Johnny Nic: Save the infantile booing for pantomime season, not great tennis spectacles
Fans at The O2 booed Alexander Zverev for following the rules this weekend, and that has annoyed John Nicholson.
One of the best sporting spectacles this weekend was seeing Annabel Croft telling off the crowd for booing Alexander Zverev after his victory over Roger Federer at the Nitto ATP Tour Finals. Booing because earlier in the match he had the temerity to stop play mid-rally when a ball boy dropped a ball onto the court.
Her indignation and subsequent admonishment of their behaviour was done in that firm sort of way a disapproving headmistress has when you’ve been caught abusing the school goat again; a tone of disappointment as much as disapproval.
The fact the crowd needed putting in their place at all is indicative of a growing trend in the game to be disruptive and overly critical of one player over another.
I hope the booers felt suitably ashamed of themselves as the 21-year-old German launched into an extended and totally unnecessary apology, even against Croft’s wishes. Federer, as one would expect, was very accepting and gracious, it’s just a pity some of his fans can’t match his gentlemanly attitude.
Incidentally, is there anything worse than hearing a sports man or woman apologising to a crowd?
It’s just sport and even if it was massive injustice, suck it up and stop your moaning. It’s like when footballers go on Twitter and apologise for losing a match.
I see this as all part of the infantilization of society, where it is as though adults need placating like a child in the midst of a tantrum because they lost their toy rabbit.
But this was far from the first time that a tennis crowd has misbehaved in recent years. It seems rooted in two things.
Firstly, a kind of one-eyed tribal loyalty to a particular player that echoes the ‘my club, right or wrong’ mentality of some football fans. Secondly, a more endemic and widespread inability to behave with good manners in public.
RELATED: Alexander Zverev defends poor Grand Slam record as he targets big season
Abusing a player in a tennis match seems an especially rude and cowardly thing to do. It often seems to me that the abuser thinks they’re watching TV and are not actually in public and that they’ve forgotten or not learned how to behave outside of their living room.
Such behaviour is bullying, plain and simple because the player can hardly retaliate, climb over the seat and berate the punter for being such a lousy audience member, can they? Though sometimes I’d like to see that happen.
So the abuser knows that they can dish it out with impunity. Zverev wasn’t going to get in their face and give them a hard time. And that’s what is so despicable about the whole thing. It verges on the moronic.
We saw it at Wimbledon in the summer when the crowd sided against Novak Djokovic when playing first Kyle Edmund and then Kevin Anderson. At one point he instructed the umpire to “Tell them to shut the f**k up.” Pity the umpire didn’t express it in such forceful terms really.
It’s one thing to barrack an opposing team player in football, it is quite another to deliberately try to undermine a player on a tennis court. And that’s what is going on. It’s an attempt to put the hated player off their game.
We all tend to favour one player or another and by all means cheer a winning shot, but anything more than that simply isn’t appropriate. And yet we’ve seen this sort of abusive behaviour ever more regularly.
I often wonder if this isn’t because most of the culture and sport we consume we do so passively via the TV sitting on a sofa, inviolate in our own homes where no-one can hear us giving stick to someone. So when actually in public, these people behave in largely the same unselfconscious way.
I think this also explains those people who seem to spend most of a gig filming it on their phone or even more egregious, on their iPad, seemingly oblivious as to how annoying this is for everyone else – or everyone else who isn’t doing the exact same thing.
I look at these people and wonder where the drummed up the entitlement to behave this way from? Same goes for the people who just talk all the way through a gig, as though band isn’t even on stage. What are you doing that for?
When in public you can’t just do what you want, the way you can in your front room. There are these things called manners which have been mutually agreed upon in order for us all to get along with the minimum conflict and annoyance.
It’s time these disruptive people in tennis crowds learned some.
John Nicholson
More from Tennis365:
Latest
-
Tennis FeaturesAll-time top 10 ATP prize money earners: Novak Djokovic sweeps past Roger Federer
The 2018 ATP Tour season has comeso it is only right that we give you an updated career prize money list.
-
Tennis TodayTennis Today: The rehashing of Maria Sharapova’s 2014 quotes and a Justin Gimelstob update
In Tennis Today, Sharapova is back in the news, or is she?
-
Tennis VideosWATCH: Red Star Belgrade fan Novak Djokovic gives his team a boisterous welcome
Novak Djokovic delivered on his promise to watch Red Star Belgrade.
-
Davis CupAlbert Costa hopes Rafael Nadal can convince fellow pros to play in Davis Cup finals
Rafael Nadal to the Davis Cup’s rescue?
-
Tennis NewsAndy Murray offers possible solutions to tactical toilet breaks and medical timeouts
Andy Murray’s possible solutions to two problems.
-
Tennis NewsThe best winning mentalities in tennis: ‘Being number two sucks’
John McEnroe was known for his… document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function(event) { var commentBoxDiv = document.getElementById("vuukle-comments"); var commentBoxDivAfter = document.getElementById("div-gpt-ad-1533224667953-0"); var cloneCommentBoxDiv = commentBoxDiv.cloneNode(true); commentBoxDiv.parentNode.removeChild(commentBoxDiv); commentBoxDivAfter.parentNode.insertBefore(cloneCommentBoxDiv, commentBoxDivAfter.nextSibling); }); #vuukle-comments{position:relative!important;} document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function(event) { var emoteBoxDiv = document.getElementById("vuukle-emote"); var emoteBoxDivAfter = document.getElementById("vuukle_box"); var cloneEmoteBoxDiv = emoteBoxDiv.cloneNode(true); emoteBoxDiv.parentNode.removeChild(emoteBoxDiv); emoteBoxDivAfter.parentNode.insertBefore(cloneEmoteBoxDiv, emoteBoxDivAfter.nextSibling); }); #vuukle-emote{position:relative!important;} document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function(event) { var powerbarBoxDiv = document.getElementById("vuukle-powerbar"); var powerbarBoxDivAfter = document.getElementById("vuukle_box"); var clonePowerbarBoxDiv = powerbarBoxDiv.cloneNode(true); powerbarBoxDiv.parentNode.removeChild(powerbarBoxDiv); powerbarBoxDivAfter.parentNode.insertBefore(clonePowerbarBoxDiv, powerbarBoxDivAfter.nextSibling); }); #vuukle-powerbar{position:relative!important;} var VUUKLE_CONFIG = { apiKey: "bc9fd4eb-d7be-4d00-87ef-b570563b015f", articleId: "46421", tags: "", author: "", // Lang wordpressSync: true, eventHandler: function (e) { console.log(e); if (e.eventType == 'wpSync') { jQuery.ajax({ type: 'POST', data: { "action": "save_comment_to_db", "comment_post_ID": e.comment_post_ID, "comment_author": e.comment_author, "comment_author_email": e.comment_author_email, "comment_author_url": e.comment_author_url, "comment_content": e.comment_content, "comment_type": e.comment_type, "comment_parent": e.comment_parent, "user_id": e.user_id, "comment_author_IP": e.comment_author_IP, "comment_agent": e.comment_agent, "comment_approved": e.comment_approved, "comment_date": e.comment_date, "comment_date_gmt": e.comment_date_gmt, "comment_karma": e.comment_karma, "_wpnonce": "ace602e7bf" // WPCS: XSS ok }, url: "/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php", beforeSend: function () { }, success: function (data) { } }); } }, // Articles - recommendations in emotes and comments widget recommendationsWideImages: false, recommendationsProtocol: "https://www.", globalRecommendations: false, // Colors darkMode: false, color: "108ee9", // By Widget comments: { vuukleAuth: false, hideRecommendedArticles: false, hideCommentInputBox: false, enabled: true, commentingClosed: false, maxChars: '3000', countToLoad: '5', toxicityLimit: '80', spamLimit: '90', sorting: 'latest', transliteration:{ language: 'en', enabledByDefault: false, }, customText: { recommendedStories: 'TALK OF THE TOWN', }, }, emotes: { enabled: true, hideRecommendedArticles: false, size: '70', // icons size firstImg: '', firstName: 'HAPPY', secondImg: '', secondName: 'INDIFFERENT', thirdImg: '', thirdName: 'AMUSED', fourthImg: '', fourthName: 'EXCITED', fifthImg: '', fifthName:'ANGRY', sixthImg: '', sixthName: 'SAD', disable: [], customText: {}, }, powerbar: { enabled: true, defaultEmote: 1, customUrls: { facebook: '', google: '', twitter: '', linkedin: '', }, customText: {}, items: [ ], }, }; (function () { var d = document, s = d.createElement('script'); s.async = true; s.src = 'https://cdn.vuukle.com/platform.js'; (d.head || d.body).appendChild(s); })();
-
Tennis TodayTennis Today: Nick Kyrgios and Andy Murray banter, ‘tough times’ for Roger Federer
In Tennis Today, Nick Kyrgios and Andy Murray banter.
-
WTA TourWTA awards for Petra Kvitova and Naomi Osaka’s coach Sascha Bajin
It’s that time of the year again where the WTA hands out awards.
-
Tennis NewsRafael Nadal gives fans first glimpse of return to tennis court after surgery
World No 2 Rafael Nadal has returned to training following surgery.
-
Tennis BettingTennis betting special: Rafael Nadal 11/10 to continue Grand Slam streak in 2019
Derek Bilton back with tennis betting specials.