7563: Serving Ace.

From The New York Daily News…

Courted by a love of tennis: Passion makes him the USTA’s lone African-American silver badge umpire

By Clem Richardson

It’s hard to tell where Anthony (Tony) Nimmons’ tennis career began.

Maybe it was with the couple who first invited him and a friend to hit a few balls.

Then there was the stranger who suggested Nimmons take some tennis lessons after an evening of chasing the stray balls Nimmons kept hitting on the next court, disrupting the man’s game.

Maybe it was even earlier, while growing up in Far Rockaway, Queens, under the loving eyes of parents Carrie and Daniel Nimmons, who encouraged their three children to try new things.

Wherever and whenever it began, tennis has been good to Nimmons.

The 41-year-old father of two is coordinator of officials with the United States Tennis Association and, since 2009, a certified silver badge chair umpire, the only African-American to hold that rank.

The chair umpire sits at midcourt, straddling the net. Gold is the top certification, with silver next.

Nimmons has officiated at Wimbledon and the French, Australian and U.S. Open tournaments, overseeing matches involving top players including Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Kim Clijsters, Justine Henin, James Blake, Andy Roddick and Pete Sampras.

He has traveled the country and much of the world. This year, Nimmons expects to spend more than 250 days on the road.

“I love what I do,” he said. “It is very rare that you wake up and you can’t wait to get to work.”

The USTA is also looking to recruit new officials. But before you learn where to sign up, understand that it is a pretty demanding gig.

“The bulk of how I learned was on-the-job-training,” said Nimmons, who entered the officiating ranks in 1994. “I can’t tell you how hard it was. I lost sleep trying to learn how to do this because I am so passionate about this.”

The job has several basic requirements: umpires must know the rules inside and out, and must be certified every year.

They must have 20/20 vision, (read that with glasses or contact lenses) and must be in good physical shape.

Maybe that first rule is most important.

“Listen, you’re going to miss a call here or there, and the players understand that,” Nimmons said. “But misinterpreting or not applying the rules properly, that is unacceptable. You could lose certification based on stuff like that.”

Nimmons was born in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and raised in Far Rockaway, where his parents moved the family when he was 13 years old.

His South Carolina-born parents ran a strict house.

“We had to be in the house by sunset,” Nimmons recalled.

It was also a religious home, but one that adopted tenets from a variety of faiths: they observed some Jewish holidays, for instance, including having the Sabbath extend from 6 p.m. Friday to 6 p.m. Saturday.

That virtually sank Nimmons’ Far Rockaway High School sports career. Tall and athletic, he played basketball, swam and fenced. But there were limits.

“I did not play basketball on Friday evening, so if we had a game on Friday night, I could not go,” he said. “I did not play football because all of our games were on Saturday. Baseball, practice was on Sabbath, so I could not do that. I swam because you could do that during the week, and practice was after school.”

He shot hoops well enough to get some financial help going to SUNY Delhi (1988) and SUNY Utica (1990).

After college, he worked as a security guard, then as a track worker for the Transit Authority. One day, he and a friend were watching a couple hit tennis balls. Invited to play with them, Nimmons found he loved the game.

In 1994, he was playing with a friend and kept hitting the ball in the neighboring court. Afterward, one those players suggested Nimmons get lessons.

Later that week, Nimmons was watching tennis on television and saw that same man, Cecil Hollins, working the USTA match as a line judge.

Hollins became Nimmons’ mentor, helping him break into the officiating ranks and introducing him to officials such as former USTA Chairwoman of Umpires Sandy Schwan.

To find out more about USTA officiating, visit the group’s Web site, www.USTA.com.