De Jenken first female in charge

FRENCHWOMAN Sandra De Jenken became the first female umpire to take charge of a men’s Grand Slam final yesterday when Roger Federer beat Fernando Gonzalez to win his third Australian Open.

Her turn in the chair came at the conclusion of a tournament that attracted a record crowd, with 554,858 people passing through the Melbourne Park turnstiles over the two-week event.

They ate their way through 41,109 buckets of French fries, 13,600 hot dogs and 21,323 pizzas, drinking 154,000 bottles of water and 126,353 soft drinks.