An international tennis umpire on fifteen years in glasses, trifocal smart lens surgery, and what he noticed at his first tournament afterwards.
In their own words
Read the transcript
Hello, I'm Mehmet Durandal. For about 15 years I wore glasses for both near and distance vision. But while I was looking into whether smart lenses might be an option for me, I came across Dr. Çağatay. And I'm so glad I did.
Two years ago, my wife and I both had smart lens surgery. After the operation, it was as if we had come into the world anew. Seeing clearly again was wonderful.
I'm also an international tennis umpire. There's nothing harder than umpiring at Wimbledon in a pair of glasses. At my first tournament after the surgery, I realized how beautiful the world really looks.
For all of this, I'm truly grateful to Dr. Çağatay. My wife and I are both so happy to be living without glasses now.
Fifteen years of reaching for glasses
Mehmet Durandal wore glasses for about fifteen years, and not for one distance but for two: near and far, with everything that implies about which pair is within reach at any given moment.
He was already looking into smart lenses — reading about them, working out whether they were something that applied to him — when he came across Dr. Çağatay.
The decision, made twice
He and his wife both had smart lens surgery, two years before he recorded this. He describes what followed in his own words rather than clinical ones: that it was as if they had come into the world anew, and that seeing clearly again was wonderful.
Back on court
The detail he returns to is professional. He is an international tennis umpire, and he is blunt about what that job asks of a pair of eyes: there is nothing harder, he says, than umpiring at Wimbledon in glasses.
It was at his first tournament after the surgery that the change registered properly — not in the consulting room, but in the place where his sight is actually put to work.
He and his wife are both living without glasses now.
There's nothing harder than umpiring at Wimbledon in a pair of glasses.