t fit, at least we have a few days. It has often happened that a line in the wrong place or a net support is too high. That’s the first thing we’ll check.

tennisnet: how did you find the facility here at the Graz Fair?

Peick: This is a mad construction of nothing. And now we have here a super big, super solid place, which is really beautifully built, with good grandstands all around. I think it’s set for a good Davis Cup match.

tennisnet: Players blinded by mirrors, an untamable audience. This is how it should have been at the time of a pattern or Becker. Why has this changed in recent years?

Peick: I don’t know if all these wild stories are true. I’ve been around for a relatively long time now and, quite honestly, I’ve never seen a wild audience. I have had one or two fools who have tried to make any click with a can when a player just serves. That’s relatively clever, because it’s hard to prove it was intentional. But that’s all I’ve experienced. The Davis Cup lives from the audience’s support for the teams, but in a fair way. And in the last ten, 15 years, the Davis Cup has been great. Also because the teams are very cooperative among themselves.

tennisnet: How do the linesmen actually recruit themselves at a Davis Cup match?

Peick: The local association appoints a Chief of Officials to take care of the linesmen. And he suggests a team. And the ITF needs to approve. They are all domestic referees with relevant experience in the Fed Cup or Davis Cup or at other tournaments. They’re checking it, there’s a database of all the officials. In addition, there are two professional referees.

tennisnet: Are these concrete in Graz?

Peick: Gianluca Moscarella from Italy and Christian Rask from Denmark.

tennisnet: How often has it happened in a Davis Cup match that you had to intervene as chief referee?

Peick: It can happen. Factual decisions are made by the chair referee, that is not an issue. I must not interfere, even if I saw something else, I must not interfere. But that doesn’t happen at all with the quality of the referees we have at this level. When it comes to whether a pitch is playable, you sometimes have to do something. I have to go there myself and get an idea.

tennisnet: Last year you were relegated to Canada, now it’s Austria. Can ITF preferences be specified for specific matches?

Peick: There is no application mode. You go where you’re assigned. This is happening all over the world, from all those referees that are available and that the ITF wants to use. I’ve been on the road a lot in the last year, and so have this one, and I like to do that. Here in Graz it is a bit easier for me, because I can talk to everybody. I can also do a few informal things in my mother tongue with the people in between, where I might need someone else to explain. I’ve known Hans, the groundsman here, for 15 years. You don’t start from scratch.