Dubai: Ali Nili, one of the top tennis officials on the ATP World Tour at the moment, had his career taking off in Dubai - and under the guidance of Hani El Khafief.

The Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships last month had Ali gracing the tournament where he had cut his teeth as an umpire and tournament referee Khafief was all praise about him. “The last time Ali was in Dubai, he was a Bronze badge official and now he is one of the top guys in the business. Yet again, we have a lovely story that started off right here in Dubai,” Al Khafief noted.

“This is huge for us here, not just for raising the tournament’s profile but also for aspiring youngsters who want to take up officiating,” he added. Nili officiated in the number of matches in the February event including the men’s final between Stan Wawrinka and Marcos Baghdatis, though he could not entertain a request for an interview due to ATP regulations.

Nili’s story goes back to October 1997 when Tehran hosted the West Asian Games. The International Tennis Federation (ITF) assigned UAE-based Hani El Khafief as the referee for the tennis competition there and Nili was the assistant tournament director. The two met and that is how things started moving.

Though from Iran, Nili has lived in the US since his childhood. That led him to get a good hold of English, thereby moving him towards an organizational role in tennis in his native Iran from the time he was just 19 years old. Till then, he represented his country as a player at various competitions.

“When I had my pre-tournament meeting with Ali [Nili] and the tournament director, we quickly realised that we didn’t have any international certified officials for the event. At that time Iran had three White badge chair umpires and they were all travelling abroad for tournaments. I told them I need officials who speak English and are familiar with rules and claycourt procedures. As desperate measure, both Ali and the tournament director decided to double up as umpires,” Al Khafief recalled in a chat with Gulf News.

“Ali was also assigned for the final of that event on live television and before leaving Tehran, I mentioned to him that I might be able to invite him to officiate at the Dubai Men’s Open the following year (February 1998),” Al Khafief said.

However, with no international or professional experience in officiating, Nili had no chance to start as umpire here. The youngster’s persistence, however, paid off as Al Khafief decided to give Nili along with another four officials from Iran the opportunity to work at the Dubai Duty Free Men’s Open the following year.

Nili was not unnerved by the experience of working as a line umpire at a professional tournament for the first time in his life and showed enough confidence to get selected for that year’s men’s singles final.

The break proved to be crucial for Nili as he received the nod to officiate at the Heineken Open in Singapore. In November 1998. he had got his White badge in Tunisia and started officiating full time from 1999. Three years later, Nili went on to obtain his Bronze badge followed by the silver in 2006 and finally, the Gold badge in 2008 - becoming the first Gold badge chair umpire from Asia. There was no stopping Nili from then onwards and last year, the crowning glory came when he stood in the men’s singles final between Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer.

As a gesture of gratitude, Nili had been returning at the Dubai event every year from 1998 till 2004 when he shifted base to the US. In 2011, he became a US citizen and the move sort of restricted his movement from his base in Florida in subsequent years.

His romance with the Dubai Tennis Championships, however, continues!