Longtime Referee Recalls Hong Kong Event's History Ahead Of ATP Tour Return

The ATP Tour will return to Hong Kong in the first week of the 2024 season with the Bank of China Hong Kong Tennis Open, which will be held from 31 December 2023-7 January 2024 at Victoria Park Tennis Stadium. The tournament, which will be played for the first time since 2002, has a rich history.

Dr. Edward Hardisty, who will be the referee for the 2024 edition, served as a supervisor for the Men’s Tennis Council before the formation of the ATP Tour in 1990, and then continued on as a supervisor for the Tour for 16 years after that, until 2016. Dr. Hardisty looks back on his memories from an event that helped shape his career.

When Dr. Edward Hardisty was lured to Hong Kong half a century ago, he was excited by the prospect of expanding the minds and expertise of locals working in a flourishing industry. But a chance encounter soon after his arrival sparked the opportunity of a lifetime, with Dr. Hardisty instead shifting his focus to a sport requiring him to impose rules and restrictions. 

An Englishman by birth, Dr. Hardisty moved to Hong Kong with his wife Janet in 1973 to work with a polytechnic organisation seeking experts to upgrade the skills of local workers. Possessing a keen interest in tennis, he was thrilled to learn Hong Kong was running a tournament in November that year featuring one of his all-time favourite players.

“A certain gentleman by the name of Rod Laver was playing and he was one player that I'd always idolised, not only because he's another left-hander like myself, but because he was so good,” Dr. Hardisty said.

Fate intervened at this point and set Dr. Hardisty on a starkly different path — one that allowed him one of the best seats at Victoria Park to watch Laver compete and also changed his life.

“I wanted to go and buy a ticket to watch the match and this friend of mine said, ‘You know there is no need to buy a ticket? Why not work as a linesman instead?’ ” Dr Hardisty said. “That was it. I attended a course on line-calling and I thought, ‘Well, as long as you know the rules of tennis, this is easy.’ 

“So I became a linesman and I called serve for Rod Laver that week and worked the final and it was a brilliant experience.”

Fifty years on from that chance encounter, Dr. Hardisty recently joined the Hong Kong, China Tennis Association Board and will serve as referee in the 2024 Bank of China Hong Kong Tennis Open.

Between 1991 and 1999, Dr. Hardisty — who recently refereed the Huafa Properties Zhuhai Championships, which stands as the second leg of the Greater Bay Double — worked as executive director of the organisation.

When the Hardistys departed Hong Kong at the end of 1999, the South China Morning Post described them as the “first couple of tennis” given their love of and devotion to the sport. Dr. Hardisty has since served in senior officiating positions at the four Grand Slams, in Davis Cups and Asian Games, and also enjoyed an extended run as the referee of the Rolex Shanghai Masters.

“I was so lucky to have the opportunity of being in the right place at the right time,” he said. “It is obviously an adage that is very appropriate concerning my career, because if I'd stayed in the U.K. or in Canada, I would never have had the opportunity to do it.”

His intrinsic knowledge of the tennis landscape in China, extensive Hong Kong links and vast global experience sparked the approach to join the HKCTA board. With Hong Kong becoming one of only three cities in the Asian region to host ATP and WTA Tour events alongside Beijing and Tokyo, Dr. Hardisty’s expertise is considered invaluable.

“My wife and I have kept in touch with various tennis people over the years in the city and up until 2020 we made annual visits back to Hong Kong,” he said. “I have attended tournaments all over the world, so I have a lot of experience with running events and officiating. I also have many contacts across the tennis spectrum which may be useful to Hong Kong.”

Dr. Hardisty retains a particular fondness for the Bank of China Hong Kong Tennis Open, which returns to the ATP Tour calendar after a hiatus of 21 years to start the 2024 season. This fondness is scarcely surprising given the greats who have excelled in Hong Kong. Grand Slam champions Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi and Michael Chang featured among the former winners when the event was played under the ATP Tour banner.

“Hong Kong has been blessed. If only that tennis court could talk, it would have a lot to say,” Dr. Hardisty said.

As impressive as the Victoria Park site is, thankfully Dr. Hardisty is on hand to relay some of his memories of officiating at the tournament through to the last championship in 2002, which was won by former world No.1 Juan Carlos Ferrero over his Spanish countryman Carlos Moya.

Laver plays a starring role in another favourite memory, with the anecdote serving as a reminder of how significantly professional sport has changed in terms of access to the stars. Dr. Hardisty recalls that when he first became involved with the tournament, a public washroom with showers and changing rooms also doubled as the players’ locker room.

“Laver was competing in the singles and the doubles final and in between matches, he was sitting in that room, in a segregated area, having a cup of tea,” Dr. Hardisty said. “And people were walking straight by him to go to the toilet, and he’s just there having a cup of tea. I mean, it was remarkable. I loved that.

“I don't think any of the top players would put up with that sort of behaviour now, but you know, it was water off a duck's back to Laver. He didn't have a care in the world.” 

Given Dr. Hardisty's service to tennis in Hong Kong, and the excellence of a career spent officiating the world’s best players, he was elevated to the HKCTA’s Hall Of Fame in 2016. He is delighted to be back working for an organisation that has given him so much joy on what is another historic moment given the return of elite men’s tennis to Hong Kong.

“I don’t see it as work. It is a pleasure and I feel very lucky to be doing it,” Dr. Hardisty said.