TENNIS FANS FED UP WITH FOUL PLAY
This week’s shocking displays at Wimbledon part of a long pattern of appalling behaviour by ‘celebrity’ players
THERE was a time when Australian tennis fans looked forward to Wimbledon. Not anymore. Events at Wimbledon this week go a long way to explaining why.
The “highlight” of the week was Bernard Tomic’s appallingly self-indulgent press conference following his straight sets loss in the first round.
Tomic was decisively beaten by the number 27 seed, and at the post match press conference made a number of extraordinary admissions.
He said that he was “struggling to find motivation”, that “I just couldn’t find anything” and that “holding a trophy doesn’t satisfy me …. I just don’t care”.
During the match Tomic appeared completely disinterested, and at the press conference admitted to feigning an injury.
Tomic’s behaviour was simply breathtaking.
Other Australian male players fared little better than Tomic this week. Thanasi Kokkinakis also lost in the first round, and Nick Kyrgios pulled out through injury earlier in the week. No Australian male player remains in the tournament.
Queensland female player Ashleigh Barty also lost her first round match, but, unlike Tomic, she went down fighting and lost with dignity.
It is not just the poor performances by Australian male players in recent years which have alienated tennis fans.
Australian fans can live with a lack of success – they know that the glory days of Laver, Rosewall, Newcombe and Rafter are long gone.
Rather, it is the appalling behaviour of players like Tomic and Kyrgios – their petulance, selfishness and a complete lack of professionalism – which has disgusted tennis fans.
Tomic’s on and off court behaviour this week was not an aberration. It is perfectly consistent with previous behaviour on his part.
As a junior, Tomic was reported to Tennis Australia for lack of effort in losing a match, and had his funding for the European tour withdrawn.
In 2012 he was fined three times on one day for traffic infringements on the Gold Coast.
In 2012 Tomic was accused by John McEnroe of “tanking” in a match at the US Open. In 2012 he was suspended from the Australian Davis Cup squad because of lack of effort and poor attitude.
In 2013 Tomic was caught speeding on the Gold Coast and lost his driving licence. In the same year Tomic’s father headbutted his son’s training partner, breaking his nose.
In 2014 Tomic walked off court during a match with Rafael Nadal in Melbourne claiming he was injured. Pat Rafter advised him to “pull his head in”.
After losing a match at Wimbledon in 2015 Tomic delivered a rant against Tennis Australia and Pat Rafter at a post match press conference.
In 2015 Tomic was arrested in Miami on charges of trespassing and resisting arrest.
And in 2016 he caused a disturbance at the Royal Pines tennis complex.
Kyrgios too has engaged in similar antics.
In 2016 he was fined for bad behaviour at Wimbledon. He had previously received similar fines at the Australian and French Opens.
In 2016 Kyrgios walked off court during a match at the Shanghai Open and was fined and suspended.
In the same year, he petulantly withdrew from the Rio Olympics after being asked by the Australian Olympic Committee to explain various incidents which they felt had brought tennis into disrepute.
When did this kind of unacceptable behaviour become the norm for
Australian male tennis players? (Our female players, thankfully, seem immune to it).
I think it started in the 1990s when male tennis players became celebrities, and began attracting publicity, not because of their achievements on court, but simply because they were famous.
Mark Philippoussis was probably the first of these celebrity players, although his behaviour appears positively civilised compared to that of Tomic and Kyrgios.
There appears to be a standard trajectory that these players follow: early promise; undeserved and lavish praise; the achievement of celebrity status; indifferent on court performances; a series of scandals both professional and personal, and finally obscurity.
None of these celebrities have lived up to their early promise.
Is it any wonder that tennis fans lose interest?
After Nick Kyrgios exited Wimbledon this week, former tennis great Boris Becker asked his critics to “give him a break” and predicted that Kyrgios would eventually win Wimbledon.
I think that you can get long odds on that happening, and most tennis fans would regard a future Kyrgios Wimbledon win as very unlikely.
But one thing is certain – no Australian male player will ever win Wimbledon again unless a fundamental change occurs in the way male players behave and approach the game.