Talk About Tennis 2.0

Benoit's parents definitely spared the rod. They should have not.

Thanks for posting this Jazz. I saw it live and I mean you have to be impressed when someone flattens a water bottle.

JazzNU wrote: ↑Sat Jul 17, 2021 8:18 pm And then not long after that, one of the all time greats in this category shows us he's still got it even if there's no racquet in play.

Sorry, but either he picks it up and cleans everything up, or he's defaulted. Honestly. How an adult could do that and then see a kid clean up after him and be OK with it is beyond me.

Kevin

dmforever wrote: ↑Sun Jul 18, 2021 3:04 am ...

Sorry, but either he picks it up and cleans everything up, or he's defaulted. Honestly. How an adult could do that and then see a kid clean up after him and be OK with it is beyond me.

Kevin

There the key to your question

dmforever wrote: ↑Sun Jul 18, 2021 3:04 am
Sorry, but either he picks it up and cleans everything up, or he's defaulted. Honestly. How an adult could do that and then see a kid clean up after him and be OK with it is beyond me.

Kevin

I'd be fine with that. More than. But I think it goes for all of them that do this and there is bias in how people view these smashes, same as other things.

For instance, no one was saying this very loudly when a ball girl was out there with a dustpan and mini brush sweeping up the remains of Novak's racquet from his epic smash earlier this season. Although I can see why this would be viewed somewhat worse, it's not as if either is allowed on the court and the result is the same, one of the ball kids is cleaning up after the athlete's temper tantrum. But when it's Paire, who almost no one likes, it's brought up repeatedly in the comments ("clean up your mess a-hole or get defaulted!"), when it's Djokovic, it's "this guy has such an anger problem" along with plenty of "this should get a point penalty" or something much more minor like that, no one is talking default.

I remember people in TAT1.0 indeed talking about the Nole smash and the ball girl sweeping the court, and us saying he should have picked it up himself.

ponchi101 wrote: ↑Sun Jul 18, 2021 4:29 pm I remember people in TAT1.0 indeed talking about the Nole smash and the ball girl sweeping the court, and us saying he should have picked it up himself.

Maybe you're thinking of a different one, Novak has plenty. But the one I'm referring to is on page 3 of this thread as it was at the Aussie Open just this year. Feel free to check, but don't believe that's part of the conversation there, only mention of it on Twitter. But the point is, there is no talk of default when it's Novak either here or there, but it's the talk when it's just Paire (or Kyrgios). I'm not against imposing a harsher penalty for a tantrum that requires a cleanup, but it can't be just because it's being done by a player you don't like.

And not for nothing, the mess Paire created appears to have been considerably less than Novak's. If you don't remember, that ball girl was crouched down hitting different spots on court cleaning up the scattered debris.

We have been open for THIS long?!
Ok, I was wrong, that was the one I was thinking about. My memory gets more defective by the minute.

Serious here. So, if we did not call for Novak to be defaulted, in a forum that has been very critical of the man on many occasions, that voids us from calling somebody else to be defaulted? Looking back, you make a point: Novak's mess was indeed considerable, but Paire's puddle was more so. And Paire has been in a crescendo of deplorable behavior on and off the court, so maybe indeed we are thinking about more severe punishments because sooner or later he can go totally nuts.

Last. This topic is usually like, NOT serious. We praise people for breaking racquets. Of all the topics, this is the one I enjoy the most when I see a new post. It is usually silliness³

I'm not the one who turned this serious, I posted Paire's for a bit of fun in contrast to the one that happened right before, but y'all just didn't take it that way because I guess you can't view Paire as entertainment? I don't know why honestly. Trust me when I say, that wasn't the reaction I thought it would be given the typical reactions to smashing things in this thread. @Ti's reply is what I was anticipating more of.


Paire's mess wasn't in the middle of the court but in front of his chair, the ball kid picked up the carton and tossed it, and it would appear not much more. The ball girl had to go onto the court, just behind the baseline and carefully sweep up Novak's mess. So, Paire's seemed bad, but most of it was water at the end of the day on a clay court. In terms of cleanup, I think Novak's required more because of where it was and probably because those pieces scattered could likely be fairly dangerous. Both were unnecessary tantrums, neither of which I'm excusing.

I'm just calling out unequal treatment for similar behavior. This one in particular struck me as really? I don't remember any of this energy for Novak in this very thread and that was in a tournament where his very best behavior was required to help start to repair his image. This isn't the biggest pro-Novak board, but he's still given a pass on many things by several here and he's respected by most for what he does on-court, so more tends to be seen as condoned I think. I doubt anyone would've argued the virtues of keeping Kyrgios in the US Open had he done that to a linesperson, for instance, but that was a conversation that was behind had on here.

JazzNU wrote: ↑Sun Jul 18, 2021 4:25 pm

dmforever wrote: ↑Sun Jul 18, 2021 3:04 am
Sorry, but either he picks it up and cleans everything up, or he's defaulted. Honestly. How an adult could do that and then see a kid clean up after him and be OK with it is beyond me.

Kevin

I'd be fine with that. More than. But I think it goes for all of them that do this and there is bias in how people view these smashes, same as other things.

For instance, no one was saying this very loudly when a ball girl was out there with a dustpan and mini brush sweeping up the remains of Novak's racquet from his epic smash earlier this season. Although I can see why this would be viewed somewhat worse, it's not as if either is allowed on the court and the result is the same, one of the ball kids is cleaning up after the athlete's temper tantrum. But when it's Paire, who almost no one likes, it's brought up repeatedly in the comments ("clean up your mess a-hole or get defaulted!"), when it's Djokovic, it's "this guy has such an anger problem" along with plenty of "this should get a point penalty" or something much more minor like that, no one is talking default.

I totally agree with you, and I'm a huge Nole fan. There shouldn't be a double standard. I guess the only thing I can say is that I've seen the other good, generous side of Novak's. I haven't seen that from Benoit, though maybe it's just that I haven't seen it. But for sure Nole deserved to be defaulted from the US Open, and again, I'm probably his biggest fan here.

Also, I think I'm the guilty party for turning this serious. To be honest, I don't normally read this thread, so I kind of missed that part of it. Mea culpa.

Kevin

twitter:

Naw. Maybe a five since Wawrinka rolled out of bed and did these without even thinking.

5, indeed. Stan broke them almost in mid air. I like the goose stepping part, though. Well choreographed.

And I think we have a winner...

ti-amie wrote: ↑Fri Oct 08, 2021 7:40 pm And I think we have a winner...

He needs to stop checking the PTPA What's App chat during matches.