Gerry Armstrong was inspired by the memory of his father when he took charge of Roger Federer's triumph over Mark Philippoussis in the Wimbledon singles final.

The late George Armstrong umpired the Arthur Ashe versus Jimmy Connors final in 1975.

His son said: "I'm sure he'd have been proud. I was thinking of my dad and how we used to go to Wimbledon together after he encouraged me to go.

"I lost my dad coming up to six years ago but I have a lot of fond memories and a lot of the guys at Wimbledon knew him and we were chatting about him."

Sunday's encounter completed a third decade of umpiring the most famous tennis match in the world. Armstrong also took charge of the Boris Becker-Stefan Edberg meeting in 1988 and Pete Sampras versus Cedric Pioline in 1997.

"That makes me a bit of an old fart, but I'm delighted to have spanned the decades," said Armstrong.

He learned of his appointment less than 48 hours before the final following the exit of Tim Henman.

He added: "We try to avoid umpires from the same country in control of players from their country. So from a personal point of view Tim going out helped me get the final."

He discovered at the last minute that Cyclops - the magic eye that bleeps when a ball is is out on the serve - wasn't working.

He laughed: "It meant I had to do a bit of extra work!"

Armstrong praised Federer and Philippoussis for their behaviour.

The 48-year-old from Friston, near Eastbourne, said: "I had to give a couple of overrules but both the players were fine with them and the rest of my decisions. Like my previous two finals, it went smoothly. The fact all the officials worked as a team helped. I geed them up to help their confidence and their spirits.

"The most nervous bit was after the final finished when I had to go up and get an award from the Duke of Kent. Referee Alan Mills and I were joking with each other about having to walk across the court in front of a packed Centre Court."

Armstrong attended the Champions Dinner with Federer and ladies champion Serena Williams.

He said: "It was pleasant. I had a little chat with Roger. He seems a nice guy and his coach Peter Lundgren was certainly enjoying himself."

Armstrong book-ended the tournament as he was in the chair when Australian Lleyton Hewitt crashed out in the first match of his defence to 6ft.10in Croatian Ivo Karlovic.

It meant he had to begin his finals day early because the official Wimbledon video producers wanted to film him.

He said: "The producer thought it was quite neat how I started and finished the event from the biggest shock to the final."

Armstrong spoke to fellow umpire Lars Graff, from Sweden, in the wake of Greg Rusedski's expletive deleted tirade when the official refused to replay a point despite a shout of 'out' by a spectator which distracted the British No.2 during his defeat by Andy Roddick.

He said: "Umpires want to be invisible, not the centre of attention, so Lars didn't care for being it. But he was right under the Hinderance Rule, which covers spectators shouting out."

Armstrong plays cricket for Willingdon but, as a full-time official, he misses most of the season. On Thursday he flies to Stuttgart for his next event.