Of role models and tennis bullies

Today: The little educational advisor. “My dear son, my dear daughter. Life is characterized by respect for one another, consideration and fairness in dealing with one another. You know this from sports lessons. Even if it is sometimes necessary to fight, you must not cross a certain limit. Also pay attention to your opponent.” The family sits together in front of the television and watches the tennis match between Jannik Sinner from South Tyrol and the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz. (The dad recently bought a pay TV, which he and his family may not be able to afford for much longer after the recent price increases).

The two young stars - one is 20 years old, the other is only 19 - deliver a heart-warming fight. Never with words, always with great deeds. Everyone tries to take down their opponent with their outstanding tennis skills. Crashing forehand shots alternate with buttery-soft stop balls. Hard serves are followed by a stormy attack on the net, which ends with a well-placed volley. It's simply a feast for the eyes, even if we suspect that it's a bitter fight. But it is also a game between two role models, because even though they are so young, both of them prove to us at what high human level such a match can be played. Jannik Sinner won, both are winners for everyone who has seen and experienced how an argument can be completed with sublime ease despite the high psychological strain. “My dear son, my dear daughter. Take these two boys as role models.” A game gets out of hand Sinner and Alcaraz gave tennis at Wimbledon more than just a great game to reach the quarter-finals. They gave their sport dignity at a time when, the day before, a game was played on another pitch in the complex that was in stark contrast to it. The Australian Nick Kyrgios met the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas.

They probably won't be friends anymore: Stefanos Tsitsipas (l.) and Nick Kyrgios (r.). © APA/afp / GLYN KIRK

By the way, both of them had previously competed together as doubles, which was hard to believe given what happened in their match. Where Sinner and Alcaraz concentrated on their core competence, the Australian, already known as a bully, did a lot of damage to the reputation of the white gentleman's sport. It was simply a disgrace how he tried over and over again to throw his opponent out of his rhythm with verbal outbursts. This even led to Tsitsipas, who was otherwise always calm and level-headed on the pitch, losing his control and hitting balls into the audience with unusual force and even deliberately aiming the felt ball at his opponent's body a few times. Fair play? Totally missing.

Both slipped more and more into the abyss of their personalities. The high quality of their game was little consolation, especially since the referee in charge seemed overwhelmed and the supervisor did not intervene, although it was clear that Kyrgios saw his basically intolerable behavior as a tactical tool in his performance. He wanted to provoke Tsitsipas to the point of anger and thereby throw him off his game. Unfortunately, he succeeded. The penalties are too low The measures against players like Kyrgios, who consciously bully their opponents, are still not sufficient and, above all, not consistent enough. Anyone who, like Alexander Zverev, even attacks the referee with his racket at a tournament in Mexico will be punished with a maximum fine, which elicits nothing more than a silent smile from the millionaires of this sport. Of course, the older ones among us still remember John McEnroe, who dominated the world's tennis courts in the first half of the 1980s. He is also remembered for his outbursts of anger.

But McEnroe, unlike Kyrgios, never loudly asked the referee for a penalty for his opponent. The Australian even did that several times. In doing so, he has crossed a previously respected boundary. With this appearance, Wimbledon also lost its innocent whiteness. The tradition is just an empty shell. And yet we are not without hope thanks to Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner. Both have shown that, fortunately, the values listed in the educational advisor can still be brought to life.

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Of role models and tennis bullies

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