It seems like anger and venting out is the flavour of the season at the 2019 US Open, especially in the men’s singles draw. And we aren’t even talking about Nick Kyrgios!
Well, if you are even remotely a tennis fan and living under a rock, let’s refresh our memories with the Kyrgios case. He is under the scanner for calling the ATP a corrupt body in a press conference before retracting his claims and changing them to ‘double standards’.
Why did he do that, and by that we mean both, claiming and counter-claiming?
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For starters, he was fined a whopping $113,000 at the Cincinnati Masters for a whole host of stuff including but not restricted to smashing his racquets, unsportsmanlike conduct, verbal abuse and audible obscenity. There were eight such counts. So when he was queried about this at the US Open, instead of wanting to say there were double-standards in the ATP, he ended up with the c-word.
Trouble is, now the ATP is investigating this more recent meltdown and if things really go pear-shaped for Kyrgios, he could be facing a long ban. Not that he cares. Incidentally, he was once suspended for eight weeks in the past for a lack of effort in a match at the Shanghai Masters in 2016 – even asking the chair umpire if he could go home during the encounter.
Now while the claims to the ‘Bad Boy of Tennis’ might still lie with Kyrgios, Daniil Medvedev looks like he wants to barge into the party too. A gruelling, four-set win over Feliciano Lopez in the third round for one of the dark horses at the 2019 US Open was marred with foul-mouthed shenanigans that led the crowd to boo him for his behaviour.
Medvedev is in a foul mood, throws a tantrum at the towel guy then throws his racket when the code violation is announced #USOpen pic.twitter.com/YyNtfbR0ry
— CJ Fogler (@cjzer0) August 31, 2019
An angry towel snatch was followed by a code violation, a racquet toss on to the court and a rant at the chair umpire. The crowd booed and Medvedev showed them the finger. More boos. And throughout the match as well.
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While Medvedev held on to his nerves and showed remarkable composure to win the match in four sets, he seemed to have a lot more to say to the crowd after his win. He thanked the crowd for their response, saying it was their attitude that spurred him on to win the match, “the more you do this, the more I win”
Daniil Medvedev after his 3rd-round win at the #USOpen. The kid’s got swagger. pic.twitter.com/IIPgJSSwlm
— Liam Tyler (@tyler_lj) August 31, 2019
Then there was Roger Federer, who seemed to imply, enough is enough. He was referring to the claims that he had influenced the US Open authorities to get a schedule to his liking.
Federer didn’t deny he had asked for a schedule to his liking but retaliated with a rant of his own:
“But that doesn’t mean, like, ‘Roger asks, Roger gets.’ Just remember that. Because I have heard this shit too often now. I’m sick and tired of it – that, apparently, I call the shots.”
That was obviously as close as it would get for Federer to lose his temper.
The maestro did say his third round opponent, Daniel Evans, was disadvantaged by the scheduling, having played a match less than 24 hours before the Federer encounter.
Novak Djokovic’s struggles with his shoulder injury seem to have receded for now but he sounded angry during his routine third round win over Denis Kudla. At one point he had a go at the crowd, asking them to stop talking. Only issue was he wasn’t as polite as that.
“Shut the f*** up,” Djokovic roared at a few spectators, and the security and the chair umpire had to intervene to get the crowd to quieten during points. Interestingly, Djokovic was also filmed having a go at fans during his earlier practice session, with a, “I’ll come find you after the match. Trust me, I’ll come find you,” to go with it.
He played down the clash in his post-match press conference, and said he was looking for the fan to have a drink with him.
“Liked the guy. I’m going to buy him a drink.”
Of course, it’s only apt we end the story with Kyrgios again, who had a thing to say about the Djokovic rant.
An interesting day, to say the least, at Flushing Meadows.
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