The Italian Tennis and Padel Federation has assigned a permanent honor guard of twelve umpires to a single retired microphone, which will now be escorted to every tournament on the calendar and saluted at each changeover. The device, used for years by the late commentator Elena Pero, was promoted to the rank of «Honorary Voice of the Republic» in a ceremony at the Foro Italico attended by the entire federal council standing at attention for the duration of a three-set match.
The guard, drawn from umpires with at least a decade of service, must now travel with the microphone in a padded case lined with the same fabric as the Davis Cup trophy. At each event, the senior umpire carries it onto the court, places it on a velvet cushion beside the net, and announces its presence to the crowd. Players are required to bow toward the cushion before the first serve. The federation has printed a timetable of the microphone's appearances through the next three seasons, including a clay-court swing and a planned visit to a primary school in Taranto.
«We are not honoring a device,» a federation spokesperson said. «We are honoring the standard it set. From now on, every chair umpire will be trained to speak into it once a year, on a date chosen by the microphone's custodians.» The microphone does not speak, decide, or judge anything; it simply sits on its cushion while the umpires rotate around it in shifts.
Local councils along the tour route have begun erecting grandstands at the spots where the microphone is scheduled to rest overnight. In one town, the mayor has ordered the central square renamed in its honor and a daily moment of silence observed at noon, during which residents face the courthouse and listen to a recording of a coin toss.