WATCH: ‘Idiot’ has accreditation badge ripped off over Jannik Sinner selfie moments before final
One person – presumed to be a journalist – had his accreditation for the Australian Open final revoked after he crossed the “selfie” boundary ahead of the showpiece match between Jannik Sinner and Daniil Medvedev.
It is a big no-no to ask tennis players for selfies when they are about to go onto court at any tournament, let alone the final of a Grand Slam.
But one man decided it was now or never for a photo with the world No 4 and he approached the Italian in the passage just as he was about to make his way onto Rod Laver Arena.
Sinner appeared to be slightly taken aback, but he still obliged before security stepped in.
The man’s accreditation badge was immediately ripped off and he was escorted away from the area.
It is unclear if the person was allowed to keep his phone and the selfie or if security also confiscated his phone and asked him to delete his “moment of glory” with the eventual Australian Open champion.
Reddit users were quick to criticise the man calling him an “idiot”, “a muppet” and “unprofessional”.
“He was there to work, he had that badge to fulfill a task, not for using that privilege to have a selfie. Good for the AO worker who took him out,” one person wrote.
Another added why it was important not to allow people so close to players in order to avoid “another Monica Seles incident”.
Tennis great Seles was stabbed in the back by an obsessed Steffi Graf fan in 1993 and security around tennis events changed for the better after that devastating event.
“I work in media and travel a lot for journalism. There’s absolutely no way an actual reporter would risk losing their pass like this,” the person wrote.
“It’s likely that either this guy just works for a media company and got a free press pass through his company, but wasn’t an actual reporter or he’s an idiot and took the risk to go through a non-accessible zone to get there because you can see a woman on the right asking “WTF are you doing?!”
“Fair play to the security in my opinion. Imagine this was another Monica Seles incident.”
Of course, there was a tongue-in-cheek comment as well with someone writing: “Sinner was so taken aback it took him two whole sets to get his mind right.”
Sinner was at sea early on as Medvedev took a two-set-to-love lead before the Italian stormed back to win 3-3, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-3.
READ MORE: Australian Open winner Jannik Sinner’s 2024 tennis schedule: Italian makes tweak to his calendar
