After beating Australian tennis’ bad boy Nick Kyrgios in round two of the Australian Open, world No. 2 Daniil Medvedev took a swipe at the “low IQ” crowd in Rod Laver Arena. Why? He thought they were booing him between serves. For those not familiar with tennis crowd etiquette, this is very bad behaviour. (Some might argue this is bad in any sport. Not me, but some.)
Does it matter that the crowd was chanting “siuuu”, a celebratory cry made famous by the footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, rather than booing? It might make some of the world-class players who have found themselves on the receiving end of the chant during this tournament sleep a little better at night, but the outcome is the same. It’s disrespectful and off-putting for players. Plus, as the widespread use of “Let’s go, Brandon” (now synonymous with “Fuck you, Biden”) in the United States shows, the words don’t really matter as long as everyone understands the intent.
So is the Australia Open crowd a particularly “low IQ” crowd? Maybe. More likely Australian tennis champion and commentator Dylan Alcott summed it up best when he basically said: it’s 9.15 — the crowd is drunk.
To the Spanish ear ‘siiuuu’ may sound celebratory but not to mine. Who cares about Cristiano Ronaldo if he’s not playing tennis? The sound is less than jubilant in Oz, more reminiscent of a restless mob.
The Australian Open crowd has become more rabble-like in recent years & Medvedev has a valid point: cheering when there’s an unforced error is bad form.
Agree totally. I watched most of the match. Most of the crowd seemed to have come just for the Kyrgios circus performance, never applauding Medvedev for his good shots. It spoiled the event for me.
The Open this year has, so far, been more prominent for its mis-management and spectator train wrecks than ever before including the judgements from some insider quarters that it can be safely written off to excessive alcohol consumption and traditional local parochial, boorish values. From the representative sample of the Australia community on display I have lost any interest in the event and its spineless, non-judgemental commentary team of good-news-only bears.
Coming on top of the TA Djokovic debacle I would not be at all surprised to see growing moves internationally to allocate this Grand Slam event to another country. For the players Australia is a long distance to come so early in the tournament year to be treated in such a way – a way which will take an obscene amount of money to paper over the cracks appearing in the event for the players and the general public on the wider international stage.
One has to wonder if Scott Morrison is behind the scenes directing the public face of the shambles in his bespoke way.
Don’t wonder any more. There’s no way Scotty has any idea what’s happening, let alone managing it. Thing is, will Albo be any better…
….. Could he be any worse?
Who knows?
First he would have to be found, then his body temperature raised beyond that of an ectotherm so that some blood could move to what passes for his brain, then taught to move and mouth words like a sentient being, then… give it up as a waste of time and move on.
???
A double whammy then – drunk AND stupid.
I thought that a prerequisite of all mass commercial sport – why else pay to watch millionaires acting like spoiled brats?
They are low IQ and Kyrgios attracts a disproportionate share of them.
If anyone thinks that the tennis audience has a low IQ, try the soccer crowd. I am not a sports fan in any way, shape or form but I do pay some (minimal) attention to the way the fans and the players of various sports behave. There seems to be something of a continuum of behavior from the fans ranging from animal-like barbarians to civilized. This depends on the sport being considered.
I will never forget an incident that I read about quite a few years ago in which some hapless soccer player (not in Australia) accidentally kicking a goal for the opponent team (I believe it is called an “own goal”). An irate fan, who was so angered by this unintentional mistake, subsequently shot the player dead. For god’s sake, it was only football game!! Then there is the setting off of flares in the stands by these people. And the term “soccer hooligan” is a long standing cliche.
Was it rugby or soccer in England where the fans had to be separated by barbed wire to prevent them from rioting? At least this was the case some years ago.
Then there were the Bay 13 efforts at the MCG in Melbourne, Australia, also many years ago, where there was indiscriminate urinating, beer-can throwing and violence amongst the (mainly male) crowd. I have not forgotten the headline for the article in The Age at the time, it read.
“What a GAS day – Great Australian Slob“.
I could not have have agreed more with the reporting. Actually this was back in the 1970’s at around Boxing Day.
I think that the behavior of the spectators at the tennis last night does take them down a peg or two. Hopefully it was only an aberration as I have always thought of the tennis spectators as being the most civilized of all sporting spectators.
(Don’t worry, I fully expect some criticism for this post. I am regarded by some as being ‘un-Australian for my attitude to sports.)
My only criticism is that I think you’re being too kind.
I think that I will join with you on that one, emem48!! You are right!! I pulled too many punches!!
Thanks for that supporting comment, I really appreciate it!
As a regular football watcher of several decades’ experience, I know that the crowds contain plenty of erudite, witty and above all knowledgeable people who happen to care about what they’re watching. You appear not to enjoy sport, or live sport, so there’s no persuading you otherwise. Murder is slightly unusual.
That said, all sports attract a number of inebriated birdbrain show-offs as do almost all events involving crowds. I’ve seen / heard them at the Met Opera in New York, the barmy army paddock at the MCG and Lord’s, and on the front benches in parliament. Recreational drug-consumption can ruin anything.
It is, and continues to be, UK soccer fans who are separated by high wire fences, unfortunately not, to my knowledge, electrified.
En masse they are routinely denied entrance to foreign matches.
The old saying was “Rugby is a game for thugs played by gentlemen whilst soccer is a game for gentlemen played by thugs.”
he he he unfortunately not electrified!
Agree. Particularly galling given that sport is not “sport” anymore, it’s a business.
You are completely right, lex, and like many businesses, it is prone to dubious practices.
I think they’re separate issues. Of course sport is a business. I don’t begrudge players their earnings, they work bloody hard for it, especially in tennis. The players’ behaviour is in general exemplary. Spectators behaviour is a different matter. I’m not sure how we bring more civility into our crowd’s behaviour, I’d hate to go down the american or UK way. I’ve never minded the aussie robust, but generally good natured, barracking for our own, but lately there’s been a sharper edge to it. I thought they were booing Kyrgios as well. Weird…
Think you missed the point. Before sport became a business, fans were legitimate “fans” of their Club or player. Now they are just fans of an employee or a business that is only out to make as much out of it as possible. In effect, it’s no different to barracking for Rio Tinto. Just wrapped and presented differently. Participants in amateur sport play for the love of the sport, not the money.
The actual behavior of these fans is just yet another sign of the gradual degradation of social behavior in society. Who in their right mind would think that the behavior we witnessed was acceptable?
Kyrgios does attract a low-rent following due to his low-rent behavior on court.
Yobs. How would Kyrgios have reacted if he’d been on the receiving end?