Tennis and the veneer of etiquette
Tennis and the veneer of etiquette
Zverev abuses the umpire in Acapulco, gets thrown out of the tournament
Tennis didn’t properly discipline Karolína Plíšková when she hit and broke an umpire’s chair with her racquet. Tennis didn’t properly discipline Kyrgios when he spat at an umpire and verbally abused him. Tennis didn’t properly discipline Daniil Medvedev when he repeatedly hit the umpire’s chair despite the umpire begging him to stop. Tennis didn’t properly discipline Fabio Fognini after repeatedly verbally abusing umpires. Tennis didn’t properly discipline Jared Donaldson for squaring up to an umpire in Monte Carlo and screaming in his face. None of the above resulted in defaults or (served) suspensions. They mostly resulted in inconsequential fines.
Sadly tennis is now lying in the bed it has made for itself. Late last night in Acapulco, Alexander Zverev repeatedly and forcefully hit the umpire’s chair with his racquet, coming extremely close to physically harming Umpire Alessandro Germani (video here). The original clip has of course now been copyright struck by ATP Media, clearly intent on protecting their own image if not the umpires. Zverev has been rightfully thrown out of the tournament, but while Zverev is the primary guilty party here, tennis organisations also bear significant blame for enabling the underlying environment via inaction. This is just the latest escalation, not some isolated incident.
I’ve written quite a bit about umpires getting a raw deal in this sport again and again over the past year.
Unfortunately this bit ended up being prophetic:
That the powers that be continue to choose to punish mostly harmless & unimportant infractions, like self-directed swearing, equivalently, or even more harshly, than verbally and physically abusing umpires, reeks of a deep confusion about what the sport believes itself to be. If tennis is going to choosily select which actions fit into its prissy pretences of ‘etiquette’ then it should clearly start cracking down on occasions where other human beings are in the crosshairs of player behaviour. Should this sport fail to decide who it is, tennis’ split identities will only continue to diverge, using tradition as a justification for punishing the trivial rather than the serious will continue to look bizarre, and umpires will continue to unfairly take the brunt of the fallout of this decidedly preventable personality disorder.
Tennis has repeatedly shown inconsistency and leniency when it comes to umpire abuse in recent years, to the point where the perceived ramifications for players just haven’t been real or consequential enough to deter players. Tennis’ governing bodies have shown more breathless urgency towards monitoring the time it takes players to take a shit, or turning up to press, than they have with umpire abuse rules.
Umpire abuse, verbal and physical, should be zero tolerance offences in tennis. Zverev should inarguably be suspended for what he did in Acapulco, and new, more explicit umpire abuse rules should be codified immediately. This sport stands a good chance at attracting a new and impressionable audience on the back of the upcoming Netflix series. Tennis now gets to consciously choose how it puts itself forward. For the sake of modernity, a loosening of rules around self-directed outbursts like harmless swearing or racquet smashes, so that the good and the bad of personalities may shine more brightly on court, while a tightening of rules around how these players treat other human beings, would go a long way to ensure this sport starts living up to its own ambitions.
Tennis is a traditional sport. Tennis is an old fashioned sport. But bizarrely modern tennis has failed miserably to uphold the more productive and human elements of this self-chosen brand. Only the veneer of etiquette seems to have been retained via flagellations of players for saying vaguely naughty words on court, or daring to graze blades of grass on the hallowed (practice) lawns of Wimbledon. The underlying substance of etiquette, treating those in the same profession or group as you with respect, has been neglected. And unforgivably the umpires, rather than the players, have ended up bearing the brunt of the consequences.
This is an easy example to set. Tennis’ personality disorder doesn’t have to be chronic.
— MW
Twitter: @mattracquet
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Why did not the umpire not seriously reprimand Zverev when he called him a "fucking idiot" earlier in the match? That is a red-card offence in EVERY football code, be it soccer, rugby union, rugby league, Aussie Rules or American. He would have been off the pitch quick-smart, and facing the judiciary the next day to explain himself, looking at a fine, suspension or even ban, depending on how severe it was.
And why did his doubles partner not step in drag Zverev away, as would have happened in a football game? Lots of dysfunctional behaviour on display in that incident.
If I may, while umpires are at the receiving end in general, would it also be useful to know what happens to umpires who make those absolute clunkers, how their “grades” are affected after they’ve done what they’ve done? Should tennis also provide more transparency on these decisions and how they are reprimanded? Mariana Alves’ US Open ended after her 2004 clunker. But she didn’t really lose her job thereafter. In fact she remained fairly elite for a long time. For an absolute clunker of a decision.