While tennis fans were busy hating U.S. Open chair umpire Mariana Alves for her alleged (no one heard it or saw it) overrule of a line call against Serena Williams that anyone could see was good, the rest of the story was being kept a big secret. And if you wondered where long-time gold badge umpires Fergus Murphy and Lynn Welch were, and why you kept seeing silver badge umpire Alves so much, here is the answer:

It was discovered that Murphy, Welch, and Christina Olausson--in yet another Olympics disgrace--tried to falsify their Olympics credentials in order to gain greater access to Olympic games. Two other tennis officials, Matthew McAleer and Diane Larkin, were caught in the act and sent packing from Athens.

Although Alves is not as highly ranked an umpire as Welch, Murphy, and Olausson, it is not out of the ordinary for a silver badge umpire to officiate at a showcourt match. What is unusual is that Alves had to work show-court matches for five consecutive days. We will never know what caused the overrule--or at least Alves's insistence of an overrule--but it is clear that Alves was over-worked because her peers tried to cheat at the Olympics.

Whatever poor judgment Alves may have used at the Open, she has not disgraced professional tennis as much as her peers did at the Olympics. Now it's up to the media to set things straight, and we all know how superb they are at that. Don't hold your breath.