These 3 women have umpired major men's singles finals

The Open era of professional tennis began in 1968, though in its more than 50 years, just four women umpires have overseen the proceedings for men's singles championships among the Grand Slam events.

According to Victoria Chiesa, writing for USOpen.org, the first woman to umpire a Wimbledon final came nearly four decades ago. Picture it: Wimbledon, 1984. Chris Evert facing off against then-nemesis Martina Navratilova. Georgina Clark, who has since passed, umpired that match—the first woman to do so for a Wimbledon women's singles finale.

That said, in that time, just four women—one of them twice—have quite literally called the shots as to how the match played out in a men’s singles championship at a Grand Slam tournament.

Notably, that woman who has done so twice is Sandra de Jenken, per Chiesa's reporting. She did so for back-to-back majors in 2007, at the Australian Open and Roland Garros.

But just three women have done so since, meaning that 51 of the past 54 major men's singles finals have been umpired by men.

What's more, it means that just five of the more than 210 Grand Slam men's singles finals have been umpired by women. Dear reader, I'm not sure which stat is more staggering, the 2007-onward version or the totality of it.

Now, to that trio of women that has governed from the chair since de Jenken's breakthrough in 2007. Coincidentally, each has done so at the US Open: Eva Asderaki-Moore in 2015, Alison Hughes in 2018, and Louise Azemar Engzell last year.

“What we’re trying to do is to inspire other women to get involved in tennis, get involved in officiating," Asderaki-Moore told writer Chiesa, "because if we don’t have many women who start, then we don’t have them later on."

Some of these four women took to officiating even as a teenager. To that girl who's perhaps doing the same: You've got net.