The name Carlos Bernardes is nearly synonymous with tennis. One of its most prominent officials for the better part of the last four decades, the longtime chair umpire has done nearly everything there is to do in the sport. US Open fans will know him best from his two appearances in charge of the men’s singles final—Roger Federer’s wins in 2006 and 2008—plus the 2010 doubles final.
But taking charge of Grand Slam finals in the world’s biggest tennis stadium is a far cry from how Bernardes, who is working his final fortnight in Flushing Meadows this year, started his tennis career. In fact, as he recently recalled to USOpen.org, he wasn’t even supposed to be on his first tennis courts at all.
“When I was maybe 13 years old, we used to go to the club and jump over the fence on the weekends to play tennis,” he says. “My friends and me, we had some tennis racquets. We used to play on the street, but then I found this place, and we used to go there.
“But one day, the boss of the tennis club was there waiting for us. When we jumped inside, he looked at us and said, ‘Why don’t you guys come to play like normal people? Come and register,’ he said. And that was my first contact with tennis.”
But Bernardes’ first brush with officiating didn’t come until more than a few years later. Shortly after the death of his father, while Bernardes was still in his teens, he took up coaching, and in 1984, Sao Paulo’s Pinheiros Sports Club hosted a week-long regional Billie Jean King Cup (then Fed Cup) tie between Brazil and its neighboring countries. The event needed more than 100 line umpires, and Bernardes, who was working at the Sao Caetano Sport Club, raised his hand. He eventually continued balancing officiating at tournaments around South America while coaching, as well as studying mechanical engineering, before turning his attention full-time to officiating in the early 1990s. His first tour-level event outside the region was in Miami in 1992; he became a full-time ATP chair umpire that year, too.
Over the years, Bernardes has seen first-hand how the sport has grown, evolved and changed, making him an unexpected font of knowledge in regards to its history. He jokes that in the early days, it would've been just as likely to find him on the practice courts at a tournament as a hitting partner as in the chair officiating matches. But after countless miles of globe-trotting and weeks of hotel living as a supporting character on the traveling roadshow that is the tennis tour, the 60-year-old (his birthday, in fact, is during the Open on Sept. 1) had wrestled with the idea of retirement over the last few seasons before deciding that this year would be his last.
“I didn’t come from a rich family … and after all this time, to realize I’ve visited over 100 different countries, met people from simple people to presidents, it doesn’t feel like real life,” he says. “The passion for the sport is one of the things that’s kept me going.”
Bernardes’ other career highlights include officiating the 2011 Wimbledon men’s final between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, the 2016 final between Djokovic and Andy Murray at the ATP’s year-end championships, and at five Olympic Games. But of those hallowed stops, New York has been a place that’s been one of the Brazilian’s favorites. He estimates he’s visited “45, 50 times” between US Opens and vacations over the years, and counts himself firmly in the camp of visitors who love the Big Apple.
Some of his standout memories of New York include repeatedly walking the length of Manhattan from Central Park downtown to Pier 17, and seeing New Jersey’s favorite son, Bruce Springsteen, in concert. This year, months before the Open even began, he checked off a bucket list item with his wife by seeing Billy Joel perform—“a dream for her,” he says—before his residency at Madison Square Garden ended.
“I could live in New York easily, without even thinking about it,” he says. “If you want to eat fantastic food, you can find the restaurants. If you want to do something simple, you can find a place that's simple. You can do whatever you want, any time. You can walk anywhere, and I love walking when I have a day off. Sometimes, you just walk around and you find different places that you never saw before.
“When I came to the US Open for the first time, too, it’s the same. It’s crazy … the way the site has improved and changed, it’s unbelievable, and it’s so well done, and they’re still improving. Some people say they could never live in New York, but for me, it’s just so great.”
“I didn’t come from a rich family … and after all this time, to realize I’ve visited over 100 different countries, met people from simple people to presidents, it doesn’t feel like real life."
Bernardes’ farewell season will continue through year’s end—he’s capping his career with a first-ever assignment at the Davis Cup Finals—and the affable Brazilian says he has been blown away by the response to his final weeks from the broader tennis community. Take this April in Barcelona, for example—a tournament he officiated at more than 30 times, including at least 10 finals, and was notably his comeback tournament in 2021 after he’d suffered a heart attack earlier in the year while working at the Australian Open. He was given an on-court tribute after the championship match between Casper Ruud and Stefanos Tsitsipas (the tournament even invited his wife to attend). He was also honored with a similar presentation after he officiated the final at another clay-court ATP event in Estoril, Portugal.
“I never expected this. It was tough to pick the events that I wanted to do this year—I couldn’t do the whole season! I had someone come to me in Cincinnati who I know from Umag, [Croatia, the home of a July ATP tournament], asking me, ‘Why didn’t you come?’,” he laughs with a signature ear-to-ear grin.
“It really nice when players, tournament directors, the public, come and talk to you. I really appreciate the love from all of them.”
It’s a bold sentiment from a man whose professional vocation has been a role that avoids the spotlight—but something that speaks volumes on just how integral his familiar face has been to tennis’ story.
“For 40 years,” Bernardes adds, “it’s just been amazing to be a part of something since the beginning.”
Not a bad run for a kid who was once really good at climbing fences.
