Open Court
Subscribe
Cover photo

Time to supply some attitude adjustments

We are pointing the offenders to the Open Court time out chair and setting the stopwatch to help some people grow up. Let's do some collective sports parenting.

Joanne C. Gerstner

Mar 25
2

Welcome to Open Court, the newsletter and platform space where we explore the things we need to talk about in sports and life. I'm Joanne C. Gerstner, a sports writer, author, decent tennis player who does not throw her racket, lover of dark Swiss chocolate, and questioner of poor NCAA reffing. Thanks for coming along for the ride.

Save the sticks!

Nick Kyrgios of Australia throws his racquet in his Men's Doubles Semifinals match with Thanasi Kokkinakis of Australia against Marcel Granollers of Spain and Horacio Zeballos of Argentina during day eleven of the 2022 Australian Open on Jan. 27, 2022 (Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

Oh the suffering, the plight of the rackets held in the dangerous hands of male pro tennis players. We have had a rash of violent smashings recently, with one common thread: the ATP doing teeny tiny slaps on wrists to our bad boys.

Let's check the busted frame count since February: Alexander Zverev lost his mind after getting bounced out of Acapulco, attacking the umpire chair with 5 violent whacks. He was fined and told to behave himself for the rest of the season. Oooooh. Scary.

(For the record, coach/pundit Patrick Mouratoglou thinks we are making much ado about Sascha's drama. Hmmm. Please remember Patrick's most famous client, Serena Williams, got thrown out of the 2018 U.S. Open final - for yes, poor behavior and a hellacious racket smash.)

Last week, Nick Kyrios went HAM on his stick while losing to Rafa Nadal at Indian Wells. His smash/bounce nearly hit a ballboy with the violent carom. Seriously not good. (The photo above is from the Australian Open, where Nick dispatched a racket. That frame looks deaded.)

The latest chapter in smash-response tennis happened last night, when rising American Jensen Brooksby hurled his racket in frustration and nearly hit a ballkid. He got a point penalty, but still went on to beat Federico Coria in three.

We don't know what the ATP is going to do - if anything - to Brooksby, but the vibe is clear from the past two months. Smash your stick, all good. Thank God nobody has been hurt - yet. But violence with a metal weapon, sheerly out of immature frustration, absolutely will lead to something bad. These guys have been lucky. This cannot be allowed to continue without real punishment.

Brooksby was legit sorry afterwards, and his apologies on social media and meeting with the ballkid was a good sign of actual contrition. The other two, well, took a sorry, not sorry vibe.

Time to put the misbehaving boys in some time out. Or maybe we need a penalty box near the court, with the chair ump giving 5 minute majors for unsportsmanlike conduct. Just an idea.

What do you think the tennis tour should do - if anything - to our angry guys? Leave me a comment.

In late breaking news, former player Andy Roddick - a reformed hothead from back in the day - is offering VERY helpful advice of how to throw a fit with your stick and not get in trouble.

This post is no longer available. It may have been removed or the privacy settings of the post may have changed.

Uh, excuse me?

So. Imagine you're a former high level skater, now a coach and an analyst, and yeah, you're hella interested the World Skating championships, which are happening in France right now.

A big hi to our main character, three-time Olympic medalist Meagan Duhamel. And a big time out love seat for ISU commentators Simon Reed and Nicky Slater, who let loose on her during a hot mic incident. Duhamel, who does commentary for the CBC, opinionated and prolific on twitter. She doesn't like the two's opinions at times, such as when the pair were openly bummed over no Russians competing at the 2022 Worlds (dudes, c'mon - really?), their lovely inability to count rotations on jumps (skating 101, people), noting when female skaters were "taller and heavier", and my fave, the lads were praising the body of a 16-year-old female skater as "sight for sore eyes".

So Duhamel was rightly lighting these tools up. But waah, they were annoyed, which led to this:

Well, surprise surprise. There is a new broadcast team for Worlds today. And the ISU has apologized to Duhamel. Reed apologized to her too.

Surely, there have to be better commentators for skating than these two. Park them in timeout for a long time.

Anyways. We have now rectified some things. Good job all.

Have a great weekend. And see you Tuesday.

Open Court publishes on Tuesdays and Fridays, bringing you the stuff we need to talk about with author and sports journalist Joanne C. Gerstner.

👑 Have a comment? Let me know what you think here!

❤️ Like reading Open Court? Please subscribe.

⭐️ Follow my Facebook page at @joannecgerstner

👏 Holding a big idea for Open Court or a question? Email me.

🚨 Want to get a friend into the Open Court Fam? Forward away!

👀 BTS video recco: Classic Bangtan chaos. Eek! Ack!

🌈 Newsletters to check out: Bar\Heart, Full Court Press

Subscribe for free to Open Court
By subscribing, you agree to share your email address with Joanne C. Gerstner to receive their original content, including promotions. Unsubscribe at any time. Meta will also use your information subject to the Bulletin Terms and Policies
2

More from Open Court
See all

Sometimes laughter lurks where you least expect it.

Which is good, because the best laughs can sneak up on ya. Let's go.
May 17

Golfer Greg Norman isn't sorry. So stop asking.

Norman's lead involvement in the new Saudi-backed men's golf tour, with a healthy boost from Phil Mickelson, reveals a lot about their character. Greed is winning. Human rights, meh.
May 13

I've been thinking about WNBA superstar Brittney Griner. Are you?

One of the greatest basketball players on the planet is being held by the Russians. For a likely sham reason. This is super not good.
May 10
Comments
Log in with Facebook to comment

2 Comments

  • Sherrod Blakely
    Writes Full Court Press
    It's sad that it may come down to someone literally being hurt, before the tennis powers-that-be feel motivated enough to make significant and substantive change.
    • 7w
    • Author
      Joanne C. Gerstner
      Agreed. Sadly. Or...a sponsor telling the players they will lose money for poor actions.
      • 7w
Share quoteSelect how you’d like to share below
Share on Facebook
Share to Twitter
Send in Whatsapp
Share on Linkedin
Privacy  ·  Terms  ·  Cookies  ·  © Meta 2022
Discover fresh voices. Tune into new conversations. Browse all publications